Vehicular traffic flow under influence of curb parking

Parking problem is more serious nowadays. In order to evaluate the influence of curb parking on vehicular traffic flow, a modified Nagel-Schreckenberg cellular automata model is developed for describing a conflicting traffic flow in a one-way lane with curb parking spaces. The model is divided into three sub-models according to the dynamic features of different cars. Extensive Monte Carlo simulation is taken into account to find the model characteristics. The results show that the parking/unparking manoeuvre can antedate traffic state transition from free flow to congested flow at low density. The maximum flow rate declines by 18% to 37% with different proportion of parking/unparking cars. The manoeuvre duration also influences traffic performance significantly. The model shows the ability to capture the most important features of traffic flow under the influence of curb parking.