Parking Availability Research Articles

Urban Parks as Perceived by City Residents with Mobility Difficulties: A Qualitative Study with In-Depth Interviews.

Urban green spaces make an invaluable contribution to the health and well-being of all city residents. Therefore, urban park quality and accessibility are crucial factors in stimulating physical and mental health benefits. This study aimed to assess the quality of urban parks and their accessibility as reported by people with mobility difficulties (seniors, blind and partially sighted people). Four key features of a place (accessibility and linkages, comfort and image, uses and activities and sociability) were considered in an in-depth-interviews (IDI) and “walk-and-talk” interviews. Study results indicate a problem of accessibility of urban parks for people with mobility difficulties (uneven gravel surfaces). However, non-physical aspects of park visits (social activities, cultural events, place branding) were reported as essential factors in explaining the motivation for park visits. Despite individual preferences, experience or reported difficulties, all respondents’ attitudes towards park trips were positive. Therefore, we assume that accessibility is more than just physical comfort. Cultural and social activities play an important role in motivating people with a disability to visit a park.

VISUAL PERCEPTION OF URBAN GREENING IN PUBLIC PARKS: EVIDENCE FROM TRABZON CITY, TURKEY

Urban parks are of the most important components of green infrastructure in cities. Number and size of green areas decrease especially due to increase in population and urbanization. Urban parks rank first among green areas that increase and improve the quality of life in cities. Urban parks are places where people can commune with nature and spend their free time for leisure. Accessibility of urban parks, their recreational facilities and space identity are very effective on satisfaction of users. This study is about EYOF Park in Trabzon city. Visual perception analysis carried out using landscape quality criteria. User satisfaction was analyzed with statistical analyses. As a result of analysis, the highest correlations were found between “color” and “texture” (r = 0.790). The most important reasons of park visit was found to be for “relaxing” purposes, moreover “lack of car park” was stated as the most important problem for the park.

Appointment structure in Malaysian healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic: The public perspective

IntroductionEvidence shows physical distancing of one metre or more is important to reduce person-to-person SARS-CoV-2 transmission. This puts the Malaysian public healthcare system to a test when overcrowding has always been an issue. A new clinical appointment structure was proposed in the Malaysian public healthcare system amidst the pandemic to reduce the transmission risk. We aim to explore the general public’s view on the proposed clinic appointment structure.MethodsA cross-sectional anonymous web-based survey was conducted between 10th September 2020 and 30th November 2020. The survey was open to Malaysian aged 18 years and older via various social media platforms. The questionnaire consists of sociodemographic, experience of utilising healthcare facilities, and views on clinic appointment structure.ResultsA total of 1,144 complete responses were received. The mean age was 41.4 ± 12.4 years and more than half of the respondents had a preference for public healthcare. Among them, 77.1% reported to have a clinical appointment scheduled in the past. Less than a quarter experienced off-office hour appointments, mostly given by private healthcare. 70.2% answered they would arrive earlier if they were given a specific appointment slot at a public healthcare facility, as parking availability was the utmost concern. Majority hold positive views for after office hour clinical appointments, with 68.9% and 63.2% agreed for weekend and weekday evening appointment, respectively. The top reason of agreement was working commitment during office hours, while family commitment and personal resting time were the main reasons for disagreeing with off-office hour appointments.ConclusionWe found that majority of our respondents chose to come early instead of arriving on time which disrupts the staggered appointment system and causes over crowdedness. Our findings also show that the majority of our respondents accept off-office hour appointments. This positive response suggests that off-office hour appointments may have a high uptake amongst the public and thus be a possible solution to distribute the patient load. Therefore, this information may help policy makers to initiate future plans to resolve congestions within public health care facilities which in turn eases physical distancing during the pandemic.

Enhancing Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept through Social Interaction and Crowdsourcing applications

The present paper considers the rapid growth of private transport usage in urban environments, that is linked with increased traffic congestion and imbalance between parking supply and demand, to promote novel Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concepts towards overcoming both issues. Based on the findings of two research projects, SocialCar and SocialPARK, focusing on supporting social interaction of travelers and the proper use of crowd-coursed information and data, sustainable solutionsfor relieving urban congestion and vital parking management are being presented. Projects findings, proved to have a significant impact on increasing interest for carpooling and PT combined usage, while the parking availability sharing information seems attractive for the majority of citizens. Combining both concepts, and exploiting the “wisdom of the crowd” for providing mobility and parking solutions in real time conditions, under a monitored and accurate frame of operation, adds on the creation of a novel value-chain for mobility and parking towards sustainability.

