Intelligent Short-Term Multiscale Prediction of Parking Space Availability Using an Attention-Enhanced Temporal Convolutional Network

The accurate and rapid prediction of parking availability is helpful for improving parking efficiency and to optimize traffic systems. However, previous studies have suffered from limited training sample sizes and a lack of thorough investigation into the correlations among the factors affecting parking availability. The purpose of this study is to explore a prediction method that can account for multiple factors. Firstly, a dynamic prediction method based on a temporal convolutional network (TCN) model was confirmed to be efficient for ultra-short-term parking availability with an accuracy of 0.96 MSE. Then, an attention-enhanced TCN (A-TCN) model based on spatial attention modules was proposed. This model integrates multiple factors, including related dates, extreme weather, and human control, to predict the daily congestion index of parking lots in the short term, with a prediction period of up to one month. Experimental results on real data demonstrate that the MSE of A-TCN is 0.0061, exhibiting better training efficiency and prediction accuracy than a traditional TCN for the short-term prediction time scale.