Comparing Formulas for Parallel Parking

A new study can fuel old arguments and grievances about how other people should go about parking their cars. The study is:

“Parallel Parking Vehicle Alignment Strategies,” Benjy Marks and Emily Moylan, Findings, March 2022. (Thanks to Kurt Verkest for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the University of Sydney and UNSW Sydney, report:

The alignment of vehicles within parallel parking spaces influences the efficiency of street parking. We numerically model the effect of vehicle-alignment strategy on the packing density over a range of block lengths. We investigate the effect of four strategies: a) front of available space, b) either end of available space, c) middle of space and d) randomly within the space…. All strategies offer efficiency advantages compared to pre-marked spaces….

We show that the four strategies identified here make systematic differences to the density of parked vehicles for a range of block-face lengths. The findings indicate that by instructing parkers, whether autonomous or human, to park at one end of any available gap, a significant increase in parking density can be achieved relative to other strategies for a range of block-face lengths and heterogeneous vehicle lengths.