On-Street Parking Search Review and Future Research Direction

Vehicles in search of on-street parking create an environmental and economic impact: they increase network traffic flow and congestion, heighten pollutant emissions levels, create additional noise, give rise to time delays for through vehicles, and lead to potential safety hazards when vehicles maneuver into or out of on-street spaces. Despite extensive negative externalities for individual drivers and society, the search for parking is a little researched area. The aim of this study was to review and identify factors that influenced an individual's on-street parking search decisions. These factors were time cost, pricing, areawide parking policy, and personal and socioeconomic characteristics. The study also examined methodological and modeling approaches applied to on-street parking searches. The paper identifies a research direction to investigate factors that influence parking search behavior across cities and countries, which will enable interspatial comparisons of influencing factors. The quantification of the economic, environmental, and safety impacts of the search for parking is a further important research area, which can be accomplished through an examination of the impact made by vehicles in search of parking, as distinct from the impact of through traffic. The findings of the present study have potential urban parking policy applications, which could reduce the number of vehicles that search for parking, with associated environmental and economic benefits.