A review of urban car parking models

Abstract

Car parking is an issue of significance both at the local and at the strategic level of planning. Parking policy and supply play a major role in the management of transportation systems in dense urban areas. Although the policies that govern the provision and operation of parking facilities are recognized to have an important bearing on the operation of urban transport systems, decisions have often been made on an ad hoc basis, without proper integration with other elements of transport systems analysis. In order for parking policy decisions to be well founded, the analysis of parking behaviour and the effects of parking policies should be fully integrated with the other elements of the transport planning and modelling process. To assist this interaction this paper presents a state‐of‐the‐art review of models of parking as an integral component of urban transport systems. The paper develops model groupings by relating their main objectives: choice, allocation and interaction models. It then discusses the relationship between these structures pointing to a hierarchical suite of models for parking analysis. Models at each level in the hierarchy can be directed at particular policy questions. Taken together as a linked system they can provide a realistic and comprehensive representation of the entire parking system for an area. The hierarchical approach allows the advantages of each model type to be tailored to particular policy scenarios.