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.     

Development of location-based services for recommending departure stations to park and ride users

More and more commuters are beginning to favour public transportation. Fast and convenient park and ride (PnR) services provided by public transportation authorities are the result of changes of household demographics and household, increasing fuel prices and a focus on environmental sustainability. However, lack of parking spaces in PnR facilities creates a major bottleneck to this service. The aim of this research is to develop a location-based service (LBS) application to help PnR users choose the best train station to use to reach their destination using a multicriteria decision making model. A fuzzy logic method is used to estimate parking availability when a user is estimated to arrive at a PnR facility. Two surveys are conducted to collect traffic flow, travel behaviour and service quality data at four selected Perth Western Australia train stations. With the proposed approach and survey data, a prototype of LBS application, Station Finder, was developed using the Android SDK 4.0 and Google API 16. This application is a useful and practical tool to save travel cost and time of PnR users’.     

Electric vehicle parking in European and American context: Economic,energy and environmental analysis

The transportation sector faces increasing challenges related to energy consumption and local and global emissions profiles. Thus, alternative vehicle technologies and energy pathways are being considered in order to overturn this trend and electric mobility is considered one adequate possibility towards a more sustainable transportation sector.In this sense, this research work consisted on the development of a methodology to assess the economic feasibility of deploying EV charging stations (Park-EV) by quantifying the tradeoff between economic and energy/environmental impacts for EV parking spaces deployment. This methodology was applied to 4 different cities (Lisbon, Madrid, Minneapolis and Manhattan), by evaluating the influence of parking premium, infrastructure cost and occupancy rates on the investment Net Present Value (NPV). The main findings are that the maximization of the premium and the minimization of the equipment cost lead to higher NPV results. The NPV break-even for the cities considered is more “easily” reached for higher parking prices, namely in the case of Manhattan with the higher parking price profile. In terms of evaluating occupancy rates of the EV parking spaces, shifting from a low usage (LU) to a high usage (HU) scenario represented a reduction in the premium to obtain a NPV = 0 of approximately 14% for a 2500 € equipment cost, and, in the case of a zero equipment cost (e.g. financed by the city), a NPV = 0 was obtained with approximately a 2% reduction in the parking premium. Moreover, due to the use of electric mobility instead of the average conventional technologies, Well-to-Wheel (WTW) gains for Lisbon, Madrid, Minneapolis and Manhattan were estimated in 58%, 53%, 52% and 75% for energy consumption and 66%, 75%, 62% and 86% for CO₂ emissions, respectively.This research confirms that the success of deploying an EV charging stations infrastructure will be highly dependent on the price the user will have to pay, on the cost of the infrastructure deployed and on the adhesion of the EV users to this kind of infrastructure. These variables are not independent and, consequently, the coordination of public policies and private interest must be promoted in order to reach an optimal solution that does not result in prohibitive costs for the users.     

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.     

公路旧路改造设计探讨

对于长时间运营的公路项目,旧路改造是不可避免的,根据公路交通量等情况合理地进行旧路改造设计相当重要。结合实例,详细探讨公路旧路改造中如何对路基、路面及公路设施等方面进行设计。     

大广公路固安（冀京界）至深州段高速公路安全设施设计的技术要点

高速公路安全设施设计是＂用户第一、行者为本＂的核心价值的体现。安全设施是高速公路不可缺少的基本设施,其对发挥高速公路的效能、预防和减少交通事故的发生均能起到十分重要的作用。     

张石高速公路涞源至涞水段交通标志的设计技术研究

交通标志作为高速公路行车的主动引导设施,将公路沿线信息及时准确地传达给公路使用者,体现了＂以人为本、安全至上＂的设计理念,为人们提供了出行便利和安全。     

武汉市主城区自行车停车设施规划与管理模式研究

自行车停车设施规划是自行车交通系统规划的重要内容。国内大多城市对自行车停车设施规划与建设不够重视,出现自行车停车难的尴尬局面。结合武汉市主城区自行车发展概况,探索自行车停车设施规划方法与管理措施,提出了分类分块、重点布设的原则以及停车设施分级规划思路,从自行车停车需求预测、停车场布局方法、停车管理措施等方面进行了探讨,以期完善自行车系统规划,提高自行车的吸引率。     

关于城市道路潮汐车道的设置研究

针对城市道路早晚高峰单向拥堵难题,分别对已建和新建存在潮汐车流的道路进行了分析,对设置潮汐车道的条件进行了论证,并对潮汐车道道路的管理进行了研究。通过论证分析,明确了已建道路和新建道路设置潮汐车道的条件及设置潮汐车道要解决的问题,对设置潮汐车道的道路提出了管理措施。     

电子驻车制动系统整车应用研究

电子驻车制动系统（EPB）是一种新兴的汽车电子控制技术,目前在欧美汽车市场已得到广泛应用,国内汽车市场现在也开始进入推广阶段。文章针对电子驻车制动系统在整车上的应用,通过对3种典型的电子驻车制动系统进行介绍,以及对系统结构、工作原理及功能特点等方面进行对比分析,提出了电子驻车制动系统在整车上应用开发时需要注意的要点因素,为电子驻车制动系统与整车的匹配设计提供参考。