M. Riaz Khan, Luvai F. Motiwalla, Pranav Joshi

(Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell, MA 10854, USA)

 

 

Abstract: This study analyses various parking strategies used in the United States and other countries to manage their parking facilities. While, peculiar parking challenges are dealt with by using unconventional methods, most conventional strategies used today attempt to solve the problem by relying on traditional approaches. Such methods may include expanding parking capacity, investing in parking infrastructure, providing incentives to use public transportation, and penalizing those who violate the parking rules. Across most of the current parking practices, however, is a lack of focus on increasing the utilization factor of the existing capacity. This paper will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of some of these parking systems and will present a technology based real-time predictive model designed to provide current information on availability of parking space. The implementation of the proposed model will be demonstrated by using real cases of two very different cities and a university campus. The concept of increasing the utilization factor, process that yields predictive information, and technology that updates parking availability status in real-time are valuable tools that have potential for application to other cities.

 

 

Key words: smart systems; e-parking; mobile applications

 

JEL codes: L2