The Influence of Spent Time at Park-and-Ride Facility on the Travel Behavior of Workers and Shoppers

Abstract

In this paper, the Park-and-Ride (P&R) facilities are considered as short time activities in the daily activity plans of travelers. The purpose of integrating the P&R system into the daily activity plans is its benefits of reducing the undesirable effects of using private vehicles, such as pollution and traffic congestion, in the city center. Previous works did not extensively study the influence of the P&R operational strategy on the travel behavior of workers and shoppers; while this study not only covers this underexamined area of research but focuses on the impact of extending the duration of the P&R facility on traveler mobility. The study is conducted by integrating 13 P&R facilities in Budapest, Hungary into the daily activity plans belonging to the traveler groups of workers and shoppers. The study points out the changes in the travel pattern when P&R is enforced to be used by travelers to hinder travelers from entering the city center or park their cars on street. Besides, a comparison is made with a previously published work to study the impact of changing the P&R activity time and the existing condition where no P&R is provided. The multi-agent transport simulation (MATSim) software is used to conduct the simulation. The results support that using the P&R system increases the total travel time, decreases the number of Vehicle-Miles-Traveled (VMT), and changes the travel pattern. Moreover, the results reveal 5.75 minutes increments in the average trip time, when the P&R duration is increased from 4.5 minutes to 10 minutes. The result led to the conclusion that the operational strategy of the P&R facilities impacts the mobility of travelers, and the P&R system changes the travel pattern, such as the duration of peak periods and the number of vehicles en route.