Free Parking Research Articles

Active recreational and silvicultural co-use of forested areas: an innovative forest management study

Abstract Issue Forests are crucial in the sustainability transition to a biobased modern society. However, forests may also be recreational sites, and positively affect human health and well-being. Modern silvicultural harvesting practices alters the landscape overnight, and hence may affect the recreational and public health promoting use of it. Description of the problem Municipalities, as owners of urban forest areas, may actively support inhabitants’ recreational use of near-by forested areas by 1) allocate resources to local voluntary organizations who facilitate for recreational users and 2) actively facilitate for continuous recreational use while practicing modern silviculture. In 2020-2022, an innovative integrative forest management approach was tested in a municipality in mid-Norway. This study explores how the local forests are used for recreational purposes, and how potential conflicts in land use can be mitigated or prevented. Results The forest areas are mostly used for health-promoting activities like exercise, walking, general recreation, and seasonal harvesting of wild berries and mushrooms. Half of the users get to the forest by foot or bicycle. Easy access, closeness to home, free parking arrangements and access to maps of the areas is important to users. Most users were well-informed about local forest-based businesses and carbon sequestration in wood and held that forests should be harvested and regenerated. They showed a high tolerance for forestry if the footpaths were cleared immediately. However, three out of four users want to be informed before harvesting. A small share of users wants educational posters about forest ecosystems. Lessons A pre-existing low conflict level between modern forestry and recreational forest use may be maintained by quite simple and modest means. In this municipality information posters were placed by the footpaths and an arena for discussions, information and co-creation of recreational facilitation was established in 2022. Key messages • Near-urban forests are frequently used for exercise and recreational activities, especially if easily accessible. • Harmonious co-use of forest areas, even in times of timber harvesting, is supported by rapidly recovering the footpaths and by notifying inhabitants in advance.

Reasons Why Only Kuwaiti Citizens Drive Electric Vehicles despite Being Only a Quarter of the Population

The adoption of fully battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs) in Kuwait is currently at less than one percent of the population, and hence Kuwait has the lowest index rank among countries around the globe. Effectively, only Kuwaiti nationals have the opportunity to own EVs, as there are no fast direct-current charging stations in Kuwait, and Kuwaiti landlords (expats cannot own real estate) do not allow the installation of EV-charging home wall boxes at their rented properties. Given these facts, this paper only focuses on the preferences of Kuwaiti nationals, even though they only constitute 25 percent of the population of Kuwait. To accomplish the present objectives, a quantitative descriptive method (closed-ended questions) was used to collect data from a sample of 227 Kuwaiti nationals who were representative of the owners of half a million internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and that were categorized as early majority consumers. The findings of the present study indicate that over 50 percent of the respondents would prefer to buy an EV in the following three years when certain criteria were satisfied, including government-controlled pricing policies and recharging point availability, high-speed roads, and free EV-dedicated parking spaces. Furthermore, over 40 percent of respondents stated that they would contemplate purchasing an electric vehicle if the price of gasoline or diesel increased by 19 to 50 percent. The findings also indicated that more than 40 percent of respondents believed that EVs are fire- and crash-safe, and roughly 50 percent of the respondents would be willing to pay between 6 and 20% more for an EV because they believe that EVs are ecofriendlier vehicles and are significantly faster than conventional petrol vehicles. Additionally, respondents rewarded those vehicles with an excellent mark because of their ecological, economical, and technological attributes and benefits.

Towards Scalable and Privacy-Enhanced On-Street Parking Management: A Roadmap for Future Inquiry

Studies have shown that in today’s urban areas, drivers lose a significant amount of time searching for available on-street parking spaces. Cruising drivers cause numerous problems, such as wasting gasoline and emitting gasses that lead to air pollution. To solve this issue, the parking industry and academia have made great efforts to lessen cruising drivers’ problems by providing on-street parking management solutions that can help enhance the efficient use of limited free on-street parking spaces. However, these solutions have two main limitations, scalability and privacy. This paper proposes a systematic literature review that examines the on-street parking management solutions that are currently in use, with a particular focus on their scalability and privacy limitations. According to the findings, there is a growing interest in on-street parking management solutions; however, the scalability of the systems used is a significant challenge since the servers that collect and manage parking availability have to perform intensive computation and communication with the drivers. Additionally, privacy concerns are a major issue, as the solutions often collect and store personal information such as drivers’ locations. The review concludes with recommendations for future research and development of these solutions to address both limitations and promote their widespread adoption.

