Congestion and Parking Lot Efficiency

Sera Linardi / Tobias Lorenz

Homework for SFI 2007 graduate workshop

Research Question     The Model       The Results      Possible Extensions

Future Directions
This model asks "How do the habits of shoppers interact with the design of the parking lot? How does it affect the business?" To answer this question we created a simple model of a double row parking lot with a unidirectional path between the two rows. There are several ways in which this model could be extended:

Design different parking lot entry/exit points depending on customer habits, i.e. their tendency to wait and their preference to park close to the mall entrance. Under what conditions will it be better to have a single row of n spaces with one entry and exit or two rows of n/2 spaces with two entries and two exits?

Incorporate more realistic driver behavior such as backing up. Another possibility is to add heterogeneity in how far ahead a driver can look before deciding what to do.

Incorporate a bidirectional layout: gates are both entry and exit points and drivers can drive in both directions when looking for a place to park.