A study on smart parking guidance algorithm

Parking problem becomes one of major issues in the city transportation management since the spatial resource of a city is limited and the parking cost is expensive. Lots of cars on the road should spend unnecessary time and consume energy during searching for parking due to limited parking space. To cope with these limitations and give more intelligent solutions to drivers in the selection of parking facility, this study proposes a smart parking guidance algorithm. The proposed algorithm supports drivers to find the most appropriate parking facility considering real-time status of parking facilities in a city. To suggest the most suitable parking facility, several factors such as driving distance to the guided parking facility, walking distance from the guided parking facility to destination, expected parking cost, and traffic congestion due to parking guidance, are considered in the proposed algorithm. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, simulation tests have been carried out. The proposed algorithm helps to maximize the utilization of space resources of a city, and reduce unnecessary energy consumption and CO₂ emission of wandering cars since it is designed to control the utilization of parking facility efficiently and reduce traffic congestion due to parking space search.     

Do parking standards matter? Evaluating the London parking reform with a matched-pair approach

Minimum parking standards, which require developers to build a certain amount of off-street parking spaces, are increasingly criticized for leading to excess parking supply and automobile travel in recent years. However, due to the difficulty in identifying the policy effect, few empirical studies have directly and accurately estimated the effects of parking standards on parking supply. The present study examines a parking reform in London, UK, where minimum parking standards for residential developments were replaced with maximum standards in the early 2000s. Using planning application records, we match neighboring pre-reform and post-reform developments to estimate the effect of the parking standard switch and further identify the “binding” and “capping” effects of minimum and maximum parking standards. It is found that the parking reform in London has led to a reduction of approximately 0.76 parking spaces per unit in residential development applications, or 49% of the pre-reform level. Minimum parking standards seem to have a larger impact than maximum ones on parking supply that fell more upon inner city developments, while maximum parking standards have more influenced suburban neighborhoods. Market forces have played a major role in the decline of parking supply. The findings provide strong evidence for the market distortion effect of minimum parking standards.     

Transport policy for London in 2001 The case for an integrated approach

The paper reports the results of a series of studies conducted to enable the London Planning Advisory Committee to provide advice on strategic transport policy for London. The analytical approach combined the use of an area-based, multi-modal strategic model (LAM) and professional judgment. The performance of LAM as a basis for providing rapid advice on complex issues in transport policy is assessed.The resulting policy advice advocated a coherent approach, involving new infrastructure, particularly for rail; improved management of the road and public transport networks; the use of subsidy to enhance public transport service levels; and road user charges to reduce the impact of private vehicles on congestion and the environment. Road user charges emerged as the pivotal issue in the policy; the paper discusses their role, and the questions which still need to be resolved before they can be implemented.The main message of the study is that no one element of transport policy can tackle London's problems alone; an integrated policy in which infrastructure provision, management and pricing are used to complement one another is shown to be far more effective.     

Transport in Tokyo

This paper gives a review of the historical and geographical preconditions as well as of the population and economic development which led to the unique and complex transport systems of Tokyo. Tokyo Metropolis, one of the most populous cities in the world, is located in the National Capital Region of Japan where 32 million people are living today. The special transport problems deriving from this high population density are described in context with the development of employment, transport infrastructure and motorization. Due consideration is given to the influence exerted by the structure of the whole region on the overall traffic behaviour.

Several transport phenomena and problem solutions which are typical of the traffic systems in Tokyo are described, such as the change of rush hour congestion rates depending on subway extension, modal split for different trip purposes in the inner urban area, or information via local radio broadcasts with very short range of transmission.

The main current transport issues are discussed. Though the transport networks in Tokyo are some of the most developed in the world, there is still heavy congestion in rush hours. The basic policy therefore is the further strengthening and improvement of the public transport network.     

