Parking Spaces (Causal Flow Diagram Problem)

EXERCISE 10 Parking Spaces

Construct a causal flow diagram for the following situation, indicating with “D” or “I” whether the cause-and-effect relationships are direct or inverse and identifying any feedback loop(s) as unstable (U) or self-stabilizing (SS):

With the expectation of increasing its clientele and thus its sales, a shopping mall in the suburb of a large city enlarged an area of the mall’s parking lot located near a subway station used regularly by commuters to and from the city. Commuters who did not shop at the mall parked their cars in the new lot, greatly reducing the spaces available to shoppers. As a consequence, the slight increase in sales generated by the new parking spaces did not offset the cost of construction. So the mall constructed more parking areas, but again commuters used up most of the spaces.

BEFORE CONTINUING, PREPARE A CAUSE-AND-EFFECT TABLE AND CAUSAL FLOW DIAGRAM ON THE PARKING PROBLEM.

The solution to Exercise 10 (page 321) shows one representation of these cause-and-effect relationships. As space for public parking at the mall increases, nonshopping commuters make greater use of mall parking (direct relationship), parking spaces available to shoppers decrease (inverse relationship), sales by stores in the mall decrease (direct relationship), and construction of new public parking spaces increases (inverse relationship). Under these assumed relationships, the reinforcing loop can lead to repeated construction without resolving the shopper-parking problem. The diagram alone does not establish that a crisis is inevitable.