Simulation Analysis on the Evaluation of Parking Reservation System

In general, information provision is expected to contribute to disperse traffic demand from congested roads or car parks to less congested ones. On the other hand, information may not improve traffic condition if all roads are congested or all car parks are fully occupied. In such circumstances, we should try to disperse traffic demands spatially as well as temporally. In this study, Parking Reservation (PR) system is proposed to disperse parking demands temporally. The concept of PR system is similar to the reservation of popular restaurants. If the car park is popular and we know it is full in advance, then we do not have to go and check the availability of the car park. To evaluate the effects of PR system, we should clarify how drivers would behave under such systems. For this purpose, user responses under PR system are collected and evaluated using questionnaire-based analysis. Then, a road traffic simulation model with parking choice behaviour under PR system is created. Through various case studies, effects of the system from various points of views such as car park users, drivers, car park managers as well as society are discussed. Through the case studies, we found that 1) the effect of PR system may vary largely on where reserved car parks are located, 2) there is no ‘hunting’ phenomenon in introducing the system, i.e the larger amount of drivers are interested in using reserved car parks, the more benefit the society will obtain, and 3) PR system is really helpful for drivers who need to arrive at their destination on time.