Could you also have made this trip by another mode? An investigation of perceived travel possibilities of car and train travellers on the main travel corridors to the city of Amsterdam,The Netherlands

We investigated perceived travel possibilities (or subjective choice-sets, consideration-sets) of car and train travellers on the main corridors to the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and associations with traveller and trip characteristics. We conducted secondary analysis on a survey sample consisting of 7950 train and 19,232 car travellers. Forty-five percent of train travellers had a car in their objective choice-set, 27% of them would however never use it for this trip. Trip destination city centre, trip purpose, paying for the trip, public transport commitment, traffic congestion and parking problems were associated with consideration of car as alternative. Forty-two percent of car travellers had public transport in their subjective choice-set. The ratio between perceived public transport and objective car travel time stood out as determinant of consideration-sets, next to destination city centre, trip purpose, travel time and private versus company car ownership. On average, car travellers’ perceptions of public transport travel time exceeded objective values by 46%. We estimated that if perceptions would be more accurate, two out of three car travellers that currently do not see public transport as an alternative would include it in their choice-set, and use it from time to time. This effect has strong theoretical and policy implications.     

Solving the User Optimum Privately Owned Automated Vehicles Assignment Problem (UO-POAVAP): A model to explore the impacts of self-driving vehicles on urban mobility

Interest in vehicle automation has been growing in recent years, especially with the very visible Google car project. Although full automation is not yet a reality there has been significant research on the impacts of self-driving vehicles on traffic flows, mainly on interurban roads. However, little attention has been given to what could happen to urban mobility when all vehicles are automated. In this paper we propose a new method to study how replacing privately owned conventional vehicles with automated ones affects traffic delays and parking demand in a city. The model solves what we designate as the User Optimum Privately Owned Automated Vehicles Assignment Problem (UO-POAVAP), which dynamically assigns family trips in their automated vehicles in an urban road network from a user equilibrium perspective where, in equilibrium, households with similar trips should have similar transport costs. Automation allows a vehicle to travel without passengers to satisfy multiple household trips and, if needed, to park itself in any of the network nodes to benefit from lower parking charges. Nonetheless, the empty trips can also represent added congestion in the network. The model was applied to a case study based on the city of Delft, the Netherlands. Several experiments were done, comparing scenarios where parking policies and value of travel time (VTT) are changed. The model shows good equilibrium convergence with a small difference between the general costs of traveling for similar families. We were able to conclude that vehicle automation reduces generalized transport costs, satisfies more trips by car and is associated with increased traffic congestion because empty vehicles have to be relocated. It is possible for a city to charge for all street parking and create free central parking lots that will keep total transport costs the same, or reduce them. However, this will add to congestion as traffic competes to access those central nodes. In a scenario where a lower VTT is experienced by the travelers, because of the added comfort of vehicle automation, the car mode share increases. Nevertheless this may help to reduce traffic congestion because some vehicles will reroute to satisfy trips which previously were not cost efficient to be done by car. Placing the free parking in the outskirts is less attractive due to the extra kilometers but with a lower VTT the same private vehicle demand would be attended with the advantage of freeing space in the city center.     

A forecast air pollution model applied to a hypothetical urban road pricing scheme: An empirical study in Madrid

Reducing the air pollution from increases in traffic congestion in large cities and their surroundings is an important problem that requires changes in travel behavior. Road pricing is an effective tool for reducing air pollution, as reflected currently urban road pricing outcomes (Singapore, London, Stockholm and Milan). A survey was conducted based on establishing a hypothetical urban road pricing system in Madrid (a random sample size n = 1298). We developed a forecast air pollution model with time series analysis to evaluate the consequences of possible air pollution decreases in Madrid. Results reveal that the hypothetical road pricing for Madrid could have highly significant effects on decreasing air pollution outside of the city and in the inner city during the peak operating time periods of maximum congestion (morning peak hours from 7:00 to 10:00 and evening peak hours from 18:00 to 20:00). Furthermore, this system could have significant positive effects on a shift toward using public transport and non-motorized modes inside the hypothetical toll zone. This reveals that the system has a high capacity to motivate a decrease in air pollution and impose more sustainable behavior for public transport users.     

