A Method for Planning of Parking-facility Locations Using Internet Mobility Data

To address the issue of parking facility location under uncertain demand, a method for planning parking facility locations based on Internet mobility data is proposed. This method estimates parking demand and identifies alternative parking facility locations based on residents' commuting data. An optimization model for parking facility location under uncertain demand is developed, which has an objective function considering the construction and maintenance costs of parking facilities and the walking distance from parking facilities. To verify the feasibility of the model, a case study is conducted based on the residents' commuting data in Beijing from September to November in 2021. specifically, an optimization model is established for the area of Zhongguanchun and its surrounding areas in Haidian District and the relationship between variation of the total costs of building and maintaining the parking facilities and uncertainty of parking demand is analyzed. Study results show that the optimal number and size of parking facilities will increase as the confidence interval of satisfying the parking demand (i.e., the probability of parking demand being smaller than or equal to the capacity of parking facilities) increases. When the confidence level reaches 0.9, the variation rate of total cost is significantly increased, where the number of parking facility required is 30 with a total of 28 862 parking spots. In addition, the total system cost is sensitive to the level of uncertainty of parking demand and will increase as the level of uncertainty increases. when the level of uncertainty reaches 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6, the variation rate of relative total cost for parking facility is 1.25, 1.75, and 2.25, respectively. Under the same confidence interval, the higher the level of uncertainty of parking demand, the higher the change rate of total cost is to the level of the uncertainty of the demand. This study enables parking planners to effectively control the total system cost and to ensure the robustness of the location plan by controlling the capacity and demand fluctuations of the parking facilities.