Parking Management Policy Evaluation (North Berwick, East Lothian)

Key point: This is an independent research project funded by East Lothian Council. The research team is responsible for the evaluation methods, analysis and reporting. Council funding and data access do not determine the findings.

These FAQs explain what the project is and how it will be conducted.

 1. What is the project evaluating?

The project will evaluate how key indicators have changed following the introduction of parking management in North Berwick and, where the evidence allows, estimate how much of that change is attributable to the policy. It considers parking demand, wider travel behaviour, economic impacts, congestion and safety.

2. Who is funding and carrying out the evaluation?

East Lothian Council is funding the project and will provide or facilitate access to several datasets. The evaluation itself is independent. The research team will choose and apply the analytical methods, interpret the evidence, and report the results. This separation is important because funding the work does not mean intervening at any stage of the analytical process, including in the finalisation of conclusions.

3. Is the evaluation designed to support a particular conclusion?

No. The purpose is to establish what the available evidence shows, including positive, negative, mixed or inconclusive effects. The approach will examine alternative explanations and will be transparent about uncertainty, data limitations and findings that cannot confidently be attributed to the parking management policy.

4. What are the main questions?

The policy evaluation will ask whether parking patterns have changed; whether people have changed how, when, how often, or from where they travel; whether town-centre activity and spending have changed; and whether there are measurable changes in congestion, bus punctuality or road safety.

5. What type of evaluation approaches will be used?

The project uses a quasi-experimental, mixed-methods design. Quantitative analysis will track indicators before and after the introduction of charges. Qualitative research will gather community perspectives and help identify effects or concerns that may not be visible in the numerical data. A review of international research will provide wider context.

6. How will the team judge whether a change was caused by parking charges?

A simple before-and-after comparison can be misleading because many things change over time. Where suitable data exist, the team will compare trends in the study area with comparable towns and may, should data permit, construct a synthetic control (not to be confused with synthetic data), a statistical comparison based on a combination of real data from other places. The key objective is to test whether the change differs from the wider trend.

7. What period will the quantitative analysis cover?

For most parking, travel and economic indicators, the aim is to examine approximately 12 months before and 12 months after the charges were introduced. The precise period depends on data availability. For collisions and safety, the team will seek several years of earlier data and as much post-introduction data as is available when national statistics are published.

8. How will parking demand be assessed?

Measures may include the number of vehicles using car parks, use of available spaces, average length of stay and movement between parking locations with different charges. East Lothian Council is expected to provide relevant parking information, including parking beat data, historic automatic traffic counter data and access to its traffic and parking model. The final analysis will reflect the detail and consistency of the data available.

9. How will wider travel behaviour be assessed?

The team will look for changes in bus use, rail use, walking, cycling and private vehicle volumes. Potential sources include bus boarding and alighting data, sensor counts, Cycling Scotland open data, traffic counters and aggregated mobile-phone data indicators showing where visitors travel from. Access to some operator data will require cooperation from third parties.

10. How will economic impacts be assessed?

The evaluation will examine footfall, retail spending, commercial vacancy rates and changes in the use of premises. No single measure can describe the local economy, so the indicators will be considered together and alongside community and stakeholder evidence. Some specialist datasets, including footfall and spending data, may be purchased for the project.

11. How will congestion and safety be assessed?

Average road speeds from traffic sensors, where available, will be used as an indicator of traffic conditions. Bus on-time performance may provide an additional measure of congestion, subject to data access. Safety analysis will draw on police-reported road casualty data collected through the national STATS19 system, together with any sensor-based near-miss information.

12. How will local people and organisations be involved?

The proposed qualitative work includes an online community survey and interviews guided by established methods (based on the range and depth of the information collected). These activities will allow people to raise issues, explain experiences and help the team check that effects being measured are appropriate.

13. Will the survey be representative of everyone in the area?

The survey results are aimed to be qualitative and contextual evidence rather than statistically representative. The results will be interpreted alongside interviews, administrative data and other quantitative indicators.

14. How will research ethics and participant information be handled?

Because interviews and the survey involve human participants, ethical approval will be sought through the University of Glasgow. Participants should receive clear information about the study, how their contribution will be used and the voluntary nature of participation. Reporting should protect individuals and avoid attributing comments in ways that could identify them unless explicit agreement has been obtained.

15. What happens if some of the planned data cannot be obtained?

The evaluation depends partly on data held by the Council, transport operators, national bodies and commercial providers. If a source is unavailable, incomplete or unsuitable, the team will use the strongest feasible alternative, adjust the analysis where necessary, and explain the effect on confidence in the findings. Missing data will not be concealed.

As we are collecting a range of data sources, this will take some time to clarify and bring together. Wherever possible, and subject to limitations from data providers and privacy, we will make the data publicly available.

16. How long will the project take and when will findings be reported?

The proposed programme runs over nine project months to permit the data to be collected and analysed, with analysis and qualitative work developing across the period. Some outcomes, particularly safety effects, may take longer to observe because post-introduction data are published with a delay.

17. How should the final findings be interpreted?

The report will bring together statistical trends, comparisons with other places, community evidence and the international literature. It will distinguish clearly between observed change, plausible association and stronger evidence of a policy effect. Conclusions will reflect the quality and consistency of the evidence rather than relying on any single dataset or viewpoint.

The report will cover the aforementioned changes, but will not be making a final judgement on whether the policy has “passed” or “failed”; this is a determination for others.

18. Where can I find further information?

Further information about the parking management policy can be obtained from East Lothian Council.

19. Where will the results of the work be published?

We will provide a report to East Lothian Council, which will be made publicly accessible. We will also seek to publish this work in an academic outlet, which will go through a peer review process. To permit time for this process, this will likely extend beyond project period.

20. Who is undertaking the evaluation?

The research team brings together multidisciplinary expertise across economics, regional development and transport planning. The team also has abroad range of methodological expertise, including qualitative interviewing and quantitative methods such as statistical inference and large-scale data processing.

Researchers have experience delivering consultancy and research for both private transport organisations and public sector bodies. This brings together rigorous analytical methods established in academic practice with practical and policy-focused understanding. This includes experience on and ongoing connections to city-region economic development work, alongside projects previously conducted for transport companies and public bodies.

About this FAQ

Project details may be refined as data access, engagement arrangements and the final project schedule are confirmed.