Traffic Engineering: Design Of Advanced And Automated Vehicular Parking System

Introduction

The hassle of finding appropriate parking is one that affects every South African driver at more than one point in their lives, for the constant traveller this may even be a daily struggle. I personally know people who park their vehicles at a taxi rank in the township and take a taxi to town just to avoid having to search for parking in a busy city centre at the end of the month. Parking has also been the subject of many conflicts between colleagues, managers and guests of institutions and businesses. With an ever-growing economy and commerce and industry following suite, it has become a problem that is becoming difficult to ignore.

The current allocation of public parking in cities has seemingly become the responsibility of individual businesses and the spill-over into the streets is only given attention in a law enforcement view but not being curbed or remedied. Car guards have seen the shortfalls and negligence of this service as an opportunity to earn a living, where unfortunately thieves have done the same thing but with more sinister motives. The designing of parking spaces is not a difficult task, but doing so in an existing established city is a challenge. This is due to the high cost of land where one would rather invest in a more profitable venture than spend on an empty space where people will leave their vehicles in return for peanuts on a daily basis.

Literature review

Parking is the act of stopping and disengaging a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied. Parking on one or both sides of a road is often permitted, though sometimes with restrictions. Some buildings have parking facilities for use of the buildings' users, although ideal this is not always possible. Countries and local governments have rules for design and use of parking spaces and South Africa is no exception when it comes to this. Parking facilities vary, they include indoor and outdoor private property belonging to a house, the side of the road where metered or laid out for such use, a parking lot, indoor and outdoor multi-level structures, shared underground parking facilities and facilities for particular types of vehicle such as dedicated structures for cycle parking.

Parking for bicycles have gained popularity, and are being used as a way to encourage motorists to leave their vehicles at home, where practical. Urban parking spaces can have a high value where the price of land is high, in Polokwane for example an hour of parking can cost up to R8 and buying a set of parking spots ca cost just as much as an entire building. Urban planners who are in a position to override market forces must consider whether and how to accommodate potentially large numbers of motor vehicles in small geographic areas. Usually the authorities set minimum, or more rarely maximum, numbers of motor vehicle parking spaces for new housing and commercial developments, and may also plan their location and distribution to influence their convenience and accessibility. Where car parking spaces are a scarce commodity, and owners have not made suitable arrangements for their own parking, ad hoc overspill parking often takes place along sections of road where there is no planned scheme by a municipal authority to allocate road-space. Heated social discourse sometimes revolves around the sense of "ownership" that informally arises.

Case Study

Study area

Polokwane, formerly known as Pietersburg, is the capital of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. It is South Africa's largest urban centre north of Gauteng. The city forms part of Capricorn district municipality, under management by Polokwane local municipality whose offices are located within the bounds of the city. The South African census showed the population of Polokwane City as 130,028 with 43,846 households in the 2011 census. The city covers an area of 106. 84km2 with a density of 1200 persons per square kilometre. Polokwane city, as the economic, political and administrative capital of Limpopo Province, is a growth point of provincial and national significance.

The Polokwane Central Business District is the economic core of Polokwane City and as such it represents the largest and most diverse concentration of economic activity in Limpopo Province. Because of its strategic significance as a service centre and generator of economic activity and job opportunities, it is essential that the area be continuously planned, managed and maintained to optimise the functioning thereof. Just like with any city, there is a scarcity of unoccupied space within the city that can be developed for parking but this calls especially for ingenuity and forward thinking.

Maps

A map of the city shows the span of Polokwane city in its entirety, without eliminating surrounding suburbs and townships: 9 A satellite image of the mapped area is also shown, indicating the lengths of unoccupied land on the outskirts of the city infrastructure: 10 The CBD of the city, with the aid of increased priority for planning and delineation, can be mapped out with considerable accuracy. Such is shown below:

Survey and data

The local municipality website and other academic resources were used to collect relevant information with regards to parking design and management standards in South Africa. This information was used to select a usable site based on parameters like size, approaching routes and grade Although a street away from the CBD line as shown earlier, an empty plot of land on corner Grobler and Voortrekker street was identified as the area where the parking lot would be constructed. There are no other places within Polokwane that I feel can be utilised due to spatial constraints. The area also sits on the corner of a major route so potential users will be able to see it. The adjacent route is a 2-way route meaning users will be able to enter it as they wish, and it’s not a busy route so traffic flow will not be severely hindered. A satellite image of the empty area with surrounding facilities is shown below: 12 The land use functions incorporated into the city of Polokwane are:

Discussions

Problem analysis

The allocated parking spaces within the Polokwane city CBD are slowly becoming insufficient in their ability to contain the volumes of daily visitors and users. The occurrences likely to be seen within the city can be touched on as follows:

