Micro-simulation study on the effect of on-street parking on vehicular flow

On-street parking is an important component of urban parking system. It is an efficient means for providing more parking spaces and balancing the parking demand and supply. However, it is easy to decrease traffic performance and increase the risk of traffic accident. Aiming at evaluate the influence of on-street parking on characteristics of vehicular flow, a cellular automata model is developed for describing the interaction between the on-street parking maneuvers and vehicular flow in the one-way street with on-street parking spaces. The model takes different driving manures into account according to the dynamic features of different vehicles. Numerical simulation is performed using an extensive Monte Carlo procedure. The results show that the driving maneuvers of on-street parking can antedate traffic state transition from free flow to congested flow at low density. The maximum volume and travel speed are also influenced significantly. The finding in this paper has important ramifications for policy in the area of parking management and planning.