Minimizing Parking Search Time on Urban University Campuses through Proactive Class Assignment

Abstract

Parking search time is a key factor in evaluation of the efficiency of parking facility operation and management. This study introduced an optimization algorithm to demonstrate the feasibility of minimizing the parking search time of daily commuters on urban university campuses. An activity-based model was developed to assess the variation in parking search time due to different classroom assignment methods. This model was able to investigate the effect of different arrival and departure conditions as well as different parking search methods. The campus of the University of Akron, in Akron, Ohio, was selected as a case study to show the reduction of parking search time under a variety of conditions by using the proposed optimization approach. According to the results, with this approach parking demand can be efficiently distributed and search time can be effectively reduced by about 20%.