Evaluating parking reservation policy in urban areas: An environmental perspective

This paper investigates a parking reservation mechanism to reduce car cruising to find parking. To consider the benefits for drivers and parking facility providers, we charge drivers for making reservations in addition to parking fees, by introducing a reservation pricing model that makes reservation prices equivalent to the value of saved search time. By modeling the number of vacant spaces as a stochastic variable, and applying binomial pricing methods, parking reservation prices are obtained. Numerical examples based on the data for two parking facilities in Taiwan are given.     

Expirable parking reservations for managing morning commute with parking space constraints

When total parking supply in an urban downtown area is insufficient, morning commuters would choose their departure times not only to trade off bottleneck congestion and schedule delays, but also to secure a parking space. Recent studies found that an appropriate combination of reserved and unreserved parking spaces can spread the departures of those morning commuters and hence reduce their total travel cost. To further mitigate both traffic congestion and social cost from competition for parking, this study considers a parking reservation scheme with expiration times, where commuters with a parking reservation have to arrive at parking spaces for the reservation before a predetermined expiration time. We first show that if all parking reservations have the same expiration time, it is socially preferable to set the reservations to be non-expirable, i.e., without expiration time. However, if differentiated expiration times are properly designed, the total travel cost can be further reduced as compared with the reservation scheme without expiration time, since the peak will be further smoothed out. We explore socially desirable equilibrium flow patterns under the parking reservation scheme with differentiated expiration times. Finally, efficiencies of the reservation schemes are examined.     

Dynamic pricing and reservation for intelligent urban parking management

Despite rapid advances of information technologies for intelligent parking systems, it remains a challenge to optimally manage limited parking resources in busy urban neighborhoods. In this paper, we use dynamic location-dependent parking pricing and reservation to improve system-wide performance of an intelligent parking system. With this system, the parking agency is able to decide the spatial and temporal distribution of parking prices to achieve a variety of objectives, while drivers with different origins and destinations compete for limited parking spaces via online reservation. We develop a multi-period non-cooperative bi-level model to capture the complex interactions among the parking agency and multiple drivers, as well as a non-myopic approximate dynamic programming (ADP) approach to solve the model. It is shown with numerical examples that the ADP-based pricing policy consistently outperforms alternative policies in achieving greater performance of the parking system, and shows reliability in handling the spatial and temporal variations in parking demand.     

Auction-based highway reservation system an agent-based simulation study

Based on previous studies of a highway reservation system, this paper proposed an auction-based implementation, in which the users can bid for the right to use a route during a certain period of time. This paper models the auction system with MATSim using an agent-based simulation technique. The agents adopt their own bidding logic in the auction, and the price converges after around 130 iterations, when the number of users using the reserved highway and the total collected revenue become stable. When the overall demand changes, the collected revenue ranges from 5 to 11 dollars per user, and from 0.7 to 1.5 dollars per mile. The auction system can transfer more consumer surplus to the toll road operators, since it is a personalized tolling mechanism. The users are using the reservation system as insurance of a guaranteed congestion-free travel. The auction-based highway reservation shows great potential as a new traffic management system.     

Drivers’ parking location choice under uncertain parking availability and search times: A stated preference experiment

To assess parking pricing policies and parking information and reservation systems, it is essential to understand how drivers choose their parking location. A key aspect is how drivers’ behave towards uncertainties towards associated search times and finding a vacant parking spot. This study presents the results from a stated preference experiment on the choice behaviour of drivers, in light of these uncertainties. The attribute set was selected based on a literature review, and appended with the probabilities of finding a vacant parking spot upon arrival and after 8 min (and initially also after 4 min, but later dropped to reduce the survey complexity). Efficient Designs were used to create the survey design, where two rounds of pilot studies were conducted to estimate prior coefficients. Data was successfully collected from 397 respondents. Various random utility maximisation (RUM) choice models were estimated, including multinomial logit, nested logit, and mixed logit, as well as models accounting for panel effects. These model analyses show how drivers appear to accept spending time on searching for a vacant parking spot, where parking availability after 8 min ranks second most important factor in determining drivers’ parking decisions, whilst parking availability upon arrival ranks fourth. Furthermore, the inclusion of heterogeneity in preferences and inter-driver differences is found to increase the predictive power of the parking location choice model. The study concludes with an outlook of how these insights into drivers’ parking behaviour can be incorporated into traffic assignment models and used to support parking systems.     