From Search-for-Parking to Dispatch-for-Parking in an Era of Connected and Automated Vehicles: A Macroscopic Approach

The advantage of self-relocation of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) can eliminate heavy searching-for-parking traffic in areas with limited parking availability. However, the floating trips will exacerbate local traffic congestion and parking competition if relocated CAVs are not well distributed in the network. To address these issues, this paper proposes a centralized dispatching-for-parking system to dynamically dispatch CAVs between different regions to optimize parking resource utilization and traffic distribution. A macroscopic modeling approach is presented with the consideration of mixed traffic flows of human-driven vehicles (HDVs) and CAVs. The system dynamics are modeled with the representation of the macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD) in a multiregion road network. The objective of the system is to minimize the total network delay, which is formulated by the framework of model predictive control (MPC). Results of the numerical experiments in a two-region network show that the approach improves the performance of system operation and alleviates traffic congestion and imbalance between parking supply and demand in downtown areas. The sensitivity analysis on the level of CAV penetration reveals that the total network delay gradually decreases with the penetration increase, and HDVs benefit more from the MPC controller. The study demonstrates the applicability and implication of the dispatching-for-parking system in an era of CAVs.

Slow violence in public parks in the U.S.: can we escape our troubling past?

ABSTRACT Previous studies on environmental justice have paid limited attention to procedural injustice in parks. Using the concept of slow violence, this paper interrogates the ideological and philosophical foundations of American public parks in order to unearth enduring structural patterns of procedural injustice. The paper illustrates that community, state, and national parks in the U.S. were founded upon the elitism, eugenics, and racism of affluent and powerful White conservationists and social reformers. To materialize their own interests, the White elite defined, built, and managed public parks by displacing, excluding, and criminalizing the Indigenous, the poor, people of color, and immigrants. As such, many of today’s park injustices, such as inequitable park availability and quality, gentrification, and non-visitation of people of color, originated from the beginning of the public parks in the 19th century and have been sustained ever since. The paper discusses corrective justice strategies to alleviate the enduring slow violence in parks.

Implementation of Low Resource Parking Information System Prototype Based on Wireless Sensor Network

In everyday life, humans need vehicles to support various activities. One thing that must be considered is the issue of parking availability in public places such as office buildings, campuses, shopping centers. In the previous technology, a parking system using automatic hydraulics was made. However, it requires a complex construction. In this study, a wireless parking availability information system was developed. This system is built using a ZigBee communication network. The installed low-cost light sensor will detect the presence or absence of a car occupying a parking slot. Then every driver who enters the parking area can find out information on parking availability. Based on the test results, the system can automatically provide information related to the status of the parking lot (filled or empty) with a sensor threshold (light intensity) of 153 cd. The maximum delay generated by the system during testing is 2.518462ms. The optimal data transmission distance is 40 meters.

Disparities in Self-Reported Neighborhood Park Access Among Adults in Philadelphia

Disparities in Self-Reported Neighborhood Park Access Among Adults in Philadelphia

Parking Occupancy Prediction Method Based on Multi Factors and Stacked GRU-LSTM

With the development of society and the continuous advancement of urbanization, motor vehicles have increased rapidly, which exacerbates the imbalance between parking supply and demand. Therefore, it is very important to excavate knowledge from historical parking data and forecast the parking volume in different time periods so as to optimize parking resource utilization and improve traffic conditions. This paper proposes a new hybrid model that stacks gated recurrent unit (GRU) and long-short term memory (LSTM). The proposed stacked GRU-LSTM model combines LSTM’s advantage in prediction accuracy and GRU’s advantage in prediction efficiency, and uses multi factors, including occupancy, weather conditions and holiday, as input to predict parking availability. When compared against other predictive models such as stacked simple RNN, stacked LSTM-RNN, and stacked LSTM-Bi-LSTM, our experimental results indicate that the stacked GRU-LSTM model has better performance for parking occupancy prediction as it not only improves prediction accuracy, but also reduces prediction time.