TRESIS: A transportation,land use and environmental strategy impact simulator for urban areas

The Institute of Transport Studies has developed a Transportation and Environment Strategy Impact Simulator (TRESIS) as a decision support system to assist planners to predict the impact of transport strategies and to make recommendations based on those predictions. A key focus of the simulator is the richness of policy instruments such as new public transport, new toll roads, congestion pricing, gas guzzler taxes, changing residential densities, introducing designated bus lanes, implementing fare changes, altering parking policy, introducing more flexible work practices, and the introduction of more fuel efficient vehicles. The appropriateness of mixtures of policy instruments is gauged in terms of a series of performance indicators such as impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, accessibility, equity, air quality and household consumer surplus. In this paper we introduce TRESIS to the research community, focussing on the structure of the system and the diversity of applications. Applications are presented to illustrate the diversity and richness of TRESIS as a policy advisory tool.     

Empirical assessment of urban traffic congestion

This paper presents an empirical assessment of urban traffic congestion in Central London, UK. Compared with freeways or motorways, urban networks are relatively less studied because of its complexity and availability of required traffic data. This paper introduces the use of automatic number plate recognition technology to analyze the characteristic of urban traffic congestion in Central London. We also present the use of linear regression to diagnose the observed congestion and attribute them to different causes. In particular, we distinguish the observed congestion into two main components: one due to recurrent factors and the other due to nonrecurrent factors. The methodologies are illustrated through a case study of Central London Area. It is found that about 15% of the observed congestion in the region is due to nonrecurrent factors such as accidents, roadwork, special events, and strikes. Given the significance of London, the study will be valuable for transport policy evaluation and appraisal in other global cities. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The optimal dual-pricing policy of mall parking service

In studies of parking policy, the role of parking pricing has been addressed. Most researches have focused on the determination of a proper price for city parking spaces that are open to the public and it is now evident that price is used by authorities as a tool to manage transport demand. However, studies of parking pricing that pertain to privately-owned parking resources are few and in particular, the problem of setting a proper price for physical market parking has rarely been studied, such as a mall’s ‘dual-pricing portfolio’ decision for the simultaneous determination of a parking fee and the consumer spending required for free parking (i.e., the ‘threshold’). This is a common problem for most malls, but the different agents involved (e.g., the visitors, the mall, the marketplace and the parking lot departments) usually have diverse goals, so the decision must take account of a multiplicity of criteria and subtle relationships. In order to systematically support this type of inter-departmental decision process, a decision model that includes an analytical decision-aid process and the relevant programming models is established. A numerical example verifies the proposed model by taking the data for a mall in Taiwan and the implications, in terms of management, are given. This systematic computational model can be generalized to any type of commercial market that requires a (new) parking pricing policy.     

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.     

Transport policy prioritisation for Dublin

Internalisation of the external costs of transport is currently the subject of much debate. Estimation of costs such as those of pollution and congestion is a primary element in any strategy involving policies for use in the internalisation of these costs. The objective of the TRENEN II STRAN project, funded by the EU, was to develop a methodology for estimation of the marginal external costs of transport. The model developed during the project was used in a series of case studies. One of the case studies, that conducted for Dublin, is reported in this paper. A brief summary of the TRENEN approach is presented followed by the results for Dublin produced from policies such as Do Nothing, Uniform pricing (internalising external costs by means of fuel taxation), Congestion Pricing (cordon pricing) and a first-best policy, the Full Optimum where one assumes that the policy maker has perfect pricing instruments available. As one would expect, the model shows that the greatest reduction in traffic level and external costs would occur if it were possible to introduce a highly differentiated and sophisticated pricing system. Increased taxation on fuel is not an efficient policy as it does not address the marginal external costs of congestion in a way that time-differentiated road-use pricing would. The results from testing of the different measures are interesting particularly those relating to parking and the way in which residents within the CBD and commuters to the CBD are dealt with. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Effect of parking information on travelers' knowledge and behavior

