Optimal Siting of Park and Ride Facilities Using Geospatial Approach

الزيادة المستمرة في ملكية السيارات هي واحدة من الاسباب الرئيسية في الاختناقات المروربة حول العالم وخصوصا في مراكز المدن، محطات الركن والركوب هو احدى الوسائل التي تمكن مستخدمي السيارات الخاصة لركن سيارتهم في الاماكن مخصصة لها ومن ثم استخدام وسائل النقل العام لغرض اكمال رحلاتهم دون ان يتسبب ذلك في الاختناقات المرورية، في هذا البحث ركزنا على تشخيص اهم العوامل التي تحدد هذه المحطات كالطلب على النقل وتوفر الطرق الرئيسية وتوفر المساحة المناسبة لها، بعد ذلك استخدمنا عملية التحليل الهرمي (AHP) لغرض معرفة تاثير كل عامل على تلك المحطات ومن ثم ادراج تلك العوامل مع مدى تأثيرها في برنامج الـGIS لتحديد الاماكن المناسبة لتلك المحطات.The significant increase in car ownership has been recognized as one of the main reasons for traffic congestion worldwide, especially in city centers. Park-and-ride (P&R) facilities, which are car parks where users can adjust to public transportation to carry on their journeys, have long been used as an effective solution to mitigate congestion issues without affecting traffic demand. However, literature on the optimal localization of these facilities using geospatial approaches are still emerging. Feasible locations of P&R facilities are of crucial importance not only for users but also to local authorities and the environment. The aim of this paper is to explore the significance of several factors affecting optimal locations of P&R using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and to propose a multi-criteria geospatial approach to locate optimal park and ride facilities in Karbala, Iraq. Three key aspects are tested in the localization process, including users’ coverage, accessibility to major roads, and area availability using Geospatial Tool. The case study on the holy city of Karbala in Iraq was implemented and the results show that the optimization model is proved to be powerful in providing more optimal locations of P&R facilities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the practical implications, research limitations and future research directions

An Approach to Comprehensively Evaluate Potential Park and Ride Facilities

ABSTRACTA park and ride facility provides an option to car drivers to park their cars and switch to public transportation for the remaining portions of their trips. Although park and ride has been implemented in many cities in the United States and integrated with different modes of transportation, no comprehensive approach has been developed in published literature to assess the feasibility of a potential park and ride site. This research proposes a comprehensive approach, which consists of the following tasks, to evaluate potential park and ride facilities: 1Site location analysis2Bus system reliability analysis3Parking supply and usage analysis4Mode choice model5User demand and ridership estimation6Cost estimation and economic impacts analysisThe application of the proposed tasks was demonstrated through a case study of a site in the City of El Paso, Texas

Applying Geographic Information System Methodologies to Estimate the Catchment Area Accessibility of Park-and-Ride Facilities

Park and Ride (P&R) systems play a potentially important role in transportation planning to decrease the undesirable effects of private cars in the Central Business District (CBD). In order to achieve this objective, an essential component to be investigated is the catchment areas of these P&R facilities. However, a limited number of studies have applied the Geographic Information System (GIS) to study the spatial boundary accessibility of the catchment areas of P&R. This study aims to analyze the spatial boundary accessibility of the catchment areas of P&R facilities using three GIS methods. The first method uses geometric shapes to analyze the catchment areas of P&R facilities according to regular shapes, such as parabolas or circles. The market area is the second method used to analyze travel time via the tool ArcGIS Network Analyst to determine the catchment area of P&Rs. Finally, the dynamic accessibility method determines how accessible a facility can be through a study of the spatial boundary accessibility of P&Rs based on the travel time and distance between zones and P&R. The result shows that the static methods identify the spatial boundary accessibility through the calculation of the size of the shape of each P&R separately, while the dynamic method identifies the level of accessibility in detail for all P&R and also the accessibility of each zone to reach a facility. In conclusion, the dynamic accessibility method presents better accuracy than static methods in order to estimate the spatial boundary accessibility of the catchment area of P&Rs

Travel Behavior of Car Travelers with the Presence of Park-and-Ride Facilities and Autonomous Vehicles

Travelers' behavior is predicted based on their individual preferences. People search for alternatives to maximize their benefit from doing activities, such as increasing the activity time by minimizing the travel time. Traffic congestion and the scarcity of parking spaces in the city center motivate the decision-makers to encourage travelers to use the park-and-ride (P&R) system. An evaluation concerning the impact of using the P&R system on the travel behavior of car users is conducted. Some of the existing P&R facilities are incorporated into the daily activity plans of car travelers to produce new daily activity plans (i.e., P&R facility is considered an activity). By using the Multi-Agent Transport Simulation (MATSim) open-source tool, simulations of the daily activity plans including the P&R system and autonomous vehicles (AVs) are conducted. The study examines three scenarios: (1) a simulation of the existing condition, (2) a simulation of the daily activity plans of the travelers with the P&R system, and (3) a simulation of the daily activity plans of the travelers with the P&R system and AVs. The results show that using the P&R system increases the overall travel time compared with the existing conditions, and the use of AVs as a transport mode impacts the existing modal share as follows: 64 % of the car users switch to AVs, while 15 % of the car users switch to public transport. The output of this study might be used by policy-makers in parking pricing and the location of the P&R facilities