Understanding parking decisions with a Bayesian network

In this paper, a Bayesian network is developed to investigate three intertwining parking decisions, namely parking period, parking location, and parking duration, and the impacts of a number of parking-related factors on these decisions. With parking information from Beijing, China in 2005, the structure and parameter of a Bayesian network were learnt by employing the K2 algorithm and Bayesian parameter estimation method respectively. The results show that the decision on how long to park follows that on where to park, and both of them are affected by the decision of when to park. This suggests that parking policies aimed at intervening in one specific parking decision may have an indirect influence on other parking decisions, which embraces an integrated view in the development of parking policies. The findings facilitate the development of measures for regulating parking behavior by identifying important contributing factors.     

A review of the impact of parking policy measures on travel demand

This paper reviews the empirical evidence relating to the impact of parking policy measures on the demand for parking and for travel. Disaggregate modal choice models, disaggregate parking location models and site‐specific studies of parking behaviour are examined. With regard to modal choice models, it is concluded that few studies deal adequately with parking factors, but that there is some support for the view that parking policy measures are a relatively important influence on modal choice. When parking location models are examined parking policy variables are shown to have a substantial impact on choice of parking location. With regard to site‐specific studies, the paper concludes that there is a great variation in the parking price elasticities quoted, which reflects partly the methodological problems associated with such studies. Suggestions to improve model specification are made.     

Parking management for promoting sustainable transport in urban neighbourhoods. A review of existing policies and challenges from a German perspective

ABSTRACT

The organisation of parking is a key challenge to more sustainable mobility in urban areas, as its pricing and availability affect the rates of private car ownership and use. However, changing parking policies is a challenging issue for local politicians and planners because residents frequently oppose changes or restrictions to conditions they have taken for granted such as on-street parking in a public space. The aim of this paper is firstly to assess how the parking policy of an urban neighbourhood can be structured to contribute to more sustainable mobility and to increase liveability in the neighbourhood. The second aim is to apply the policies reviewed to an example neighbourhood. For this purpose, we systematically reviewed academic literature and identified five types of relevant parking policies: (i) maximum parking requirements, (ii) physical detachment of residence and parking space, (iii) residential parking permits and the limitation of available parking space, (iv) performance-based pricing and (v) parking as a demand management strategy. We discovered that most research focuses on econometric models about parking and that studies rarely address the effects of parking on the quality of life in neighbourhoods. Therefore, we need further research regarding the relationship of parking and liveability. We conclude that for the implementation of such parking policies in an example neighbourhood, the municipality needs to develop a mobility vision for its city. It has to understand parking as a tool for transportation demand management to increase the acceptance of parking policy concepts and to avoid spillover problems. Finally, in the German case, as in most other countries, states and municipalities need to redesign their legal frameworks to be able to manage parking supply better and to react to changes related to digital developments and parking. The findings have implications for other European neighbourhoods regarding the transfer from research to local circumstances and applications for the whole city.     

Is the curb 80% full or 20% empty? Assessing the impacts of San Francisco’s parking pricing experiment

The city of San Francisco is undertaking a large-scale controlled parking pricing experiment. San Francisco has adopted a performance goal of 60–80% occupancy for its metered parking. The goal represents an heuristic performance measure intended to reduce double parking and cruising for parking, and improve the driver experience; it follows a wave of academic and policy literature that calls for adjusting on-street parking prices to achieve similar occupancy targets. In this paper, we evaluate the relationship between occupancy rules and metrics of direct policy interest, such as the probability of finding a parking space and the amount of cruising. We show how cruising and arrival rates can be simulated or estimated from hourly occupancy data. Further, we evaluate the impacts of the first two years of the San Francisco program, and conclude that rate changes have helped achieve the City’s occupancy goal and reduced cruising by 50%.     

Parking policy,parking location decisions and the distribution of congestion

The paper develops and tests a model which characterizes the parking location decisions of individual tripmakers. The model is designed to offer information concerning the effects of alternative parking policies on parking location decisions and therefore the effects on the distribution of congestion in an urban area.Own price, time price and full price elasticities for alternative parking locations are estimated. The own price elasticity is found to rise with distance from the destination point while the time price elasticity falls with distance. The full price elasticity is found to be relatively stable.One is able to determine from the calculated elasticities, the effects of alternative parking policies such as raising parking fees, time restrictions, or increasing search or transaction costs on the distribution of individuals consuming parking services; from this one can infer the impact on the distribution of congestion.The paper also offers some explanation for the low elasticity of auto use with respect to changes in parking costs found in some modal choice studies.The author is indebted to Adolf Buse, Ken Norrie and Richard Westin for helpful comments and criticism.     