Demand determinants for electric vehicles in Poland

Abstract. Transportation is one of the main sectors of any country's economy. The development of transportation positively influences changes in industrial activity, and the growth of population mobility. An important feature of responsible transport development is the formation of legally established, technical and economic conditions consistent with the idea of sustainable development. Electric cars are a solution that fits into this idea. The increase in the number of electric vehicles can significantly improve the environment, taking into account the use of renewable energy to power them. The purpose of this article is to identify the factors affecting the demand for electric vehicles among individuals in Poland. Based on the research conducted, it can be concluded that: few people own electric cars and only 1/3 of respondents are considering the purchase of such a car. According to the respondents, these cars are too expensive and are not suitable for long-distance travel, while the advantages are their economy and environmental friendliness. Among the respondents, few had knowledge of subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles. Factors that could influence the purchase of vehicles among individuals were mentioned: the possibility of using free parking spaces, bus lanes intended for public transportation, entry into the city's clean transportation zones, and subsidies.

The electric vehicle transition in Russia and Indonesia

Due to worries about global warming and its effects on the environment, economy, and society, a lot of emphasis has been paid to the switch to electric vehicles (EVs). This essay focuses on the switch to electric vehicles in Indonesia and Russia. Green technology, such as EVs, have been introduced in Indonesia in order to lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and enhance air quality. The study emphasizes the advantages of EVs, including their simplicity and improved comfort when compared to conventional vehicles, as well as their free highway use, parking, and tax incentives. The restricted affordability, ambiguous national policies, and inadequate public infrastructure provide difficulties for Indonesia. However, relative to its enormous auto fleet, Russia has lagged behind in the development of EVs, with just a tiny number of registered electric vehicles. However, the Russian government has approved a plan to increase the infrastructure and production of electric road transport. The strengths, weaknesses, and transitional strategies for EVs are assessed using a case study approach and comparative analysis. In order to encourage the use of EVs, it is stressed the significant of incentive programs and supportive policies, such as tax breaks and regional manufacture. The study comes to the conclusion that although both nations have made progress in the transition to electric vehicles, more has to be done in terms of policy creation, infrastructure development, and technological improvements in order to hasten the adoption of EVs in Russia and Indonesia.

Integrating built environment and parking policy for car commuting reduction: evidence from Beijing

ABSTRACT Built environment (BE) planning and parking policy are two major strategies for restricting car use. However, researchers usually explore the independent associations of BE and parking policy with the use of the car in commuting, and most earlier studies are limited to investigating the benefits of integrating them. This study adopts a machine learning approach to explore the associations of home and workplace BE features and parking policy with the use of the car in commuting and whether the associations of BE features are moderated by parking policy. Results suggest that workplace BE features have larger collective contributions to the use of the car in commuting than home BE features. All BE features have nonlinear associations with the use of the car in commuting, and the nonlinear patterns differ across home and workplace neighborhoods. Moreover, free parking and parking convenience have significant moderating effects on the connection between BE and the use of the car in commuting. Thus, planning practitioners and policy makers should highlight the importance of coordinating BE planning and policy making to restrict the use of the car in commuting.

Legality of reducing the regulatory provision of apartment buildings with parking spaces as a subject of prosecutor’s supervision

The article considers the role of the prosecutors office in ensuring the legality of decisions of authorized authorities that allow interested parties (in particular, developers) to reduce the number of equipped parking spaces during the construction of apartment buildings in relation to the regulatory parameter provided for by the urban planning regulations of the territorial zone in which the developed area is located. The issue of lack of free parking spaces has always been one of the urgent problems of any metropolis. In this regard, the proper implementation of the law when issuing permits for deviations from the maximum parameters of permitted construction requires special attention from the prosecutors office. The article substantiates that these permits, despite the lack of clarity of legal regulation, cannot be accepted solely on the basis of the discretion of the authorized body, without establishing legal conditions. Sometimes compliance with the public procedure for discussing the issue of granting an appropriate permit is mistakenly considered as a sufficient basis for issuing it. Therefore, when checking the implementation of the law, the prosecution authorities should not be limited only to studying documents confirming compliance with the procedural regulations for the actions of the authorized body, but also evaluate the actions of the supervised person in terms of the completeness of the study by him of the presence of special characteristics of the land plot that do not allow fulfilling the regulatory parameter as required the number of parking spaces.

