Development of Level of Service Analysis Procedures and Performance Measurement Systems for Parking
Background
In 2019, through project SPARKMAN, C2SMART UTP researchers developed a university student parking lot Zoning and Zone Permit Pricing model and conducted a student survey to understand the need for campus parking, in order to establish a Level of Service (LOS) criteria for parking.
This project will focus on LOS for parking and expand it to a PMS for parking. The LOS analysis methodologies of many types of transportation facilities are prescribed in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). Each method consists of an analysis procedure and the LOS criteria. The analysis procedure computes the value of the LOS parameter, while the LOS criteria map the parameter value into LOS A to F.
This project aims to develop LOS analysis procedures that estimate or measure the average search time for selected types of parking facilities. Additionally, alternative evaluation methodologies for parking operations based on the IOT will be explored. The new smart cities approach to measure customer service is dubbed PMS to distinguish it from the LOS analysis procedure. Cities are interested in making better use of smart meter usage data.
Research Objectives
The objectives of this project are to:
1. Develop LOS analysis procedures for open surface parking lots
2. Develop an LOS analysis procedure for conventional multistory parking garages
3. Develop a ConOps of a PMS in smart parking garages
4. Explore PMS for street parking using existing smart technology
All the LOS analysis procedures are to estimate or measure the average search time. The analysis procedures will cover data collection and data processing approaches to estimate the average parking search time. The use of a smartphone application and smart parking garage infrastructure for data collection will be explored. The procedure of measuring search time for street parking is challenging because there is no control access point as the stalls are geographically spread along the streets. The solution of measuring the search time by a smartphone application, or alternative performance measures will be explored by analyzing the downtown street parking data provided by the City of El Paso.
Deliverables
The deliverables for this project include:
- A report of literature review
- LOS analysis procedures (including data collection methods, data processing methods, worksheets) for open surface parking lots and multistory garages
- A report documenting the case studies accompanied by the collected data
- A report on the ConOps for a PMS for smart parking garages
- A report on the concept of PMS for street parking
- A final report for the entire project
Project Details
| Principal Investigator | Kelvin Cheu |
| Co-Principal Investigator | Jeffrey Weidner |
| Funding Source | C2SMART $89,999 University of Texas – El Paso $44,999 |
| Total Project Cost | $139,988 |
| USDOT Award # | 69A3551747124 |
| 3/1/2020 – 2/28/2021 | |
| Implementation of Research Outcomes | The LOS analysis procedure has the potential to be included in future editions of Highway Capacity Manual. |
| Impacts/Benefits of Implementation | Presently, there is no methodology for transportation engineers to evaluate the operational performance of a parking facility from the user’s perspective. In the Year 3 C2SMART project, the UTEP researchers established LOS criteria for parking based on average search time (i.e., the average time to search for an empty stall to park). This proposed project in Year 4 is to develop the LOS analysis procedure for parking lots and multistory parking garages and explore PMS for street parking and smart parking garages. Once the LOS analysis procedure or PMS has been established, engineers can use it to evaluate the performance of a parking system, justify the benefit of the use of ITS for parking or smart parking, and to justify linking smart parking with other smart cities services (a benefit to the City of El Paso). |