Truck parking in urban areas: Application of choice modelling within traffic microsimulation

Urban truck parking policies include time restrictions, pricing policies, space management and enforcement. This paper develops a method for investigating the potential impact of truck parking policy in urban areas. An econometric parking choice model is developed that accounts for parking type and location. A traffic simulation module is developed that incorporates the parking choice model to select suitable parking facilities/locations. The models are demonstrated to evaluate the impact of dedicating on-street parking in a busy street system in the Toronto CBD. The results of the study show lower mean searching time for freight vehicles when some streets are reserved for freight parking, accompanied by higher search and walking times for passenger vehicles.     

Parking policy and urban goals: Linking strategy to needs

Parking management strategies have traditionally been used as a means of accommodating traffic demand, with little or no effort made to identify how such strategies might relate to other urban objectives. In this paper, parking management strategies are classified according to the control they exert over the amount of aggregate parking supply, access to parking, spatial distribution of parking supply, or dollar price of parking. Six general categories of urban policy objectives are identified, and the relationship between parking strategies and these objectives analyzed. The parking program in Baltimore is used to illustrate some of the relationships identified in this analysis. This paper concludes that the linkage between parking and the attainment of some urban objectives is potentially quite strong, and that further empirical research is needed to fully establish this relationship. Several different directions for further research are also identified.     

Analysis of parking cruising behaviour and parking location choice

ABSTRACT

This paper explores car drivers’ cruising behaviour and location choice for curb parking in areas with insufficient parking space based on a survey of car drivers in Beijing, China. Preliminary analysis of the data show that car drivers’ cruising behaviour is closely related to their parking duration and parking location. A multinomial probit (MNP) model is used to analyse cruising behaviour and the results show that the closer to the destination car drivers are, the more likely they choose to park on the curb. The adjacent locations are the basis of car drivers’ sequential parking decisions at different locations. The research results provide a better understanding of cruising behaviour for parking and recommendations for reducing cruising for parking. The provision of parking information can help regulate the parking demand distribution.     

A simple reservation and allocation model of shared parking lots

With increasing auto demands, efficient parking management is by no means less important than road traffic congestion control. This is due to shortages of parking spaces within the limited land areas of the city centers in many metropolises. The parking problem becomes an integrated part of traffic planning and management. On the other hand, it is a fact that many private parking spots are available during daytime in nearby residential compound because those residents drive their cars out to work. These temporarily vacant parking lots can be efficiently utilized to meet the parking demand of other drivers who are working at nearby locations or drivers who come for shopping or other activities. This paper proposes a framework and a simple model for embracing shared use of residential parking spaces between residents and public users. The proposed shared use is a winning strategy because it maximizes the use of private resources to benefit the community as a whole. It also creates a new business model enabled by the fast-growing mobile apps in our daily lives.     

Urban parking policy in Europe: A conceptualization of past and possible future trends

In the last two decades parking has increasingly gained importance in urban planning. Despite the growing number of papers published in recent years, an overall conceptualization of parking policy is still missing. Previous attempts (Shoup, 2005; Litman, 2006; Barter, 2010) focus mainly on the North American planning experience. We try to bridge this gap analysing the evolution of parking policy in Europe. In this paper we first present the key aspects of parking policy, and describe their generic evolution. Next we suggest a novel approach for parking policy making. We conclude by discussing some of the major challenges policy makers will face in the near future regarding parking in urban areas.     

Do parking requirements significantly increase the area dedicated to parking? A test of the effect of parking requirements values in Los Angeles County

Minimum parking requirements (MPRs) are the norm for urban and suburban development in the United States (Davidson et al., 2002). The justification for MPRs is that overflow parking will occupy nearby street or off-street parking. Shoup (1999a) and Willson (1995) provide cases where there is reason to believe that parking space requirements have forced parcel developers to place more parking than they would in the absence of parking requirements. However, to our knowledge the existing literature does not test the effect of parking minimums on the amount of lot space devoted to parking beyond a few case studies. This paper tests the hypothesis that MPRs bind for most land uses using data on suburban office, commercial, industrial and retail property sales from Los Angeles County using both direct and indirect approaches. Our indirect test of the effects of parking requirements is similar to the one used by Glaeser and Gyourko (2003). A simple theoretical model shows that the marginal value of additional parking to the sale price of a building should be equal to the cost of land plus the cost of parking construction. We estimate the marginal values of parking and lot area with spatial methods using a large data set from the Los Angeles area non-residential property sales and find that for most of the property types the marginal value of parking is significantly below that of the parcel area. In addition, we directly examine required and supplied parking and find that on average parking supplied is quite close to the required amount.     