Smart Parking System using ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module

This paper examines the issues with conventional parking lots. Additionally, it covers the effects and inconveniences brought on by the inefficiency of conventional parking places. The authors of this work propose and develop a smart parking system that makes use of IoT technology and enables users to locate open parking spaces in a certain location. Additionally, it prevents unnecessary movement through already crowded parking lots. The authors of this study introduce a revolutionary parking system with an IoT over WiFi module. The authors propose a mobile-based Internet of Things (IoT) solution to the problem. ESP8266, SG90 servo motor, and IR sensors are important parts. Users may quickly search for neighboring parking lots and view real-time availability in each parking lot with the aid of the solution. Through the app, they may even reserve the desired parking space before heading to the lot. Through the mobile application, the user may also make the payment. Additionally, the administrator may offer a free parking spot.

Assessment of competitiveness of a Russian electric car as a substantiation of the need to stimulate electric cars market in Russia

Objective: to assess the competitiveness of a Russian electric car and an ICE car, taking into account the external costs associated with emissions of the main greenhouse gas – CO2.Methods: the article uses comparative and quantitative methods, the method of analysis and synthesis, the method of estimating the total cost of ownership (TCO), justifies the use of the avoidance cost approach as an optimal approach to assessing the external costs associated with climate change.Results: modern efficient economic development is inextricably linked with the organization of a low-carbon transport system. The green transition to electric vehicles makes it possible to solve the problem of externalities associated with the increased public costs due to greenhouse gas emissions. The paper examines the prospects for the transition to electric cars from the viewpoint of reducing the external costs of cars. The article assesses the current state and key barriers to the development of electric transport production. A comparative assessment of the competitiveness of Russian electric vehicles and ICE cars is given, taking into account the external costs associated with carbon emissions. The comparison was carried out based on an estimate of the total cost of ownership, taking into account the external costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions. As a result of the comparative analysis, it was determined that the total cost of five-year ownership of the Evolute i-Pro car, taking into account support measures, is even lower than that of the Lada Vesta Sport ICE sedan, which is close to it in terms of technical characteristics, by 342.7 thousand rubles. Without subsidies, Evolute i-Pro does not yet achieve parity in the cost of ownership with an ICE car, despite low operating costs, free parking and exemption from paying transport tax. Based on the conducted research, conclusions are made about the measures necessary to increase the gap between the total costs of ownership in ICE cars and electric cars to increase the competitiveness of the latter.Scientific novelty: the author’s approach was used to compare the competitiveness of the new Russian electric car Evolute i-Pro and Lada Vesta Sport ICE car, which, in addition to support measures, includes external costs associated with carbon emissions.Practical significance: the results obtained may be useful to developers of state support measures in assessing the effectiveness of the current subsidy mechanism and making decisions on further stimulating the development of the electric cars market in Russia. The results of the study will also be especially useful to residents of Moscow who are thinking of buying a Russian electric car.

Navigation and Reservation Based Smart Parking Platfrom For Smart Cities

Abstract: In the modern era of technology, smart devices are becoming more common in everyday life. To find a free parking slot is the most difficult task in our cities The principal role of this research paper is to analyze smart parking solutions from a technical perspective, underlining the systems and sensors that are available, as documented in the literature. In this paper we have proposed a navigation and reservation based smart car parking system. The proposed system is being controlled by an app so as to reduce human intervention. To book the slot for parking is being done with the help of web application, some amount of charges is deducted through wallet. We can navigate to the reserved slot location by using google map. The proposed method makes our life more easier and hassles free.

