Sensors and the City: Urban Challenges for Parking Occupancy Detection and Pricing

Abstract

Implementing performance parking using demand-driven hourly parking meter rates and real-time occupancy information improves the customer experience and provides more available on-street parking in selected cities across the United States. The implementation of performance parking is not necessarily simple, however, and planners must overcome a host of challenges posed by the urban environment. This paper discusses an approach with the potential to become the state-of-the-practice for developing real-time availability for on-street parking in an urban environment, including how the District Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C., dealt with challenges related to: sensor communication, on-street activity, special events, limited space, broader mobility issues, parking users, coordinating installation, and interagency coordination. Using lessons learned from this project, jurisdictions will be better prepared to deal with their own unique urban challenges, positioning themselves to capture real-time availability and implement performance-based pricing.

Curbspace Management Challenges and Opportunities from Public and Private Sector Perspectives

“…A study by District Department of Transportation (DDOT) identified a range of data collection technologies including GPSenabled cameras, time-lapse cameras, license plate recognition devices, and in-ground sensors (16). Through a series of pilot projects and academic evaluations, the same group of researchers uncovered several limitations to existing parking sensor technology, including prohibitive cost and a considerable number of false positives (17). They also applied predictive modeling to strategically deploy parking assets where they were most needed (18).…”

On-Street Parking Occupancy Inference Based on Payment Transactions

“…SFPark piloted one of the first large-scale deployments of real-time monitoring of on-street parking with 8,200 in-ground magnetometer sensors [16]. While the results from SFPark and similar deployments of in-ground sensors (with an average accuracy-availability of 85%) have been promising [3], [17], the installation and maintenance costs of these sensors are usually high [8], [18].…”

“…Effective parking management, however, relies on reliable and integrated occupancy-payment data at the bay-level [1], [22]. Such data enable city planners and local governments to implement performance-based parking pricing and parking availability forecasting tools, which in turn help improve traffic flow and overall user experience [17], [23]. Furthermore, patterns of on-street parking demand can more accurately be investigated, relying on integrated occupancy-payment data.…”

Parking Assessment in the Context of Growing Construction Activity and Infrastructure Changes: Simulation of Impact Scenarios

“…Substantial research examines parking in urban cities, national parks, and public lands by consideration of various factors impacting transportation planning, urban challenges for parking occupancy detection, overall parking assessment, the role played by social norms, communication responsibility, and institutional environment in regulating parking behaviour and the social impacts of shared transportation [5,7,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Those factors impacting the availability of parking include (i) possible closure of existing kerbside parking due to new public transport infrastructure such as light rails, (ii) increasing demand due to population growth, (iii) increasing freight and servicing activities, (iv) changes to other parking facilities (e.g., closure of existing carparks for developing new residential and commercial buildings), (v) real-time availability for on-street parking in an urban environment, and (vi) the impact of a sharp increase in construction volume (activity) and the development zone's compaction [25].…”