ON-STREET PARKING: EFFECTS ON TRAFFIC CONGESTION

On-street parking manoeuvres are often ignored by traffic management schemes, but they are a key cause of congestion, This paper reports on a study of how certain parking layouts are generating unforeseen problems. Data for the study were collected in Greater Manchester. The on-street parking types observed were classified into: (1) legal parallel parking; (2) legal angular parking; and (3) illegal parking, where vehicles are not parked in legally designated parking spaces on the road. Two sites were selected for study, on relatively busy roads serving retail and business activities. To identify the details of the characteristics of parking manoeuvres, surveys using video cameras were conducted in the sites for over seven hours. The paper discusses data collection, manoeuvre patterns for different parking types, parking manoeuvre times and their frequency distributions, and the potential impacts of parking manoeuvres on moving traffic. Tables give parking stalls and road carriageway characteristics, and detail leaving manoeuvre patterns and times for different parking patterns, also entering manoeuvre times for angle parking. The different parking manoeuvre patterns observed are influenced by many factors, including parking type, travel direction, presence of parked vehicles, driver preferences, and traffic conditions.