Intelligent transportation systems and parking management: implementation potential in a Brazilian city

Abstract

The problems arising from the gap between demand and supply of parking spaces are becoming increasingly acute in most towns and cities. These difficulties are noted mainly in more densely populated areas that are poorly served by public transportation facilities and where the planning and use of existing areas is inadequate. The importance of controlling parking spaces as an integral element of the traffic and trip demand management process, together with the need to ensure a close-linked conceptual approach, has been defined and defended for quite some time. This paper presents a methodological procedure that underpins the feasibility of implementing an integrated parking system based on telematics resources. This procedure includes the development of a logic architecture for processing and transferring data and information. In order to test the proposed procedure, a medium-sized Brazilian town in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region—Niterói—was considered. A specific survey area covering some two square kilometres with a significant number of parking facilities was selected for the analysis. The results expected through the implementation of the proposed system indicate that the resulting benefits would include possibly lower levels of traffic congestion in the area under consideration, while also reducing air pollution.