Accessibility of Pocket Parks in Xuzhou Old City based on Space Syntax Theory

As an important part of the green space system in high-density cities, pocket parks provide the city with natural ecological functions, including microclimate regulation, stormwater management, and so on, and also play an important role in improving the city image, promoting neighborhood communication and other social benefits. However, at present, there has been little research on the accessibility of pocket parks. Based on the theory of space syntax, pocket parks in Xuzhou old city are selected as the research object. From three dimensions of global integration, local integration, and perceived integration, the accessibility of pocket parks in Xuzhou old city was quantitatively evaluated by Depthmap software. The results showed that (1) the global accessibility and local accessibility of pocket parks in the study area were good, but the distribution of some pocket parks was "misaligned" with the road network layout and (2) the perception accessibility of some pocket parks is low, and the whole road network is perceived through the local road network structure. As a result, many people cannot find the park quickly even if they are close to the green space of the park. Because of the existing problems of pocket parks in Xuzhou old city, we put forward optimization suggestions to increase the accessibility measure of pocket parks in Xuzhou from a humanistic perspective and provide a basis for the distribution of urban pocket parks.

Associations between Park and Playground Availability and Proximity and Children's Physical Activity and Body Mass Index: The BEACH Study.

A cross-sectional study was designed to evaluate the relationship between the availability and proximity to parks and playgrounds and physical activity (PA). Moreover, the accessibility to parks and playgrounds and its association with active commuting to/from school (ACS) and body mass index (BMI) were analyzed. The sample was composed of children aged 6–12 years old from the BEACH (Built Environment and Active CHildren) study in Valencia, Spain. The availability and proximity to parks and playgrounds were calculated at different buffer sizes (250, 500, 1000 and 1250 m) using geographical information system data. PA out of school was assessed using accelerometers. Sociodemographics and ACS were measured with a parent questionnaire. Objectively measured weight and height were used to calculate BMI. Mixed linear regression analyses were conducted for each exposure variable, adjusting for sociodemographics, neighborhood walkability level, and participant clustering. The number of parks and playgrounds were positively associated with moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) and total PA (TPA); including light PA and MVPA, during weekdays, in different buffer sizes. A negative relationship between distance to the nearest playground and TPA during weekdays was found. In addition, the number of playgrounds was positively related to ACS in different buffer sizes, whereas park land area was negatively related to the BMI percentile. This study highlights the importance of assessing the availability and proximity to parks and playgrounds in children’s neighborhoods when PA behavior and weight status are analyzed. Study findings may help policymakers when targeting interventions to promote health-enhancing behaviors in children.

Quantification and mapping cooling effect and its accessibility of urban parks in an extreme heat event in a megacity

With the rapid process of urbanization and global warming, extreme heat events occur frequently, endangering urban dwellers' health. Urban parks could alleviate the severe urban heating climate. However, due to the scarcity of urban land, it is impractical to plan and design urban parks by increasing the blue-green space without restriction. Few studies have focused on optimization and the equity of the parks' cooling service. This study quantifies four cooling indicators of urban parks in Wuhan city, park's cooling intensity (PCI), park's cooling area (PCA), park's cooling gradient (PCG), and park's cooling efficiency (PCE), analyze the drivers for four indicators, discuss different cooling bundles (urban parks with similar specific cooling ability are grouped into bundles) for the specific heat mitigation demands, and map the spatial accessibility for residents to parks' PCA using spatial network analysis. We find that 54 of 60 urban parks have significant cooling effect, with average PCI of 3.5 ± 0.2 °C, PCA of 131.6 ± 29.6 ha, PCG of 17.9 ± 1.5 °C/km, PCE of 4.5 ± 0.8. Blue and green infrastructure inside parks and impervious surface ratio surrounding the parks play significant roles in cooling service. Larger urban parks usually have larger PCA, but lower PCG and PCE. Five cooling bundles clustered with specific dominant cooling indicators could be references for the specific demand considering tradeoffs in urban parks' design and planning. Taking one step further, we unmask the unequal accessibility of the urban parks cooling service in one extreme heat day: 83.6% of the residents in the central area can enjoy the urban parks' cooling service within 30-min walk, while most residents (74.4%) in suburbs are not able to access to the cooling service within 30-min walk. Our study should be valuable for the urban planning and practice to find heat mitigation solutions and improve residents' heat comfort, also helpful for local municipalities to consider the urban parks' service provision for marginal groups.

PROACTIVE CAR PARKING SYSTEM USING IOT

Every City in India as well as other countries are moving towards the concept of Smart Cities. Increase in population is directly proportional to the increase in traffic and almost all cities are densely populated. This paper provides a novel approach of identifying the vehicles and appropriately redirecting them to parking slots This Proactive Car Parking System framework encompasses IOT module that is applied to screen and signalize the condition of accessibility of single parking spot. In addition to this it signals in case of empty slot and hence the driver of the vehicle need not waste time in searching the slot. The status on availability of parking is informed in advance and this in turn helps to avoid traffic. The IR sensor with Arduino is used for identifying slots. The proposed system is an embedded system where internet, Sensors, detection of objects and algorithms are used.

