Citizen perceptions of Government's resistance to shared parking

Abstract

Sharing economy services is one of the fastest growing segments in today's economy, especially in urban centres. However, some cities have taken a negative stance and sought to prohibit sharing economy services, which has raised tensions between citizens and the local government. This paper adopts a case study approach to investigate what the main topics are in citizen perceptions of their government's resistance to shared parking in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, where shared parking is considered illegal. In so doing, the study applies topic modelling on readers' comments following news about local residents being threatened with legal action by the city for providing shared parking services to government employees suffering from insufficient office parking resources. Based on six identified topics, the study establishes a conceptual framework that contributes to the literature on sharing economies by illustrating how citizens perceive their government's resistance toward sharing economies. The paper considers whether sharing economy services could be an innovation that would benefit societies, and how understanding citizen perceptions through online comments can help a government to solve policy issues and create win-win resolutions.