Modelling Parking Choice Behaviour Considering Alternative Availability and Systematic and Random Variations in User Tastes

Parking choice models proposed over recent years have been aimed at choosing the relevant variables and pricing policies affecting said choice. In our analyses, we have encountered some gaps to cover; for this reason, we introduce a methodology for addressing user parking choices, including the availability of parking alternatives in each of the studied zones presenting pivoted scenarios. This methodology has been developed based on a stated preferences survey design to define user behaviour when making parking choices through discrete-choice models. Furthermore, the estimated models have considered systematic and random variations in user tastes and the correlation between similar or related parking alternatives. This methodology has made it possible to provide greater realism in generating fictitious parking scenarios. The results show the importance of the fee attribute and the differences in the users’ preferences depending on whether they live inside or outside the study area and their arrival time at the destination. Several scenarios have been simulated, and in these scenarios, it is found that removing free parking areas or restricting free parking in favour of parking fee regulation in congested zones can be an efficient policy measure to promote other parking alternatives and reduce the number of vehicles searching for a parking space.

Why <em>Monopoly</em> Monopolises Popular Culture Board Games

Why <em>Monopoly</em> Monopolises Popular Culture Board Games

РАЗРАБОТКА СИСТЕМЫ МОНИТОРИНГА ПАРКОВОЧНЫХ ПРОСТРАНСТВ

The article discusses the organization of automatic control of free parking spaces using artificial intelligence technology. Identification of a car in the parking lot occurs by processing video signals from autonomous video modules by a trained neural network. Independence and autonomy of video modules transmitting information to a common computing center ensures the independence of the system from the transport infrastructure of the parking space. End users can track information about parking occupancy within the mobile application.

Visual Parking Occupancy Detection Using Extended Contextual Image Information via a Multi-Branch Output ConvNeXt Network.

Along with society's development, transportation has become a key factor in human daily life, increasing the number of vehicles on the streets. Consequently, the task of finding free parking slots in metropolitan areas can be dramatically challenging, increasing the chance of getting involved in an accident and the carbon footprint, and negatively affecting the driver's health. Therefore, technological resources to deal with parking management and real-time monitoring have become key players in this scenario to speed up the parking process in urban areas. This work proposes a new computer-vision-based system that detects vacant parking spaces in challenging situations using color imagery processed by a novel deep-learning algorithm. This is based on a multi-branch output neural network that maximizes the contextual image information to infer the occupancy of every parking space. Every output infers the occupancy of a specific parking slot using all the input image information, unlike existing approaches, which only use a neighborhood around every slot. This allows it to be very robust to changing illumination conditions, different camera perspectives, and mutual occlusions between parked cars. An extensive evaluation has been performed using several public datasets, proving that the proposed system outperforms existing approaches.

High-Resolution mmWave SAR Imagery for Automotive Parking Assistance

Benefiting from the characteristics of low-cost, small-size, and high-resolution, the millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar has been gradually applied to automotive parking assistance. In this article, a novel algorithm of automotive synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging is proposed for the mapping of parking places. To deal with the motion error from the inaccurate speed of the radar platform, a parametric method of sparse Bayesian learning (SBL) is presented for well-focused and high-resolution SAR imaging. Then, a watershed-based SAR image segmentation algorithm is applied to detect the vehicles, which can indicate the locations of free parking spaces. Finally, the experimental analysis using 77-GHz automotive radar data is performed to confirm the effectiveness of the proposal.

A Smart Cloud and IoVT-Based Kernel Adaptive Filtering Framework for Parking Prediction

Smart vehicle parking is a collaborative effort of technology and human innovation where the efforts are to be minimized to save time and efforts. In smart cities it is one of the common challenges to introduce smart parking to increase parking efficiency and combat numerous issues like identification of free parking slot and real-time dynamic updation on traffic to save fuel and energy. In this work, a new cloud-based smart parking architecture is proposed that can help in predicting the available free parking slots in smart cities. Initially, the methodology collects the car count at any near by parking using Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud-based approach. Later, the approach uses the Kernel Least Mean Square algorithm to make heuristic predictions about future vacancy using auto-regression. The proposed approach thus utilizes the online learning or model training. To validate the efficacy of the proposed work, the testing is done on the real-time dataset. The extensive numerical investigation is performed on parking lots of four international airports of a smart city in actual deployment scenarios. The experimentation has revealed superior performance of the method in terms of vacancy prediction.

