Flexible, demand-based parking charges ease parking problems

Innovative parking initiatives on the US Pacific Coast. David Crawford reviews

Californian cities are leading the way in trialling new solutions to their endemic parking problems. According to Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the 3880 University of California in Los Angeles, drivers looking for available spots can cause up to 74% of traffic congestion in downtown areas. One solution is variable, demand-responsive pricing of parking. San Francisco and Los Angeles are leading the way. In May 2010, the 4802 San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which is responsible for all of the city’s surface transport, launched its SFpark project. (In January 2012, this helped the city win a sustainable transport award from the US Institute for Transportation & Developmental Policy).

With service provider 1676 Serco as prime contractor, the project has involved installing a sensor array that now covers 7000 of its 28,800 metered spaces and 12,250 spaces in 15 of the 20 cityowned parking garages. The initiative followed the November 2008 approval by SFMTA of enabling legislation that defined the pilot areas. This also specified the ranges and limits of charging rates; operating times; and parking availability targets.

The SFpark system is designed to enable the SFMTA to monitor the locations and levels of demand for parking, space-by-space and minute-by-minute, and so even out parking availability. It sees this as key to reducing drivers’ needing to circle while searching (and so generating unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions).


It is also moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to parking charges with a flexible policy designed to ensure that, with the prices set right, there is at least one space available on every metered block. The idea is to incentivise drivers to alter their behaviour: for example, to park a few blocks away from their destination and then walk; to drive at different times of the day; combine what might have been multiple trips into a single journey; or opt for public transport.

At pilot area parking spots, wireless sensors supplied by parking management specialist 4800 StreetSmart and flush-mounted in the road surface detect vehicle arrivals and departures and relay these events wirelessly via a secure radio network to company gateways. These in turn transmit the resulting data to the company’s network operations centre for processing and relaying the results to the SFpark data feed for use by the SFMTA and drivers.

In April 2011, the agency introduced credit and debit card payment for parking. It also began making real-time parking data publicly available at %$Linker: External 0 0 0 oLinkExternal SFpark.org SFPark false http://sfpark.org/ false false%> and via an SFpark smartphone application; and as an open-source data feed. Then in May 2011, SFMTA began implementing demand-responsive pricing in the pilot area.

To support the initiative, wireless traffic detection developer 119 Sensys Networks has installed sensors in roadways to provide before and after baseline data on traffic volumes, densities and speeds to help city engineers determine meter pricing strategies The agency is now using figures from its data warehouse for regular adjustments to parking prices in 25 or 50 cent increments or decrements, and then evaluation of the effect of the new rates. These are sent as XML code to parking meter vendors to implement the changes.

In February this year, the SFMTA implemented its latest demandresponsive rate adjustments. As a result, rates have:
• Decreased by US$50¢ during 5% of metered hours; • Decreased by US$25¢ during 30% of metered hours; • Stayed the same for 39% of metered hours; and • Increased by UD$25¢ during 26% of metered hours

Taking onboard the safety issues potentially involved in using an app while driving, Shoup believes that this will eventually become a non-issue as the result of variable pricing influencing occupancy levels to allow sufficient availability where it is needed. The pilot phase runs until summer 2012, including evaluations of both the technology and the pricing strategy, with a view to citywide implementation by the end of 2012. The US$25M project is being 80% funded through the Urban Partnership Program of the 324 US Department of Transportation (USDOT).

On to Los Angeles

Following San Francisco’s example, Los Angeles has designated a 11.7km2 area in the city’s Downtown district as the site for its oneyear 4804 ExpressPark demand-based pricing programme, due to start in May 2012. Created with US$15M in grants from USDOT and US$3.5M in city funds, this aims to increase the availability of onstreet parking spaces by 10 to 30% per block through conveniently payable ‘right’ pricing.
Parking problems

A September 2011 survey by IBM of 8000 commuters in 20 cities around the world (including Los Angeles) highlighted difficulties in finding parking spaces. Over half those polled said that during the previous year they had given up at least once when looking for a space.

The survey found that more than 30% of city traffic can consist of drivers searching for parking. It cited a year-long study showing that drivers in a 15-block district of Los Angeles drove in excess of 1.5 million km and produced 730 tonnes of CO2 in trying to find a spot.

At the same time that it published the survey, IBM announced, within its Smarter Planet initiative, a new partnership with 579 Streetline on Smarter Parking, a platform devised to enablecities to more effectively collate and use parkingdata. The resulting information is then madeavailable in real time to drivers via the Parkersmartphone app, of which Los Angeles has beenan early adopter.

In November 2010, Streetline was named the winner of the 62 IBM SmartCamp World Finals and IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year.
It also aims, as in San Francisco, to cut cruising and congestion and encourage modal shift. The project will move forward in three tightly-planned phases, with coin, credit/debit card and mobile phone payment available throughout:

• Phase I - Base hourly rate (starting from the launch). Using baseline data, the system will iteratively refine parking charges to start influencing demand in the direction of the project goals.

• Phase II – Time of day (starting no more than two months after the launch). Building on the demand balance hoped to be achieved in phase I, the system will identify peak periods and then establish hourly rates by time of day.

• Phase III - Adaptive (starting no more than six months after the launch). In defined sections of the area, the system will adjust rates per block in real-time to reflect current demand levels.

Peer Ghent, senior management analyst with the Meter Operations Division of the LA Department of Transportation (LADOT), told ITS International: “We anticipate that, with each initial iteration, we will come closer to the main goal. But, until we implement time of day pricing, we know that there will be times when we fall short.”

There are some 5,500 single-space meters and 150 multi-space pay stations in the project area, with on-street parking supplier 4806 Duncan Solutions updating single-meter heads to meet the project specification. Meter mechanisms are being replaced by new versions from California-based 3524 IPS Group. Wireless on-street vehicle detectors for vehicle tracking are being supplied by smart parking system developer Streetline. Prime contractor 13 ACS State & Local Solutions’ MERGE central parking management system will process all data and transactions and provide real-time parking analytics for the use of LADOT and drivers.

It is additionally providing a MERGE-based website. Parking guidance will also be available through an array of dynamic message signs (some newly installed) and mobile phone apps such as Streetline’s Parker. Again, in collaboration with the city’s www.go511.com travel and traffic information service, drivers will have access to an interactive voice recognition system.

According to Ghent, there has been industry interest in the inclusion of parking information in on-board navigation systems “though the short lead time has made it unfeasible to include this feature in new car navigation systems in time for ExpressPark,” he says. “However an important part of the project is to publish an API for the parking data, making it available to those who wish to build apps for smartphones or in-vehicle systems.”

The current USDOT funding ends in May 2013. Local funding is secure through to June 2013, with availability beyond June 2013 being subject to a budget request for city funds to continue the programme in the project area and expand it to other suitable locations. ExpressPark follows on from earlier city-funded pilots in two other LA districts, Hollywood and Studio City, which are likely candidates for any expansion.

Further north, Canada’s Pacific Coast city of Vancouver, long noted for having the highest on-street parking rates in North America, is eyeing these developments with keen interest. “We will take lessons learned from the San Francisco and Los Angeles experiments,” says the city’s director of transportation, Jerry Dobrovolny.