The Potential Impact of Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Sensor-to-Vehicle Communication in Urban Parking

Studies have shown that up to thirty percent of all traffic in crowded urban areas can be cruising for parking. Information provision to drivers can potentially decrease cruising time for individual drivers and subsequently improve the performance of the overall system. While most cities provide drivers with information on the occupancy rates of off-street parking facilities, information on single on-street parking places was non-existing until recently. Recent technological advances have made it possible to provide such information. The aim of this paper is to study the impacts of such bottom-up information provision about on-street parking places for the individual driver as well as the system as a whole. Using an agent-based simulation model, impacts are compared between a bottom-up vehicle-to-vehicle communication strategy and a strategy that combines parking sensors and vehicle-to-vehicle communication. In the latter approach on-street parking places are equipped with sensors capable of disseminating their occupancy status.