CO2 Emissions Induced by Vehicles Cruising for Empty Parking Spaces in an Open Parking Lot

Abstract

Parking lots are places of high air pollution as numerous vehicles cruise to find vacant parking places. Open parking lots receive high vehicle traffic, and when limited empty spaces are available it leads to problems, such as congestion, pollution, and driver frustration. Due to lack of return on investment, open parking lots are little studied, and there is a research gap in understanding the magnitude of CO2 emissions and cruising observed at open parking lots. Thus, this paper aims to estimate CO2 emissions and cruising distances observed at an open parking lot. A thermal camera was utilized to collect videos during peak and non-peak hours. The resulting videos were utilized to collect cruising trajectories of drivers searching for empty parking spaces. These trajectories were analyzed to identify optimal and non-optimal cruising, time to park, and walking distances of drivers. A new CO2 model was proposed to estimate emissions in smaller geographical regions, such as open parking lots. The majority of drivers tend to choose parking spaces near a shopping center, and they prefer to cruise non-optimal distances to find an empty parking space near the shopping center. The observed mean non-optimal cruising distance is 2.7 times higher than the mean optimal cruising distance. Excess CO2 emissions and non-optimal cruising were mainly observed during visitor peak hours when there were limited or no empty parking spaces. During visitor peak hours, several vehicles could not find an empty parking space in the region of interest, which also leads to excess cruising.

How can on-street parking regulations affect traffic, safety, and the environment in a cooperative, connected, and automated era?

“…Vehicles searching for an empty parking space may significantly lead to cruising and frequent stops, which increases CO 2 emissions [57]. Paidi et al [43] carried out a recent study to estimate the excess CO 2 emissions from drivers searching for vacant parking spaces during peak and non-peak hours. The study revealed that cruising distance and time are predominantly influenced by the number of empty parking spaces available and the driver's location within the parking lot.…”

Detection of car parking space by using Hybrid Deep DenseNet Optimization algorithm

“…Accurate zone‐wise parking slot predictions can be achieved for long term and short term in Feng et al 30 by using the deep learning framework dual Convolutional Long Short‐Term Memory with DenseNet (dConvLSTM‐DCN). Estimating CO 2 emission induced by the vehicle when the driver searches for an open parking slot discussed in work, 31 this work is limited to a small area in the open parking lot.…”

Microscopic Simulating the Impact of Cruising for Parking on Traffic Efficiency and Emission with Parking-and-Visit Test Data

“…Searching for empty parking spaces leads to cruising and frequent stops which increases CO 2 emissions. Paidi et al [ 22 ] found that excess CO 2 emissions and non-optimal were mainly observed during visitor peak hours when there were limited or no empty parking spaces in the region of interest, which also leads to excess cruising. A facility location and allocation scheme was engaged to determine the optimal number and locations of public parking lots in Aydin’s study.…”