GPS Data and Car Drivers’ Parking Search Behavior in the City of Turnhout, Belgium - Geoinformatics for Intelligent Transportation - page 239

GPS Data and Car Drivers ' Parking
Search Behavior in the City of Turnhout,
Belgium

Peter van der Waerden, Harry Timmermans and Lies Van Hove

Abstract This paper describes an exploratory study regarding parking search
behavior. Based on GPS tracks of 97 car trips, the temporal and spatial components
of parking search behavior are investigated in more detail. The data collection took
place in November 2012 in the city of Turnhout, Belgium. The paper presents the
way the data collection has been organized, the way the data have been analyzed,
and some findings of the study. It appears that GPS tracking can be used to inves-

tigate both the temporal and spatial aspects of parking search behavior. The average
parking search time found in this study is 1 min and 18 s (approximately 14 % of the
total travel time). The use of street segments for parking is in

uenced by distance to
the city center, distance to nearest parking facility, presence of shops, and parking
tariffs.

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Keywords GPS Parking search Behavior TransCAD GIS ostrava 2014

1 Introduction

The increase in car use has resulted into an increase in heavily congested streets,
especially in and around the central business district and shopping areas. Previous
studies have shown that a considerable share of cars in these streets is searching for
a free parking space [ 1 , 2 ]. Due to a decrease in available parking spaces, the