Effects of Urbanization on the Dynamics and Equity of Access to Urban Parks from 2000 to 2015 in Beijing, China

Urban parks provide multiple ecosystem services as an important element of the urban space and improve human health and wellbeing. This study used the Gaussian-based 2SFCA method to evaluate the spatiotemporal distribution of and changes in park accessibility within the Sixth Ring Road in Beijing over 15 years. The study also used bivariate correlation analysis to analyze the relationship between urbanization factors and park access. The results showed that the overall park accessibility in both quantity and proximity had increased from 2000 to 2015, but there were still certain areas (percentage) that had limited access to parks. The inequity of distribution in park accessibility had been detected accompanying the rapid increase in park quantity in 2015. Furthermore, the development of urban parks mismatched that of urbanization in terms of urban land increase. The correlation between accessibility changes and population urbanization is not significant. Proper urban green space planning based on the distribution of population density and urban land use is indispensable in avoiding the aggravation of inequity in the process of urban expansion. This study contributes to the assessment of the current park allocation efficiency and helps urban planners and policymakers make prompt adjustments in the rapidly urbanizing process.

“I Live Here”: How Residents of Color Experience Racialized Surveillance and Diversity Ideology in a Liberal Predominantly White Neighborhood

In many liberal predominantly white neighborhoods, white residents view their communities as inclusive yet they also engage in racialized surveillance to monitor individuals they perceive as outsiders. Some of these efforts center on people of color in neighborhood open spaces. We use a diversity ideology framework to analyze this contradiction, paying particular attention to how residents of color experience racialized surveillance of their neighborhood’s publicly accessible parks and swimming pools. This article draws on data from neighborhood documents, neighborhood digital platforms, and interviews with residents of a liberal, affluent, predominantly white community that was expressly designed with public spaces open to non-residents. We find that resident surveillance of neighborhood public spaces is racialized, occurs regularly, and happens in person and on neighborhood online platforms where diversity as liability rhetoric is conveyed using colorblind discourse. These monitoring efforts, which are at times supported by formal measures, impact residents of color to varying degrees. We expand on diversity ideology by identifying digital and in-person racialized surveillance as a key mechanism by which white residents attempt to enforce racialized boundaries and protect whiteness in multiracial spaces and by highlighting how Black and Latinx residents, in particular, navigate these practices.

The built environment as determinant of childhood obesity: A systematic literature review.

We evaluated the epidemiological evidence on the built environment and its link to childhood obesity, focusing on environmental factors such as traffic noise and air pollution, as well as physical factors potentially driving obesity-related behaviors, such as neighborhood walkability and availability and accessibility of parks and playgrounds. Eligible studies were (i) conducted on human children below the age of 18 years, (ii) focused on body size measurements in childhood, (iii) examined at least one built environment characteristic, (iv) reported effect sizes and associated confidence intervals, and (v) were published in English language. A z test, as alternative to the meta-analysis, was used to quantify associations due to heterogeneity in exposure and outcome definition. We found strong evidence for an association of traffic-related air pollution (nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen oxides exposure, p < 0.001) and built environment characteristics supportive of walking (street intersection density, p < 0.01 and access to parks, p < 0.001) with childhood obesity. We identified a lack of studies that account for interactions between different built environment exposures or verify the role and mechanism of important effect modifiers such as age.

Sustainable development: Investigating the correlations between park equality and mortality by multilevel model in Shenzhen, China

• Multilevel regression model was used to correlate the mortality and park equality. • Park accessibility has stronger correlation with mortality compared to green space. • The greater park accessibility is associated with a lower mortality. • This negative correlation disappears when accessibility exceeds 47.72 m 2 /person. • Moderate park constructions are suggested for balancing public health and land use. Numerous studies have revealed that accessible parks are associated with better health outcomes. This interdisciplinary study focuses the spatial equality of local parks in Shenzhen, China, and aims to investigate its correlation with the summation of mortalities for the top four causes of non-accidental death. The paper consists of two parts: firstly, the spatial equality of parks was assessed by several criteria including the Gini index and accessibility calculated by the Gaussian-based two-step-floating catchment area (G2SFCA) method, and then multilevel regression analysis was novelly used to explore the correlation between the equality of park and mortality integrated with geodemographic and economic factors. The results show that the residents living in city centre experience higher accessibility and more equality of parks. There is greater equality regarding neighbourhood parks provision than urban parks provision. Parks that are walking accessible have stronger correlations with mortality compared to all types of green spaces. Most importantly, the greater park accessibility is associated with a lower mortality whereas this relation no longer exists when the accessibility exceeds 47.72m 2 /person, which is concluded that building parks moderately is suggested to balance the health benefits and land scarcity for the sustainable development of cities.

