Assessing overnight parking infrastructure policies for commercial vehicles in cities using agent-based simulation

Abstract

Urban freight transport is primarily fulfilled by commercial road vehicles. Within cities, overnight parking is a critical element influencing commercial vehicle operations, particularly for heavy vehicles with limited parking options. Providing adequate overnight parking spaces for commercial vehicles tends to be a challenge for urban planners. Inadequate parking supply can result in illegal parking and additional vehicle kilometers traveled, contributing to traffic congestion and air pollution. The lack of tools for evaluating the impacts of changing parking supply is an impediment in developing parking-related solutions that aim to minimize the negative externalities. In this study, we develop an overnight parking choice model for heavy commercial vehicles and integrate it with SimMobility, an agent-based urban simulation platform, demonstrating the potential of this tool for policy evaluation. Using simulations applied to a case study in Singapore, we compare two parking supply scenarios in terms of vehicle kilometers traveled due to changes in the first and last trips of vehicle tours, as well as resulting impacts in traffic flows. ©2020 Keywords: urban freight; freight parking; city logistics; parking choice; SimMobility