Real-time parking information management to reduce search time,vehicle displacement and emissions

The time spent searching for free parking spaces can produce considerable environmental pollution. Information on parking availability can be a powerful instrument for reducing these search costs. This paper develops a demand assignment model to evaluate the benefits of manipulating information with the objective of reducing the time and distances involved in finding a parking-place; including the walking distances involved. Using the full search procedure it was found that improvements of some 10% in efficiency could be achieved, but only at high computational costs. A genetic algorithm was programmed that increases the possibility of finding the optimum information conditions that can be translated into lower emissions of toxic greenhouse gases.