Stochastic user equilibrium traffic assignment with equilibrated parking search routes

In this paper we define and formulate the concept of parking search routes (PSR) where a driver visits a sequence of parking locations until the first vacant parking spot is found and in doing so may account for (expected) parking probabilities. From there we define and formulate the stochastic user equilibrium (SUE) traffic assignment in which no driver, by unilaterally changing its PSR, can lower its perceived expected generalized costs. Recognizing the interdependency between PSR flows, travel times and parking probabilities, we propose a queuing model in order to compute endogenous parking probabilities accounting for these factors as well as maximum admissible search times. To solve the SUE assignment with equilibrated PSR we propose a solution algorithm, including a method for PSR choice set generation. The model is implemented and applied both to a number of experimental cases to verify its properties and to a real-life setting to illustrate its usefulness in parking-related studies. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.