Spatial disparity patterns of green spaces and buildings in arid urban areas

Urban green spaces are a crucial component in regards to the quality of life, ecosystem balance and recreational services of populations, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. This study aimed to explore spatial patterns of accessibility to public parks on a neighbourhood scale in the Sohar Wilayat, Oman. Utilising GIS techniques and landscape metrics, we investigated the spatial variations of green patches relevant to other land use types predominantly residential buildings in each local area. The entropy index, the landscape shape index (LSI) and the area-weighted mean shape index (AWMSI) were calculated to analyse landscape spatial patterns of urban green spaces across the study area. The results of this study indicated that the large numbers of green space patches in the majority of neighbourhoods were associated with large population size. In measuring spatial accessibility to public parks, the central neighbourhoods were characterised by low scores and long distances from green spaces, while neighbourhoods in the south and north showed short distances and high scores for residents’ accessibility to the nearest park. High rates of fragmentation and irregular shapes, particularly within marginal and inner neighbourhoods, can be attributed to rapid urbanisation and sprawl, which has extensively transformed urban green spaces and vacant land into dwellings. Our findings suggest that a spatial quantification and identification of green space distribution patterns and the accessibility of public parks could provide decision-makers and municipality planners with invaluable guidelines for allocating green parks and recreational amenities equitably and efficiently to urban residents.

A cyclic non‐homogeneous Markov chain model for resource availability optimization in a two‐parking lots system with priority classes and resource reservation

AbstractResource availability optimization has gained a lot of research effort recently, especially in client–server systems. A parking lot can be considered such a client–server system. Parking lot resource availability importance increased during the last decades since there is a tremendous increase of vehicles' usage not only in urban areas but in rural areas too. Academia and industry have extensively studied the problem of parking availability under various constraints and limitations. In this article, we extend previous work on parking lot resource availability optimization by providing an integrated theoretical framework for modeling resource reservation in a two‐parking lot problem which can be accessed by clients of different priorities under nonconstant arrival and service rates. The aim is to determine the optimal parking place reservation policy, which minimizes the blocking probability for each clients' class at each parking lot for different traffic periods. Under the optimal policy, we compute two different performance indicators; from clients' perspective we compute the total expected walking time from the parking lot to the point of interest, and from company's point of view, the total expected hourly profit. To model the fact that clients' arrival and service rates are time dependent, we use a cyclic nonhomogeneous Markov chain to model the entire system's evolution in time. Additionally, an empirical numerical case study is provided to examine the effectiveness of the proposed resource reservation approach.

Harnessing citizen science to assess and improve utilization of metropolitan parks: the Park Activity, Recreation, and Community, Study (PARCS) in St. Louis, MO

Access to and use of parks is associated with physical activity participation. Our Voice is a systematic method blending community-based participatory research (CBPR) and citizen science. As part of a comprehensive, mixed-methods study in St. Louis, Missouri (PARCS), we tested the feasibility of the Our Voice method for gathering community input on the barriers to and facilitators of accessibility and use of large metropolitan parks, by describing the implementation of the Our Voice method among recreational and commuter users of a large metropolitan park in St. Louis, MO. Due to challenges posed by COVID-19, the Our Voice methodology was adapted for remote participation. Twenty-three citizen scientists (14 recreational park users and 9 commuters) collected and analyzed geolocated route, photo, and audio or text data on facilitators and barriers to park use and access. They identified 6 priority themes and 12 solution ideas, and presented them to stakeholders. In contrast to previous Our Voice studies, separate user groups (recreation and commuter users) independently prioritized many of the same themes. Adaptation of the Our Voice protocol to virtual practices during COVID-19 revealed positive implications for cost, reach, and scale of studies grounded in CBPR and citizen science. We provide a set of recommended practices for using Our Voice as a method to evaluate and promote equity of access and use of metropolitan parks.