Processing multiple image streams for real-time monitoring of parking lots

We present a system to detect parked vehicles in a typical parking complex using multiple streams of images captured through IP connected devices. Compared to traditional object detection techniques and machine learning methods, our approach is significantly faster in detection speed in the presence of multiple image streams. It is also capable of comparable accuracy when put to test against existing methods. And this is achieved without the need to train the system that machine learning methods require. Our approach uses a combination of psychological insights obtained from human detection and an algorithm replicating the outcomes of a SVM learner but without the noise that compromises accuracy in the normal learning process. Performance enhancements are made on the algorithm so that it operates well in the context of multiple image streams. The result is faster detection with comparable accuracy. Our experiments on images captured from a local test site shows very promising results for an implementation that is not only effective and low cost but also opens doors to new parking applications when combined with other technologies.<br /

Ranking conceptual locations for a park-and-ride parking lot using EDAS method

Prilikom planiranja lokacije za Park&Ride (skraćeno P&R) parkirališta treba istovremeno uzeti u obzir ekonomske, društvene, urbane, okolišne i druge čimbenike. Kako bi se navedena zadaća pojednostavnila, odabrane su tri idejne lokacije za P&R parkirališta u blizini zapadne obilaznice grada Vilniusa (Litva). Cilj je ovog rada odrediti ključne kriterije koji unapređuju uspješno funkcioniranje osobnog i javnog prijevoza te rangirati navedene idejne lokacije primjenom višekriterijske metode odlučivanja EDAS (engl. Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution).The decision regarding the location of a Park-and-Ride (P&R) parking lot must be taken by simultaneously considering economic, social, urban, environmental, and other factors. This task is simplified by selection of three conceptual locations for P&R parking lots near the Vilnius western bypass. The aim of the paper is to identify key criteria that promote successful functioning of the private and public transport systems, and to rank these conceptual locations using the Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) multiple-criteria decision-making method

Enhancing Equity in Public Transportation Using Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Optimization

Public transportation is a vital part of urban living. For instance, public transportation services help reduce road congestion, oil consumption and air pollution, and they serve people who need to travel throughout urban environments at the same time do not have access to private vehicles. The latter aspect is an important matter of social justice. Therefore, it is important to understand why the interest in equity in transport is growing, why public transportation should favor the transport disadvantaged, and why analyses of equity measurement and improvement are needed. Measuring the level of access to public transportation among the transport disadvantaged provides a theoretical basis for analyzing potential improvements in access by adjusting public transportation facility locations. This research will focus on modeling approaches used in establishing public transportation infrastructure and systems. Using GIS and spatial optimization models, the level of access to public transportation in terms of equity will be evaluated and improvement of the level of access will be attempted by offering new service stop locations. To this end, using the Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP), the optimal locations of potential facilities to cover equity favoring origin- and destination-based demand are identified. This research finally provides a set of optimal service stop locations maximizing coverage of origin- and destination-based demand simultaneously through implementation of a bi-objective model, applied to the City of Hilliard, Ohio

The Theory of Dynamic Public Transit Priority with Dynamic Stochastic Park and Ride

Public transit priority is very important for relieving traffic congestion. The connotation of dynamic public transit priority and dynamic stochastic park and ride is presented. Based on the point that the travel cost of public transit is not higher than the travel cost of car, how to determine the level of dynamic public transit priority is discussed. The traffic organization method of dynamic public transit priority is introduced. For dynamic stochastic park and ride, layout principle, scale, and charging standard are discussed. Traveler acceptability is high through the analysis of questionnaire survey. Dynamic public transit priority with dynamic stochastic park and ride has application feasibility

Land Use as a Criterion for the Selection of the Trip Starting Locations of Park and Ride Mode Travelers

In the attempt to study Light Rail Transit (LRT) systems, and their necessary underlying components, such as Park and Ride (P&amp;R) sub-systems, this article aims to showcase the importance of land-use as a criterion in the selection of trip starting locations (i.e., points), that can potentially be used as the basis for quantitative studies on LRT and P&amp;R systems. In order to achieve this goal, a method is introduced for the selection of locations that produce P&amp;R mode trips based on the land-use attributes of sub-zones or neighborhoods, as they are included in Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). Those land-use attributes are utilized as sub-criteria for the classification and valid selection of trip starting locations out of a broader dataset of available locations. As a second supportive technique that needs to be utilized for this study, an algorithm is introduced, which allows us to test the effectiveness of the method and the importance of land use as a criterion. The algorithm enables the calculation and comparison of the attributes of the trips to be followed by P&amp;R mode users starting from selected trip starting locations for each zone in a city and having as destinations the several available P&amp;R facilities. Results for the methods introduced in this article are showcased based on a case study on the mid-sized city of Cuenca, Ecuador, in which, several metrics, such as traveling times considering different traffic scenarios, are examined for the potential P&amp;R mode trips as they emerge from real-world data