Development of Model for Prediction of Parking Demand at Railway Station - A Case Study of Surat City

Abstract

Due to economic and social activities, the regional growth is increased. In cities, the commuters are moving
for earning, education and social activities and vice-versa. It is necessary to provide transportation facilities to fulfill the
current and future demand. It is observed that economic condition is also rapidly increased in the last few years and it
increases the vehicular ownership in the urban area. The authority needs to provide parking facilities for reducing
congestion. At railway station and bus station, the rate of growth of daily commuters is high. It is observed from the
study that the adequate parking facilities are not available. The daily commuters tend to park their vehicles on the street
and reduce the walking distance. It increases the traffic congestion, high energy consumption, deterioration of
environment and delay. The parking policies play a vital role in overall development of city and station areas. In the
present study, the model is developed to forecast the demand from the growth rate of different type of vehicles in the city
as well as the evaluation of adequacy of parking facilities to meet the future parking demand. The model is developed for
Surat city of Gujarat state. It caters very high traffic of daily commuters. The data are collected for analyzing the existing
parking requirement and available parking. The proposed model predicts parking demand with more accuracy for the
mega city of developing country like India.