Module 8 : Specialized Traffic Studies
Lecture 41 : Parking Studies
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Off street parking

In many urban centers, some areas are exclusively allotted for parking which will be at some distance away from the main stream of traffic. Such a parking is referred to as off-street parking. They may be operated by either public agencies or private firms. A typical layout of an off-street parking is shown in figure 1.
Figure 1: Illustration of off-street parking
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Parking requirements

There are some minimum parking requirements for different types of building. For residential plot area less than 300 sq.m require only community parking space. For residential plot area from 500 to 1000 sq.m, minimum one-fourth of the open area should be reserved for parking. Offices may require at least one space for every 70 sq.m as parking area. One parking space is enough for 10 seats in a restaurant where as theatres and cinema halls need to keep only 1 parking space for 20 seats. Thus, the parking requirements are different for different land use zones.

Ill effects of parking

Parking has some ill-effects like congestion, accidents, pollution, obstruction to fire-fighting operations etc.
  1. Congestion: Parking takes considerable street space leading to the lowering of the road capacity. Hence, speed will be reduced, journey time and delay will also subsequently increase. The operational cost of the vehicle increases leading to great economical loss to the community.
  2. Accidents: Careless maneuvering of parking and unparking leads to accidents which are referred to as parking accidents. Common type of parking accidents occur while driving out a car from the parking area, careless opening of the doors of parked cars, and while bringing in the vehicle to the parking lot for parking.
  3. Environmental pollution:  They also cause pollution to the environment because stopping and starting of vehicles while parking and unparking results in noise and fumes. They also affect the aesthetic beauty of the buildings because cars parked at every available space creates a feeling that building rises from a plinth of cars.
  4. Obstruction to fire fighting operations:  Parked vehicles may obstruct the movement of firefighting vehicles. Sometimes they block access to hydrants and access to buildings.