In many urban centers the demand for parking increases sharply before Christmas mainly due to shopping activity — causing parking congestion. One way to ameliorate such congestion is by disseminating parking information. Informed drivers may divert to relatively under-utilized parking facilities relieving the pressure on congested facilities. The City of Nottingham in England tested a real-time parking information system designed to alleviate congestion in the City Center parking facilities. Real-time information was disseminated through the radio, while historical information regarding parking locations was disseminated through newspaper advertisements and leaflets. The objective of this study is to assess impacts of the parking information system on travelers' knowledge and decisions.Survey research was used to understand traveler response. Respondents' levels of knowledge regarding car parks were analyzed by developing Poisson regression models. Drivers were more likely to have greater knowledge of city center car parks if they used several information sources (radio broadcasts, newspaper advertisements or leaflets and word-of-mouth), were active seekers of parking information, and searched for parking rather than going directly to a parking facility. In addition, the study of behavior showed that drivers were more inclined to use the relatively under-utilized Park-and-Ride facilities instead of the city center car parks if they received parking information from Newspaper advertisements/leaflets. Overall, the parking information service in Nottingham was effective; it seems reasonable to establish such information dissemination and monitoring systems at parking facilities in other urban areas. Furthermore, to support informed travel and activity participation decisions, parking information should be integrated with traffic and transit information.     

Will a driving restriction policy reduce car trips?—The case study of Beijing,China

A driving restriction policy, as one of the control-and-command rationing measures, is a politically acceptable policy tool to address traffic congestion and air pollution in some countries and cities in the world. Beijing is the first city in China to implement this policy. A one-day-a-week driving restriction scheme was expected to take 20% of cars off the road every week day. Using household survey and travel diary data, we analyze the short-term effect of this driving restriction policy on individual travel mode choice. The data also allow us to identify which demographic groups are more likely to break the restriction rule. The estimates reveal that the restriction policy in Beijing does not have significant influence on individuals’ decisions to drive, as compared with the policy’s influence on public transit. The rule-breaking behavior is constant and pervasive. We found that 47.8% of the regulated car owners didn’t follow the restriction rules, and drove “illegally” to their destination places. On average, car owners who traveled during peak hours and/or for work trips, and whose destinations were farther away from the city center or subway stations, were more likely to break the driving restriction rules. Therefore, Beijing is probably in need of more comprehensive and palatable policy instruments (e.g., a combination of congestion tolls, parking fees, fuel taxes, and high-speed transit facilities) to effectively alleviate traffic congestion and air pollution.     

Special issue: Importance of public transport

The transport demand in most major cities around the world can only be met with a high‐quality public transport system. The requirements on bus, rail, underground and tram systems are manifold with reliability and efficiency as the key factors. The service operating hours and the size of the network are often extended in order to serve the needs better. Further, most metropolitan areas are trying to provide more incentives for citizens to leave the car at home and use the local transit systems instead. The reasons are well known. Not only does a public transport system only make economical sense if it is well used, but most urban areas with a high car‐dependency face at least three major problems; safety, congestion, and pollution (noise and air pollution, land separation, etc.). It is generally recognised that to decrease car usage and to increase public transport usage a stick & carrot approach is needed. The London congestion‐charging scheme is an example since all revenues collected by the scheme are put into the improvement of bus and underground services.     

Modeling and optimization of multimodal urban networks with limited parking and dynamic pricing

Cruising-for-parking constraints mobility in urban networks. Car-users may have to cruise for on-street parking before reaching their destinations. The accessibility and the cost of parking significantly influence people's travel behavior (such as mode choice, or parking facility choice between on-street and garage). The cruising flow causes delays eventually to everyone, even users with destinations outside limited parking areas. It is therefore important to understand the impact of parking limitation on mobility, and to identify efficient parking policies for travel cost reduction. Most existing studies on parking fall short in reproducing the dynamic spatiotemporal features of traffic congestion in general, lack the treatment of dynamics of the cruising-for-parking phenomenon, or require detailed input data that are typically costly and difficult to collect. In this paper, we propose an aggregated and dynamic approach for modeling multimodal traffic with the treatment on parking, and utilize the approach to design dynamic parking pricing strategies. The proposed approach is based on the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD), which can capture congestion dynamics at network-level for single-mode and bi-modal (car and bus) systems. A parsimonious parking model is integrated into the MFD-based multimodal modeling framework, where the dynamics of vehicular and passenger flows are considered with a change in the aggregated behavior (e.g. mode choice and parking facility choice) caused by cruising and congestion. Pricing strategies are developed with the objective of reducing congestion, as well as lowering the total travel cost of all users. A case study is carried out for a bi-modal city network with a congested downtown region. An elegant feedback dynamic parking pricing strategy can effectively reduce travel delay of cruising and the generic congestion. Remarkably, such strategy, which is applicable in real-time management with limited available data, is fairly as efficient as a dynamic pricing scheme obtained from system optimum conditions and a global optimization with full information about the future states of the system. Stackelberg equilibrium is also investigated in a competitive behavior between different parking facility operators. Policy indications on on-street storage capacity management and pricing are provided.     

