An integrated model of downtown parking and traffic congestion

Abstract

This paper presents a downtown parking model that integrates tra¢ c congestion and saturated on-street parking. We assume that the stock of cars cruising for parking adds to tra¢ c congestion. Two major results come out from the model, one of which is robust. The robust one is that, whether or not the amount of on-street parking is optimal, it is e¢ cient to raise the on-street parking fee to the point where cruising for parking is eliminated without parking becoming unsaturated. The other is that, if the parking fee is …xed at a sub-optimal level, it is second-best optimal to increase the amount of curbside allocated to parking until cruising for parking is eliminated without parking becoming unsaturated.

Downtown curbside parking capacity

“…We refer to this as the steadystate condition, and the steady-state number of trips per unit area-time as throughput, 4 and denote it by r. The steady-state number of trips initiated per unit area-time is given by the demand function. The steady-state number of trips terminated per unit area-time equals tra¢ c density divided by the length of time each car spends in tra¢ c, mt.…”

The stability of downtown parking and traffic congestion

“…Derive qualitative solution properties, while fully respecting the physics of tra¢ c 3 Both papers consider only the case where the demand curve is ‡atter than the backward-bending portion of the user cost curve, and therefore do not investigate the properties of e 2 . Applying Else's analysis to e 2 would lead to the conclusion that it is unstable, applying Nash's that it is stable.…”

“…A detailed description of a slightly di¤erent version of the model, which focuses only on the steady states under saturated parking conditions, can be found in Arnott and Inci (2006). This paper treats the nonstationary dynamics of the model with a special focus on stability and allows for transitions between saturated and unsaturated parking conditions.…”

“…For the existence of a saturated tra¢ c equilibrium, the entry rate in the absence of cruising for parking must lie between these two roots. Arnott and Inci (2006) proved that there is a unique saturated steady-state equilibrium when that holds. Apart from the fact that the pool of occupied parking spaces is time invariant with _ S(u) = 0, the unique equilibrium is characterized by two equations.…”

“…They argue that trip price increases to ration the demand through the formation of steady-state queues rather than through hypercongested travel. 2 In this paper, we examine the stability of steady-state equilibria in a structural model of downtown parking and tra¢ c congestion (Arnott and Inci, 2006) through a detailed analysis of the model's non-stationary dynamics. We show that, in the context of this model and with the type of stability we consider, there do exist stable, hypercongested, steady-state equilibria.…”