Towards Inferring Welfare Changes from Changes in Curbside Parking Occupancy Rates: A Theoretical Analysis Motivated by SF Park and LA Express Park Cruising For Parking Around a Circle

There has recently been considerable interest in cruising for curbside parking as a major contributor to traffic congestion in the downtown areas of major cities. This paper focuses on the expected search time for a curbside parking space. The literature has employed three different approaches to estimate expected cruising-for-parking time: direct measurement, inference based on the equilibrium condition that (for the marginal parker) the expected cost of curbside parking equals the expected cost of garage parking, and inference based on the observed occupancy rate of curbside parking and an assumed statistical relationship between expected cruising-for-parking time and the curbside parking occupancy rate. The last approach typically obtains estimates of expected cruising-for-parking times that are lower, and with high occupancy rates much lower, than those estimated using the other two approaches. This paper takes a step towards resolving this inconsistency by demonstrating, through computer simulation of cars cruising for parking around a circle in stochastic steady state, that an approximating assumption in the derived statistical relationship between expected cruising-for-parking time and the curbside parking occupancy rate leads to underestimation of average cruising-for-parking time, and at high occupancy rates very considerable underestimation. The paper also identifies several "effects" that contribute to the approximating assumption being an increasingly poor one as the occupancy rate increases.

• Record URL:
  • https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/research-innovation-system-information/documents/final-reports/ca16-2643-finalreport-a11y.pdf
• Record URL:
  • https://merritt.cdlib.org/api/presign-file/ark%253A%252F13030%252Fm5fc00zr/2/producer%252FCA16-2643_FinalReport.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/65701
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1057706875
• Corporate Authors:

  University of California Transportation Center

  U.S. Campus Mail 2614
  Dwight Way
  Berkeley, CA  United States  94720-1782

  California Department of Transportation

  Division of Research, Innovation and System Information
  1727 30th Street, MS 83
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95816
• Authors:
  • Arnott, Richard
  • Williams, Parker
• Publication Date: 2016-12-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Research Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 142p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Curb side parking; Markov processes; Poisson distributions; Queuing theory; Simulation; Stochastic processes; Traffic congestion
• Identifier Terms: SFpark
• Geographic Terms: Los Angeles (California); San Francisco (California)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01690080
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: UC Berkeley Transportation Library
• Report/Paper Numbers: CA16-2643
• Contract Numbers: 65A0528 TO 007
• Files: CALTRANS, BTRIS, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Dec 27 2018 3:43PM