Policy packages for modal shift and CO2 reduction in Lille,France

This paper proposes different policy scenarios to cut CO₂ emissions caused by the urban mobility of passengers. More precisely, we compare the effects of the ‘direct tool’ of carbon tax, to a combination of ‘indirect tools’ – not originally aimed at reducing CO₂ (i.e. congestion charging, parking charges and a reduction in public transport travel time) in terms of CO₂ impacts through a change in the modal split. In our model, modal choices depend on individual characteristics, trip features (including the effects of policy tools), and land use at origin and destination zones. Personal “CO₂ emissions budgets” resulting from the trips observed in the metropolitan area of Lille (France) in 2006 are calculated and compared to the situation related to the different policy scenarios. We find that an increase of 50% in parking charges combined with a cordon toll of €1.20 and a 10% travel time decrease in public transport services (made after recycling toll-revenues) is the winning scenario. The combined effects of all the policy scenarios are superior to their separate effects.     

The History of the Transport Future—Evaluating Dutch Transport Scenarios of the Past

Abstract

This paper examines 42 business‐as‐usual (BAU) scenarios for future transport and traffic development in the Netherlands from the period 1970 to 2000. An important aspect of these scenarios is that they indicate the potential future state of the transport system if the policies in place at the time continue unchanged, thus raising issues which may require a policy response. This paper shows that in most of the important BAU transport scenario results of the past in the Netherlands, such as future car use and transport emissions, the policy makers were not misled. The prognoses for traffic congestion are an important exception as they underestimated the congestion problems that would arise. This paper shows that, based on the research it examines, BAU transport forecasting is an inaccurate practice. It is recommended that the BAU scenario designer communicates this high inaccuracy, enabling the policy maker to include the inherent future uncertainty in their decision‐making.     

Choice of parking: Stated preference approach

Over recent years, parking policy has become a key element of transport policy in many countries. Parking policy measures can affect many different dimensions of travel behaviour but are likely to be most significant in terms of travellers' choice of parking type and location. This dimension of travel choice has, to date, received comparatively little attention, yet is of vital importance if we are to properly understand and predict the effects of parking policy measures.This paper presents two studies addressing this issue carried out in the United Kingdom and Germany. Both studies used a stated preference approach in order to collect disaggregate data on travellers responses to changes in parking attributes and used these data to build simple logit models of parking type choice. The studies were designed in order to allow comparable choice models to be estimated from the two datasets. The results obtained strongly indicate the need to separately identify the costs associated with different components of the parking activity (e.g., general in-vehicle time, parking search time, egress time) and also point to the existence of significant differences in the relative valuation of these components across different journey purposes. Where possible, the results of the choice modelling exercises are also compared with existing revealed and stated preference results and are found to be generally in line with prior expectations.     

The benefits of improving public transport: a myth or reality?

As part of a research project completed some four years ago at Imperial College, London, a number of case studies were undertaken to examine the impacts that major improvements to the public transport system have on parallel road traffic. The three studies of major improvements to the public transport systems in three U.K. and German cities were: the Victoria Line in London; the extension of the U‐Bahn system in West Berlin (at the time of the study); and the S‐Bahn extension in Stuttgart. Each scheme is reviewed, with particular reference to the degree in which they have relieved congestion on the roads in the same corridor. This was examined simply to see whether or not public transport improvements are the only answer to traffic congestion, as is sometimes suggested. In the event, every scheme was a unique example in itself. The different conditions in each situation are presented and the actual impacts of the schemes assessed, based on the available information. The findings were rather different from the expectations. Only marginal relief from road traffic was recorded, with a substantial shift from buses to the improved rapid rail system. In the case of Stuttgart, for example, traffic growth on parallel roads was actually higher than the average growth on all city roads, though for other reasons.