Smart Parking

Project description

Smart Parking Management: A Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District Parking Field Test and Research Evaluation

Parking problems are universal in the United States and abroad. Parking can be particularly challenging in dense regions like the San Francisco Bay Area, where parking has reached or exceeded capacity at many of the 31 BART stations with parking facilities.  Smart parking could provide a cost-effective tool to maximize existing parking at these transit stations.

To more closely examine smart parking as a potential solution to alleviate BART’s parking issues, in December 2004, California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) researchers in conjunction with Caltrans, the BART District, ParkingCarma™, and the Quixote Corporation launched a field test of a smart parking system at the Rockridge BART station in Oakland, where parking demand is very high.

The Rockridge station is adjacent to Highway 24, an important commute corridor from the East Bay to downtown Oakland and San Francisco. Researchers observed that regular unpaid parking typically filled around 7:30 a.m. on weekdays. They also observed that each morning, more than 30 cars would cycle through the lot looking for parking and ultimately leave. Researchers thus saw an opportunity to apply smart parking technologies with the goal of expanding effective parking capacity, transit ridership, and revenues.

The smart parking system included underground traffic sensors that counted the vehicles entering and exiting the station's reserved lot. The sensors relayed the information to a central system, which kept a master tally of available parking. In turn, the computer relayed the real-time information to two changeable message signs (CMS) on Highway 24 to alert drivers to the availability of parking spaces. The system also allowed travelers to check availability and reserve spaces by phone, the Internet, and other electronic communication devices.

Researchers targeted occasional BART users and non-BART riders. Participants could either: 1) make advanced reservations via ParkingCarma™ (phone or Internet) or 2) after seeing that a space is available via the CMS, drive directly to an available BART parking space and call ParkingCarma to register their vehicle that same day.

Researchers used "before" and "after" surveys and focus groups to evaluate the travel effects, economic potential, and system technology of the field test.

The launch of the field test marked the culmination of the Phase One Smart Parking Feasibility Analysis. Major findings from Phase One included the following:

·        Smart parking systems implemented worldwide reduce delays and improve parking convenience. Commuters are particularly receptive to smart parking systems in conjunction with transit, where real-time information may be critical to catching a train. Increases in transit use and revenues from more effective use of existing parking can be significant.

·        Focus group feedback suggested that BART commuters are frustrated with parking shortages and thus may be receptive to a system that permits pre-trip or en-route BART parking reservations.

·        Extensive technology testing during the feasibility analysis indicated that smart parking sensory technology is capable of accurate parking counts (within one percent) when properly placed.

·        Survey analysis indicated a potential market for a daily paid parking service among new riders with relatively high incomes, high auto availability, and variable work schedules and/or locations. Nine percent of respondents said that parking shortages at the Rockridge station limit their transit use, 15 percent of respondents were interested in daily paid parking, and 28 percent said they would use BART more often as a result.

The final phase of the field test includes the completion of the user evaluation, economic and institutional assessments, and scoping the expansion of the smart parking pilot project along a transit corridor in the Bay Area.

Smart Parking Management 2005-2006 Project Description   

Learn More

ITS Decision: Parking Systems Technologies

MobileInfo.com

http://www.mobileinfo.com/News_2001/Issue49/SmartParking.htm

Smart Cards and Terminals

http://www.smartcards.net/

Victoria Transport Policy Institute: Transportation Cost and Benefit Analysis – Parking Costs

http://www.vtpi.org/tca/tca0504.pdf

SmartPark: Portland, Oregon

http://www.portlandonline.com/smartpark/

California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways

http://www.path.berkeley.edu/PATH/Research/Featured/120804/smart-park.html