metaPARK — Performance-Based Parking Policy for Tallinn

Ensuring a city’s success depends on physical connections, density, and a diversity of activities close together — but that usually comes with a heavy dose of space dedicated to parking, which, contrary to what’s generally assumed, can actually hinder economic growth, social cohesion, and quality of life. Tallinn wanted a parking policy reform that recognised parking’s real economic value and returned it to the city.

Commissioned by the City of Tallinn’s Transport Department through a public procurement procedure (contract 19KL00001, signed January 2019). Delivered alongside two related outputs: a technical revision of the city’s parking-minimum construction standard, and a standalone citywide parking-count dataset — both built on the same underlying data collected for this study.

The team first mapped every single parking space in the city, formal or not, combining satellite imagery, on-site surveys, and real-time mobile-payment data — no such combined map existed before, since public and private parking providers had never coordinated their data. Mobile payment records were turned into occupancy rates for every paid-parking spot in Tallinn, producing an interactive tool for policymakers to see occupancy and pricing space by space.

Delivered through three stakeholder seminars with the city (March–May 2019) and a final report released September 2019, alongside a bilingual executive summary and a technical parking-normative proposal built directly on the findings.