Do restaurant precincts need more parking? Differences in business perceptions and customer travel behaviour in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Restaurateurs in Australian cities often resist local government car parking management regimes and advocate for increased parking provision in restaurant precincts. But are restaurateurs’ views of the importance of car parking to their trade in line with reality? To explore this question this study surveyed restaurant businesses and customers in parallel at three major restaurant precincts in inner-city Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The novelty of this paper is in being able to cross-analyse business’ perceptions with customers travel behaviour to evaluate the validity of restaurateurs’ perceptions about the importance of car travel and parking, and perceptions about transport infrastructure need. Survey data is adopted to constructed discrete choice models that are used to estimate the restaurant customers’ preference of transport mode for dining in restaurants and simulations on transport cost subsidy used to identify the impact of different policy outcomes. The findings indicate that, unlike restaurateurs’ perceptions, customers who prefer walking, cycling and public transport are more likely to contribute significantly more revenue to the restaurant trade than business owners and managers perceive. The results should help local authorities make better planning decisions about transport infrastructure supply and parking control in conjunction with the restaurant sector as well as help businesses understand that the promotion of sustainable transport options may be more beneficial to their bottom line.