The final report summarizes research by WTI to conduct parking occupancy rate studies in the downtown Bozeman area between July and September/October of 2012. The purpose of this project was to understand how parking spaces near Main Street were being utilized. When examined, occupancy rates shared a similar trend between all block groups, both on weekdays and weekends in general. Occupancy steadily increased throughout the morning and reached its peak for the day during the noon hour. This coincided with the lunch hour when downtown restaurants were likely to be heavily frequented. Following the midday peak, occupancy rates for most blocks fell throughout the afternoon before rising again to a second, evening peak. This second peak was typically lower than the one observed at midday. On-street parking occupancy rates were generally high, typically exceeding 60 to 70 percent throughout the day. In many cases, 80 to 90 percent occupancy rates were observed, and at some points, parking on certain block faces was 100 percent occupied.

High occupancy rates typically were not observed for off-street parking lots, with the exception of the Armory lot and the Willson lot across Mendenhall Street, where high occupancy was the norm throughout the day (generally above 60 percent for both lots).