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Innovative Market Research Group

By:Maeve Greenaway

The purpose of the study is to analyze various issues pertaining to the parking needs of tourists, residents, and small business owners of Delray Beach on Atlantic Avenue (which we will refer to as our sampling population).

Currently, paid parking is not enforced west of the Intercoastal. Delray Beach, along with many other towns have been suffering from economic hardships and is determining if paid parking will help the Beach town’s finances. Specifically, the research objectives are to:

Research Purpose

• To determine if paid parking will financially benefit Delray Beach;

• To determine the best method of paid parking;• To determine how important price guarantees are to the

people parking in Delray Beach;• To determine the demographics of the majority of the people

who visit Delray Beach;• To determine the importance of Parking to Small businesses

on Atlantic avenue;• To determine how paid parking has affected other beach

towns;

The survey research will be administered face to face with a questionnaire to a random sampling of 500 participants from our sampling population along Atlantic Avenue. The questions cover a wide range of issues including:

Research Design

• Identifying the most common parking methods used by sample population;

• Obtaining the likelihood of the respondents adaptation to the new parking enforcements;

• Determining the respondent reaction to paid parking;

• Identifying characteristics which influence the respondent reactions.

• Finally, it will seek demographic and lifestyle information about the respondent;

Our data was collected on the basis that those surveyed were in fact truthful and that the time and dates data was collected was representative of the overall opinion and feelings of the average patron of Atlantic Ave in Delray Beach.

The time of year may also impact the results being that it is “season”, the time of the year when the “snow birds” come to their warm weathered winter spots, and Delray Beach is well known as one of those destination spots. So a “snowbird” surveyed may not have demonstrated the same feelings of the average year round resident on the issue of paid parking.

Many other factors may have interfered with the survey and may have altered the data collected. City Searchers promise is to give the most accurate data given the constraints and limitations.

Limitations

Is paid parking going to drive away customers?

That is the very reason you hired us to find out. Below you will see how other beach towns dealt with the same situation of enforcing paid parking

to their patrons.

Secondary Research

Secondary Research

Fort Lauderdale Beach is trying to make their beach free to residents by giving them a free beach parking card. They have separated their beach into sections and designating certain parts to residents. Parking fees collected at their “North End” by meters are dedicated to funding lifeguard protection. This allows the city to increase public safety at its beach with no cost passed on to its residents. Residents will be able to purchase an annual plastic swipe card to use in the meters for $6/ year.

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Secondary Research

Myrtle Beach has meters where parking is in high demand (like Delray Beach has done on Atlantic Ave). The meters are in affect from March 15 through September 15 with varying hours. The meters accept US coins and the pay stations accept credit cards.

The city then breaks down the system even more by designating sticker colors on the meters to let the patrons know if they are short or long term parking meters (Green means all day, Red means up to 3 hours, Blue means less than 2 hours)

They also have a parking garage nearby (much like Deerfield Beach does) where the rate also depend on the “season”.

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Our Research

Currently the city of Delray Beach has paid parking meters along AIA and down Atlantic Ave just up until Swinton Ave.

The purpose of our research is to find out what would happen if the city extended the paid parking all the way down Atlantic Ave to just east of the interstate.

The city is also planning to introduce a “smart card program” which will allow beach patrons to add money to a card which will be used in the pay and display stations.

Delray Beach

Sample Selection

The sampling procedure employed for the project will be stratified sampling, a technique widely used in such surveys.

Stratified sampling ensures representation of a sample population within the population of Delray Beach.

The quality of the surveys will determine the successful implementation of stratified sampling.

QuestionnaireSample Questions

The actual questionnaire used consisted of 16 questions of varying scales

Our field workers went out and survey individuals ranging from tourist to business owners along Atlantic Avenue to find out what they thought about the possibility of paid parking being implemented.

This research was conducted by 4 field workers and took place over a span of 2 weeks. The field workers went at different times of the day and different days of the week to get a variety of perspectives.

