Evaluation of a Smart Parking System

This paper documents the methodological approach and findings of an evaluation process for a smart parking application that provides realtime information on parking availability. The initiative is in response to the increased demand for parking spaces in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cultural District and the desire to improve patrons’ parking experiences. Primary data, obtained through semistructured interviews and in-person and online surveys of patrons, were utilized for the stakeholder analysis, baseline data, process evaluation, and outcome evaluation phases. Secondary data that utilized count data obtained from website usage logs were employed for the output evaluation phase. The contributions of the evaluation framework are the insights it provides on how the key challenges created by the unique environment within which the system was deployed were addressed. The framework could also be employed to tackle response-shift bias through a binary system approach that uniquely identifies distinct cohorts of respondents. The report is especially timely given the prohibitive cost of employing a supply-side approach to address parking problems in cities, the ease of replicating the evaluation framework and the product design, and the wealth of information the study provides to the body of knowledge about the evaluation of technological products.