Policies for parking pricing derived from a queueing perspective

Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Operations Research Center, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-93).Drivers in urban neighborhoods who cruise streets, seeking inexpensive on-street parking create a significant fraction of measured traffic congestion. The solution to this problem is to reduce the total traffic volume including cruising traffic by implementing a congestion pricing scheme: the imposition of a usage fee on a limited-capacity resource during times of high demand. We review the history of two alternatives for implementing the scheme: road pricing, which involves cordoning off a section of the center city and imposing a fee on all vehicles that enter it; and parking pricing, which increases the costs of on-street and perhaps off-street parking. We find that parking pricing is often a needed companion to road pricing, since in many environments a significant fraction of drivers are simply cruising, looking for inexpensive on-street parking. However, the effectiveness of parking pricing is difficult to analyze quantitatively because vehicles cruising for parking are not clearly distinguishable from other vehicles. We view that the pool of drivers cruising at any time can be modeled as a queue, where 'queue service' is the act of parking in a recently vacated parking space and queue discipline is SIRO - Service In Random Order. We develop a queueing model of such driver behavior, allowing impatient drivers to abandon the queue and to settle for expensive off-street parking. We then relate the model to the economic theory of congestion pricing, arguing that price differentials between on-street and off-street parking should be reduced in order to reduce traffic congestion. Using the "Parking Queue" model and collected data, we estimate that less than half of cruising drivers successfully find a vacant spot and the number of cruising vehicles is 10-20% of the total number of parking spaces during peak hours in the most congested area in Boston.by Katsunobu Sasanuma.S.M.S.M.in Technology and Polic

Congestion Pricing: A Parking Queue Model

Congestion pricing imposes a usage fee on a public resource during times of high demand. Road pricing involves cordoning off a section of the city and imposing a fee on vehicles that enter it. Parking pricing increases the costs of on-street and perhaps off-street parking. Following an historical review, we develop a new queueing model of the parking pricing problem, recognizing that many urban drivers are simply looking for available on-street parking. Often, reducing the number of such “cruising drivers” would reduce urban road congestion dramatically, perhaps as effectively as cordoning off the center city

Avian Influenza Pre-Pandemic Procurement: Recommendations for the US Federal Government

Many experts fear that an influenza pandemic will occur in the near future. There is currently much debate about how the US should best prepare. Previous US responses give only minimal guidance as the last major influenza pandemic occurred nearly a century ago—before flu viruses had ever been isolated

Asymptotic Analysis for Systems with Deferred Abandonment

This short paper concerns the analysis of the M/M/k queueing system with customer abandonment. In this system, service managers provide a finite buffer space, which is a waiting area that prevents customers from abandoning the system. Abandonment of the system can occur from reneging (exiting from the queue while waiting), and/or balking (leaving the system without waiting). We derive an analytical expression to represent the impact of the buffer space capacity on the delay probability and the abandonment probability for a system with deferred abandonment. The result indicates the provision of the buffer space in a large system could only increase the delay probability while the abandonment probability remains unchanged. Despite the benevolent intentions of service managers, providing a buffer space may exacerbate the performance of larger systems

Queueing and Markov chain decomposition method to analyze Markov-modulated Markov chains

We present a Queueing and Markov chain decomposition method based on the total expectation theorem. Our decomposition method requires partial flow to be conserved, which we call a termination scheme. This scheme is useful when deriving analytical formulas for complex queueing systems. As an example, we apply our method to derive an exact set of stationary equations for the probability generating functions of decomposed chains of Markov-modulated continuous-time Markov chains.Non UBCUnreviewedAuthor affiliation: Stony Brook UniversityResearche

Evaluating the Dynamic Impact of Theater Performances and Sports Events on Parking Demand in Downtown Pittsburgh

The number of drivers using parking facilities (parking demand) in downtown Pittsburgh is highly variable throughout business operating hours, which makes an efficient operation of parking facilities challenging and results in congestion around the facilities. In this study, we applied an event-based ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model to the parking data set provided from one of the parking facilities, the Theater Square Garage in downtown Pittsburgh. We demonstrated that our model achieved a high R-squared value during time periods when parking demand is highly variable. Using the model, we revealed the dynamic (time-dependent) impact of theater performances and sports events on parking demand. This dynamic information can help facility managers appropriately adjust their operating settings (e.g., the number of staff and fee structure) during surge or vacant time periods accordingly. This model is applicable to various businesses in downtown areas that have increased customer flow from theater performances and sports events, not only parking garages

Urban Vehicle Congestion Pricing: A Review

ABSTRACT Drivers in urban neighborhoods who cruise streets, seeking inexpensive on-street parking create a significant fraction of measured traffic congestion. The solution to this problem is to reduce the total traffic volume including cruising traffic by implementing a congestion pricing scheme: the imposition of a usage fee on a limited-capacity resource during times of high demand. We review the history of two alternatives for implementing congestion pricing scheme: road pricing (RP), which involves cordoning off a section of the center city and imposing a fee on all vehicles that enter it; and parking pricing (PP), which increases the costs of on-street and perhaps off-street parking. PP is needed in many environments where a significant fraction of drivers are simply cruising, looking for inexpensive on-street parking. In this paper, we propose a simple method to estimate the number of cruising drivers and the optimal parking price. Our survey in Boston shows that the number of cruising vehicles reaches 10-20% of the total number of parking spaces during peak hours and the required congestion charge (CC) for onstreet parking is at least about $1/ hour