Modeling the departure time choices of attendees for special events with cruising-for-parking

Abstract

Special events lead to a surge in parking demand and severe traffic congestion in areas around event venues. This study investigates the departure-time choices and parking searches of attendees for special events and the resulting traffic congestion. Given the limited parking spaces around venues, drivers expanded their search area over time. Therefore, a bathtub model with a variable cruising area is proposed to analyse traffic dynamics around event venues. It was found that increasing the density of parking spaces does not always reduce the total cruising time, and may even exacerbate traffic congestion near the event venue, suggesting the self-regulating nature of cruising for parking. Moreover, it is shown that although increasing the bottleneck capacity helps reduce the queuing time and duration of peak periods, it may worsen traffic conditions within the cruising area. An optimal bottleneck capacity was provided to minimise the total travel time for all attendees.