Characteristics of Parking Lots Located along Main Roads in Terms of Cargo Truck Requirements: A Case Study of Poland

Abstract

The issue related to parking lots has a multidimensional nature. For the purposes of the article, the analysis covered 113 parking lots located directly next to national roads in the Mazovian Voivodeship (Poland), which is similar in terms of economic development and conditions of the linear infrastructure to other countries in Central Europe. The conducted research included analyzing the correlation of parameters in individual parking lots and those related to nearby roads (traffic volume, technical quality) and the type of area in which they occurred (population density). In addition, the presented results describe the capacity of parking in the analyzed region in terms of the number of available parking slots for heavy goods vehicles, the size of the additional operating area, and the presence of security-related elements (fencing, lighting, physical protection, monitoring). The analysis demonstrated a correlation between some parameters (type of nearby road and security rs = 0.35, area size and number of slots rs = 0.35) and significant differences in results between private and public parking lots (average number of slots 18 versus 34, percent of most secured parkings 45% versus 69%). The obtained innovative results can be used by public institutions and entities providing parking services to reorganize the space at parking places and to conduct more effective analyses from the point of view of future investments in infrastructure accompanying the public road network.