Exploring the Economic, Environmental, and Travel Implications of Changes in Parking Choices Due to Driverless Vehicles

Driverless automated vehicles (AV) could significantly alter the proximity value of parking, due to an AV’s ability to drop passengers off at their destination, search for cheaper parking, and return to pick up their occupants when needed. This study estimates the potential impact of driverless vehicles on vehicle miles traveled (VMT), energy use, emissions, parking revenue, and daily parking cost savings in the city of Seattle, Washington from changes in parking decisions using an agent-based simulation model. Each AV considers the operational cost to drive to each parking spot, the associated daily parking cost, the parking availability at each location, and ranks each choice in terms of economic cost. The simulation results indicate that VMT and energy use could increase by as much as 2.5 and 2.1 percent, respectively. The results also suggest that as AV penetration rates increase, parking lot revenues decrease significantly and could likely decline to the point where operating a lot is unsustainable economically, if no parking demand management policies are implemented. This could lead to changes in land use as amount of parking needed in urban areas is reduced. . The initial results suggest driverless valet vehicles will considerably alter the economics of parking, which will affect energy, emissions, VMT, and urban form in cities. This analysis provides an illustration of the first-order effects of AVs in an urban environment, and could help inform near and long- term policy and infrastructure decisions during the transition to automation.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC70 Standing Committee on Transportation Energy.
• Authors:
  • Harper, Corey D
  • Hendrickson, Chris
  • Samaras, Constantine
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 8p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Economic and social factors; Environmental impacts; Greenhouse gases; Intelligent vehicles; Parking; Parking demand; Parking fees; Travel behavior
• Geographic Terms: Seattle (Washington)
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01657417
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-03126
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jan 24 2018 9:24AM