Question 1Which best describes the age group that you are in?

a. 10-19b. 20-29c. 30-39d. 40-49e. 50-59f. 60-69g. 70-79h. 80+

a. Singleb. Married with NO childrenc. Married WITH children

Question 2Which best describes your current status?

a. Yes b. No0

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Question 3Are you currently a resident of Delray Beach?

a. Yes b. No0

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Question 4Are you currently a business owner/employee of Delray Beach?

a. During “season” (months November-May)b. During “off season” (months June-October)c. Year round

Question 5If you are a resident, when do you typically reside in Delray Beach?

a. Beachesb. Friends/familyc. Hotelsd. Attractionse. Eventsf. Restaurantsg. Shopsh. Bars/clubsi. Job

Question 6What most attracts you to Delray Beach?

a. Yes b. No0

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Question 7Do you currently use public parking in Delray Beach?

_______ Early-morning (3:00AM-9:00AM)_______ Mid-Morning (9:01AM-Noon)_______ Afternoon (12:01PM-4:00PM)_______ Evening (4:01PM-7:00PM)_______ Night (7:01PM-11:00PM)_______ Late-night (11:01PM-2:59AM)_______All day parking

Question 8Please rank the following “times of day” by placing a “1” in front of the time period you prefer to use the public parking at Delray Beach, a “2” in front of your second preference, continuing until you have ranked all the time periods.

a. Yes b. No0

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Question 9Do you agree that enforcing paid public parking would financially benefit the city of Delray Beach?

a. Meter parkingb. Ticket parkingc. Resident parking passd. Daily paid parking garagese. Seasonal pass

Question 10If a paid parking system was enforced, which would you prefer?

a. 1b. 2c. 3d. 4 e. 5

Question 11On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the least important and 5 being the most important, please indicate how important it is to have free parking in Delray Beach in regards to your visit? (Please circle the number below).

a. Extremely importantb. Somewhat importantc. Neither important nor unimportantd. Somewhat unimportante. Not at all important

Question 12How important is it to you to have a set price for parking 24/7?

a. Very positivelyb. Somewhat positivelyc. Neither positively nor negativelyd. Somewhat negativelye. Very negatively

Question 13Skip to question 14 if NOT a business owner.If you are a business owner/employee of a company in Delray Beach, which best describes how you feel paid parking would affect your business?

a. Yes, I would definitely continue to visitb. I probably would con-tinue to visitc. I may or may continue to visitd. I probably would not continue to visite. No, I definitely would not continue to visit

Question 14Would you still come to Delray Beach if paid parking was implanted?

a. I would definitely con-tinue to visitb. I probably would con-tinue to visitc. I may or may continue to visitd. I probably would not continue to visite. I definitely would not continue to visit

Question 15Based on your answer to question #6, how likely will you continue to visit your “favorite place” if paid parking was implemented?

a. Yes b. No0

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Question 16If the set amount of paid parking was proven to NOT help increase the revenue of the city of Delray Beach, would you agree with increasing the price for parking?

Conclusion

After 2 weeks of surveying our firm has concluded to suggest that the City of Delray Beach does not implement paid parking along Atlantic Avenue due to the following findings.

Results of Survey Indicate…

Conclusion

FindingsOut of the patrons polled:

• 84% currently used Delray Beach parking

• 64% did not believe that paid parking would help Delray financially

• 64% believed that it would actually hurt businesses along the “Ave”.

Conclusion

Findings40% polled chose either meter or ticket from pay station as their choice if in fact paid parking was enforced, that the city would spend approximately $13,000 on the product and labor costs of installing the meters.

Basing the calculations on the estimation of 50 new meters would be installed and the hopes that the usual amount of traffic would be using them; they would have to charge an extra $ .01 per minute just to break even within the year.

The polled patrons of Atlantic Avenue were already unpleased on the rate increase on the existing meters from 15 minutes/ $ .25 to 12.5 minutes/ $ .25 so we doubt they would like it to go down to receiving less time for their money.

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