An Integrated Model of Park-And-Ride Facilities for Sustainable Urban Mobility

The Park and Ride (P&R) System is part of a set of parking policies provided by Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) that have been used in developing efficient, safe and environmentally friendly solutions to reduce the undesirable effects of private vehicles in Central Business District (CBD). In fact, the P&Rs are allocated near public transportation stations to ease transfer from a private vehicle to a public transportation mode. Therefore, the P&R system is considered as an alternative transport mode in which the location and potential demand of each facility are fundamental components to be evaluated within sustainable urban planning. The paper proposes an integrated model of P&R facilities based on estimate the potential demand through a mathematical model of the seven park-and-ride (P&R) facilities (designated A to G) in Cuenca city, Ecuador. The developed integrated model includes two cost functions: one is the P&R mode, and the second is the private car mode. Additionally, a SUMP is integrated into the model as a data collection source in order to find the required parameters for the cost functions and origin–destination (O-D) matrix of private vehicles. The results showed that three out of the seven P&R facilities (P&R C, P&R G, and P&R A) had the highest demand (70% of the overall demand). Consequently, these three P&R facilities were studied separately using the same developed model, and the demand proved to be the highest for P&R facility “C” (39% out of 70%). In conclusion, SUMPs, as a methodology for data collection and a mathematical model, proved to be an effective integrated method for evaluating the most attractive P&R location based on the potential demand.