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

Abstract

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 minutes (and initially also after 4 minutes, 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 minutes ranks second most important factor in determining drivers' parking decisions, while parking availability upon arrival ranks fourth. Furthermore, the inclusion of heterogeneity in preferences and interdriver 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.

Motorcycle Drivers’ Parking Lot Choice Behaviors in Developing Countries: Analysis to Identify Influence Factors

“…The model estimation of the MNL model and the mixed logit model showed in Table 4, all the coefficients are significant and interpretation of drivers' normal behavior: Coefficients of parking cost, walking distance and queuing time are negative which similar with previous researches [16][17][18][19][42][43][44].…”

An Occupancy Simulator for a Smart Parking System: Developmental Design and Experimental Considerations

“…This model parameter can be dynamically adjusted. Driving behavior and parking search are complex processes [37][38][39] and several studies have applied realistic behaviors [3,13,19,27], even considering recent trends like driver-less vehicles [40] or specific contexts like a city center [41] and university campuses with specific policies and notable parking supply shortages [42]. We chose two simple parking search behaviors for our model because obtaining an approximate parking occupancy, rather than the most realistic one, was enough for our simulator goal.…”

A Discrete Choice Approach to Define Individual Parking Choice Behaviour for the Parkagent Model

“…The details of factors identified by [18]- [21] are presented the Table 2. The literature search reveals that limited research has been conducted on studying the influences of parking features other than pricing, such as walking distance and cruising time for parking spaces [10], [16]. In this paper, the parking choice decision is considered to be based on the street characteristics, therefore several parking related characteristics are investigated considering on-street parking.…”