• a majority of the streets contain on-street parking on both sides. The parking is that of a standard sized vehicle and face the direction of traffic. The on-street parking is parallel to the roadway. Some businesses have enough space in front of them to allow diagonal or perpendicular parking spaces.
• there are 7 off-street paid-for facilities available, although these facilities are mostly intended for customers of the businesses they are constructed in front of. they are able to accommodate anyone who can pay the sometimes-hefty price.
• the distribution of the available facilities is well distributed within the city yet it’s a common occurrence to park in a lot that is fairly far from where one will be conducting their respective activities.
• The available parking facilities are not entirely well maintained, they have potholes and any repair work done is not properly finished
• The parking facilities are managed by informal car guards and parking assistants, with no intervention from the municipality All the issues highlighted above point out to a capacity inadequacy rather than a logistics issue when it comes to allocation of parking within Polokwane. The accessibility of the available parking lots is of a good standard because they can be accessed and even reach full capacity without hindering flow of regular traffic. The possible solutions that can be put in place to minimise congestion and insufficient parking in such a situation are:
• The promotion of public transport usage. The taxis and buses within the city have dedicated areas and ranks from where they operate and they have a high capacity. They will be able to reduce the number of individual/family vehicles requiring parking
• A park and ride system can also be utilised. This type of system will allow persons with vehicles to park on the outskirts of town where there is plenty of space and utilise shuttles to access the town. These shuttles will take them directly to locations they intend to go to and bring them back when done.
• Widening of the streets where possible. The addition of one extra lane to a 2-lane road will increase capacity by 50%, allowing better vehicle flow. This solution only helps where there is space and doesn’t aid lack of parking in any way.
• Increasing capacity of existing parking facilities. This can be done by building multi-storey parking facilities where the current ones exist or even above businesses. This can also be achieved by introducing 2-step electronic parking systems. 14 4. 2. Interpretation/proposal Upon considering the parking situation that exists in Polokwane CBD, the solution has been identified as the allocation of an off-street parking lot on an existing piece of land just outside of the CBD. The location covers an area of 50 by 100m and currently consists of a few trees and bushes. The parking facility will be designed to house the full capacity at a 30 degrees approach angle to make entering and exiting easy. The parking lot will allow for a standard 2. 4 by 4. 8m lot size and have some disability parking bays of 3. 6 by 6m area. The parking lot will not have a wall but covering with corrugated iron sheets constructed on steel poles frame. The parking lot is intended to be used by various groups of drivers:
• People who work in the city and need parking for duration of their work shift
• People who are in ton to do some shopping or run errands
• Residents of town can allow their visitors to park there if the residences don’t have enough parking
• People who intend to use other means of transport going further can leave their vehicles and collect them in the evening. These can be people who will catch a lift with a friend in town, use a hired vehicle, a bus, train or even fly to another town. Other features of the facility are:
• Overnight parking is not a feature of the facility, this may promote people ‘booking’ parking spaces and hindering the commercial and free flow trend of the parking lot
• The facility will be paid for by the hour. If payment terms are longer it will encourage people to park for longer periods and even draw criminal activity as the criminals will have enough time to study a target car.
• No vehicle washing will be allowed on the premises. This will draw people looking to make quick cash and may encourage criminals too 15 A standard vehicle parking space at a 60 degree approach angle is able to accommodate vehicles where there isn’t enough turnaround and manoeuvring space for isles, it looks like this: In contrast to a 90 degree approach angle lot the horizontal space required is much less. There can be only one isle provided for exiting and entering and the direction can face the same way as the lot. This means that when a vehicles leaves it simply reverses, turns the wheels forward and moves out accordingly. I felt as though a 30 degree approach would need more vertical space and hence limit the number of bays that can be fitted in.

Conclusion

People migrate to the CBD because of high access of the infrastructure but find themselves having to deal with the unbearable parking frustration. This problem will soon be a thing of the past through the proposed implementation of the automated parking system. As much as this system is still in the proposal phase, one can’t turn a blind eye to how beneficial this system could turn to be to the Polokwane road user. It is without doubt that this system is rather more expensive, unlike the conventional parking options in widespread use throughout the city and so the government needs to truly commit to the road users problems, and in this case that would be parking options.

The parking will be implemented since it is able to utilise existing space effectively, able to carry a lot cars thus reducing the conflict among people demanding parking. With thorough planning and technical preparation, this system can be also the preferred option to other areas in Limpopo experiencing parking difficulties like Mokopane and the CBD in general as a whole. However, this system won’t solve all problems in a sense that the transportation planner and traffic engineer still need to tackle the ever-growing traffic and rather sought to more long term options and techniques in attempting to reduce traffic congestion within metropolitan areas.