Vehicles must be parked before the occupants can partake in their desired activity. Parking is therefore a fundamental component of any vehicle trip and its inclusion in models of the transport system essential. Car parking is an issue of significance in both local and strategic planning, and policy and supply play a major role in the management of transportation systems. Models provide a mechanism for systematizing the planning and design process. Modelling parking behaviour offers many challenges. The models should be able to ascertain the impact of changes in the supply, pricing and enforcement of parking. The reaction of parkers to these controls may involve changes in the type of parking, location of parking, mode of travel, car occupancy, destination, frequency of trip making, time of travel, parking duration, and route (Coombe et al., 1997). Furthermore, unlike many transport models, parking models need a time dimension since the provision of parking and reaction to the type of parking can vary over the day, week, or year. Parking models may be extremely simple and heuristic in form or they may incorporate years of rigorous investigation and research. This chapter presents an overview of some of the attempts to incorporate parking into transport models. It opens with a review of a parking model hierarchy, and then focuses on the general structure, factors, and interactions present in particular models.
Samenvatting