Introduction
Many areas have seen explosive growth in the number of visitors and patrons as the result of urban revitalization, suburban development, and the general trend of ever-increasing mobility. Parking is increasingly becoming an important aspect of transportation planning.
As stakeholders set out to address parking management issues, they often consider Intelligent Transportation Systems. ITS applications involving APMS have been employed in Europe and Japan for several years and are beginning to be deployed in the U.S. Advanced parking management systems maintain real-time parking space inventories across a set of participating facilities. These data are used to generate parking availability messages that are distributed to travelers through several different means. Such data also help facility owners track demand. In some cases, the information is provided for pre-trip use to travelers seeking information on the Internet. In other cases, it is provided to motorists on roadways by dynamic message signs (DMS) located at key decision points along routes to a desired destination.
Advanced parking management systems help travelers find parking spots quickly, thereby reducing frustration and enhancing a visitor's overall experience. Advanced parking management systems include elements from traditional traveler information systems, as well as specialized parking management applications. Advanced parking management systems offer a wide range of applications, from pre-trip Web-based information systems to navigation systems that provide turn-by-turn directions all the way to an individual parking space.
A topic of growing interest in the U.S. is the use of ITS for finding safe and legal parking for commercial vehicles, especially large trucks. Hours-of-service regulations require that commercial vehicle drivers rest after driving for certain periods of time. In order to rest, drivers need to find a place to park their trucks. In cases where truck parking is not available, drivers are forced to choose between equally bad options, such as going over their legal hours of service or parking in undesirable—or even dangerous—locations. A 2005 white paper[1] noted that, while the number of available truck parking spaces equals demand when averaged nationwide, there are regional shortages, especially in the Northeast, the Northwest, and southern California. ITS technologies are seen as a cost-effective way to help drivers plan where they will stop when their hours-of-service for the day have expired. In 2007, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will announce the selection of one or more vendors for implementation of a project called SmartPark to demonstrate the use of ITS technologies for truck parking. The cross-cutting study provided in this report, however, will only address the use of ITS for parking as it applies to automobiles, not commercial vehicles.
Among advanced parking management systems currently deployed or being considered, there are common elements that can be identified. This study discusses common parking problems, defines the stakeholders and their interests, and examines the range of APMS technologies in use within the U.S. today. In addition, this study provides summaries of three case studies and concludes with findings and lessons learned that may help accelerate APMS solutions.
- Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (2005). Intelligent Transportation Systems
and Truck Parking. http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/facts-research/research-technology/report/intelligent-transportation-truckparking.htm.