Comparative Study of Legal and Illegal On-Street Parking Behaviour in CBD Area—A Case Study of Surat City

Abstract

The sharp contradiction between the rapidly growing number of vehicles and limited on-street parking space has resulted in the phenomenon of “difficult and disorderly parking”, which has adverse impacts on performance of urban roads. Propensity towards usage of private vehicles coupled with ineffective public transport has led to unmanageable demand for parking, especially in CBD with observance of illegal parking every day. In order to formulate enforcement measures to reduce occupancy of illegal parking, it becomes imperative to investigate behavioural aspects associated with illegal parking. To comprehend this objective, two busy urban streets in CBD area of Surat city were selected for comparative assessment of legal and illegal parking demand. Preliminary, on-street parking inventory was carried out by licence plate method at 1 h interval during business hours to determine peak parking hours. The survey observed dominancy of two wheel-motorized vehicles on both sides for both roads, and hence all analyses were carried out in terms of two wheel-motorized vehicles. Microscopic parking inventory was then carried for both legal and illegal parking demands at 10 min data monitoring interval using licence plate survey method during peak parking hours. Statistical check on demand accumulation revealed significant difference in legal and illegal parking demand. To probe further, microscopic behavioural analysis was carried by obtaining percentage repetition of parked vehicles (PRPVs) between two successive sets of observations for different data monitoring intervals. Paired t-test at 5% significance level between legal and illegal PRV values for different data monitoring intervals revealed isotropic behaviour between legal and illegal parking regimes. Further, efficient utilization of the available parking space in terms of turnover in 2 W per hour was analysed for each data frequency which indicated high value for high data frequency and vice versa. However, efficiency in terms of turnover was varying for both the demands with poor value for illegal parking. Research suggests that illegal problem in Surat city is a behavioural problem, and henceforth, stringent enforcement measures need to be formulated to reduce its occupancy.