Assessing the options for using empty garages for pay-as-you-go parking

Abstract

Fuelled by Malta’s opportunity for better management of resources and the potential improvement in traffic congestion via the reduction of the orbiting time for parking spaces, this study considers how a Pay-As-You-Go parking system may be implemented in Malta by utilizing unused garage parking spaces. The system offers the most favourable prices to its users by matching the pricing portfolio of individual garages with a garage’s current demand. This in turn encourages potential users to use the system’s services and reduces the orbiting time for parking to such users. This potential Pay-As-You-Go parking system is developed using an API-centric architecture composed of the web application programming interface which integrates the front end web application with the parallel mobile application. Following the research done throughout this study on existing pricing methodologies, a location-based, demand-forecasting pricing algorithm is also designed and integrated into the system’s pricing strategy. It considers the location of an individual garage and hence uses geo-spatial data to compute the suggested pricing portfolio based on the garage’s current demand. To further optimize the results of this study, a data collection process is carried out to collect factual data about this system’s potential market primarily on a plausible equilibrium market hourly rate and also the market factors which can alter the current demand and supply of the system. These results are then integrated into the design of the system, specifically, in the underlying demand-forecasting pricing algorithm. Finally, the system developed successfully implements all the necessary algorithms for a successful Pay-As-You-Go parking system. Moreover, the results obtained confirm that apart from having a system with a high potential, the pricing generated correctly forecasts the demand for a particular garage at a specific time of the day and year.