A review of parking lot design models

The efficient design of parking lots is an important element in the development of the transport infrastructure. The design process often adopted is based on broad measures of parking demand, design manuals outlining the minimum size of the components and the experience of the designer. This process may not result in the best design. It is of particular concern that this process does not provide any quantitative information on the ‘level of service’ resulting from the choice of a parking layout. Models of parking systems provide this assistance. Existing models provide information on the utilization of the parking system, its capacity, the best distribution of parking space use and the delay experienced by parkers. Recent improvements in these models have been aided by rapid developments in computer and graphics technology. This paper reviews developments in models of parking lots.     

Improving travel efficiency by parking permits distribution and trading

In this paper, we study various parking management schemes in a many-to-one network, where each origin is connected to the destination by a highway with a bottleneck and a parallel transit line. First, we derive a model to compute the morning commuting pattern when the destination has inadequate parking space to accommodate potential private cars. Second, we propose and compare the following three schemes of distributing parking permits to commuters residing in different origins: uniform, Pareto improving, and system optimum distribution of parking permits. Third, free trading of parking permits among commuters in a free market is introduced to better cater for commuters’ parking needs. Numerical examples show that parking permits distribution and trading are very efficient in traffic management.     

System dynamics of urban traffic based on its parking-related-states

The urban parking and the urban traffic systems are essential components of the overall urban transportation structure. The short-term interactions between these two systems can be highly significant and influential to their individual performance. The urban parking system, for example, can affect the searching-for-parking traffic, influencing not only overall travel speeds in the network (traffic performance), but also total driven distance (environmental conditions). In turn, the traffic performance can also affect the time drivers spend searching for parking, and ultimately, parking usage. In this study, we propose a methodology to model macroscopically such interactions and evaluate their effects on urban congestion.The model is built on a matrix describing how, over time, vehicles in an urban area transition from one parking-related state to another. With this model it is possible to estimate, based on the traffic and parking demand as well as the parking supply, the amount of vehicles searching for parking, the amount of vehicles driving on the network but not searching for parking, and the amount of vehicles parked at any given time. More importantly, it is also possible to estimate the total (or average) time spent and distance driven within each of these states. Based on that, the model can be used to design and evaluate different parking policies, to improve (or optimize) the performance of both systems.A simple numerical example is provided to show possible applications of this type. Parking policies such as increasing parking supply or shortening the maximum parking duration allowed (i.e., time controls) are tested, and their effects on traffic are estimated. The preliminary results show that time control policies can alleviate the parking-caused traffic issues without the need for providing additional parking facilities. Results also show that parking policies that intend to reduce traffic delay may, at the same time, increase the driven distance and cause negative externalities. Hence, caution must be exercised and multiple traffic metrics should be evaluated before selecting these policies.Overall, this paper shows how the system dynamics of urban traffic, based on its parking-related-states, can be used to efficiently evaluate the urban traffic and parking systems macroscopically. The proposed model can be used to estimate both, how parking availability can affect traffic performance (e.g., average time searching for parking, number of cars searching for parking); and how different traffic conditions (e.g., travel speed, density in the system) can affect drivers ability to find parking. Moreover, the proposed model can be used to study multiple strategies or scenarios for traffic operations and control, transportation planning, land use planning, or parking management and operations.     

Integrating parking behaviour in activity-based travel demand modelling: Investigation of the relationship between parking type choice and activity scheduling process

Traditionally, the parking choice/option is considered to be an important factor in only in the mode choice component of a four-stage travel demand modelling system. However, travel demand modelling has been undergoing a paradigm shift from the traditional trip-based approach to an activity-based approach. The activity-based approach is intended to capture the influences of different policy variables at various stages of activity-travel decision making processes. Parking is a key policy variable that captures land use and transportation interactions in urban areas. It is important that the influences of parking choice on activity scheduling behaviour be identified fully. This paper investigates this issue using a sample data set collected in Montreal, Canada. Parking type choice and activity scheduling decision (start time choice) are modelled jointly in order to identify the effects of parking type choice on activity scheduling behaviour. Empirical investigation gives strong evidence that parking type choice influences activity scheduling process. The empirical findings of this investigation challenge the validity of the traditional conception which considers parking choice as exogenous variable only in the mode choice component of travel demand models.