Smart parking: an investigation of users' satisfaction in the Kingdom of Bahrain

With progress in technology, cities continue to address fundamental human needs. However, parking remains a largely neglected issue, although it has great significance for the growing population and emerging smart city concepts. Smart parking is essential in the improvement of smart urban communities, addressing issues of shortage of vehicle spaces and traffic supervision. The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that overall improve users' satisfaction with smart parking in the Kingdom of Bahrain. A quantitative methodology is followed with a questionnaire to gather information tool; 385 responses were received from smart parking users. All the factors investigated were found to have a critical positive effect on users' satisfaction: timeliness, accuracy, information quality, usability, appearance, system quality and service quality. The contribution of this research is the proposed model of satisfaction for smart parking that can be adopted by different nations. In addition, the recommendations will give insights to the legislature and organisations concerned with smart parking in Bahrain toward better user satisfaction.