Smart parking assistance services and user acceptance: a european model

Abstract

Technologies and systems assisting drivers to locate free on street parking space and/or inform on parking availability may significantly reduce the traffic induced from cruising for parking space in cities. This paper attempts to reveal the factors that may affect the acceptability of parking assistance systems in different European cities, based on data collected through a questionnaire survey. The respondents are presented with a real world parking assistance system based on in-vehicle ultrasonic sensors, which detects free parking space in real time, and are, then, asked to respond to a set of questions in relation to their parking choice preferences. The results of the survey are presented and modelled using a genetically optimized Logistic Regression Model. Findings indicate that the proposed system would be useful for people who are not willing to spend too much time in order to find an available parking space as well as to those who are not willing to walk long distances from the parking place to their final destination. Moreover, results revealed that the certainty of the provided recommendation significantly influences the effect of the other parameters on the acceptability of the application. Finally, some further research steps are discussed.