Increasing capacity in acute day care settings: patients' experiences of a pop-up day care unit

The unit operated fortnightly between December 2020 and March 2021. Family feedback on the service was collated via an online survey. 72 respondents found NHB acceptable; 70 (97%) would be happy to return; 63 (90.3%) preferred the NHB to attending Bristol Royal Hospital for Children or had no preference for their appointments. Positive comments focused on service organisation and clinical environment. Families valued the availability of the close, free parking. The minimal negative comments related to travel directions, lack of catering facilities and the small number of toilets. The pop-up service model was highly acceptable to families. This highlights the need for appropriate hospital services to explore similar initiatives beyond traditional healthcare settings in order to ensure that the provision of equitable health care is in line with the NHS Long Term Plan.

Road users’ attitudes towards electric vehicle incentives: Empirical evidence from Oslo in 2014–2020

This paper examines participant attitudes towards battery electric vehicle (BEV) incentives. Our case study was conducted in the greater Oslo area. Oslo has ranked as the world capital of BEV usage since 2014. The Norwegian government currently leads the comprehensive use of BEV incentives to decarbonize road transport. The data set is from a questionnaire survey conducted annually between 2014 and 2020. A total of 6363 individuals divided equally into annual random samples were asked to express their attitudes towards the different BEV incentives in place in each year. Participants were aged 18 or older and were living in the larger Oslo area. Professional data collection companies used computer-assisted telephone interviews to conduct the survey. Generalized structural equation modelling (GSEM) was used to analyse the data. The sample was 49% women and 51% men, with a mean age of 51 years, ranging from 18 to 99 years old. People in greater Oslo increasingly disagree each year with beneficial BEV incentives such as toll exemptions, access to bus lanes without passengers and free public parking. However, internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) users are more likely to disagree than BEV users. The results provide new knowledge about attitudes towards BEV incentives from a longitudinal perspective.

Modeling of Parking Violations Using Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial Regression: A Case Study for Berlin

Parking violations cause numerous problems, thus affecting daily mobility. Nevertheless, there are no extensive statistics on illegal parking in Germany, implying that the causes of this misconduct are still unexplored. The objective of this paper is to present a count data modeling approach for parking violations based on video footage taken from the windshields of driving vehicles, incorporating spatial data from OpenStreetMap (OSM). The main benefit of this data source is the transferability of the data collection procedure just by installing a recording device in vehicles of municipal services like waste collection. Moreover, the data from OSM are freely available for all cities. To account for excess zero counts in the street segments, a zero-inflated negative binomial distribution model was used to explain the number of violations per 100 m. “Excess” zeros were modeled using the logit part of the model, whereas the remaining counts of parking violations were fitted by the negative binomial model. Much effort was made to present the results of the count data models in an interpretable way. The most intuitive way seemed to be predictions of parking violations per 100 m (incidence rate) for different settings. Incidence rates were predicted for variations in explanatory variables, holding all other variables constant. We found parking violations per 100 m to be highest in main shopping streets. In addition, free parking spaces negatively- and the number of points of interest (such as buildings, craft stores, and shops) positively affected illegal parking.

The carbon neutrality feasibility of worldwide and in China's transportation sector by E-car and renewable energy sources before 2060

Fuel cars are the major contributor with 41 % released emissions, which is about 7.3 billion metric tons (BMt) of CO2 produced in 2020 by the international transportation sector. The most significant polluted regions are U.S.A with 0.731BMt, China with 0.545BMt, and Europe with 0.437BMt of CO2 emissions annually. The four provinces of China named Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Henan releases considerable CO2 emissions due to the enormous number of F-cars. This paper discusses the reason of banning F-car, fossil fuel and introduce of E-car and renewable energy as fuel for mitigation of carbon emission in transport sector. Chinese government set the goal and promotion policies for manufacturing companies and consumers for E-car promotion such as tax exemption, innovation technologies for high-range cars, financial support, charging pile construction, free parking, and fewer traffic restriction, etc., are assisting to encourage buyer and help to achieve the target of CO2 reduction by 2060. Consequently, the Li-ion and SSBs batteries are more efficient to use in E-cars and eco-friendly than other battery types. The bottom-up accounting framework analysis reflects the results of all national quick response policies and indicated the mitigation of CO2 emissions from global were decreased from 2.6BMt to 0.006BMt 2010 to 2060, and use of non-renewable energy sources decline from 55 % to 4 % while use of renewable energy sources rises from 42 % to 93 % from 2030 to 2060 due to launching E-cars and devised policies. This research helps to understand the prospects of policies and changes in energy sources to meet the target of CO2 mitigation from transportation sector globally and in China.