Autonomous Vehicles May Drive Away Parking Congestion

Mirzaeian and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University published their findings online in the journal Management Science. Their research considers how urban planners can design a city's infrastructure around self-driving cars.

The authors lay out a road map for urban planners as autonomous vehicles (AVs) become more mainstream. Self-driving cars are already roaming Dallas' central business district, where a little over a quarter of the area is designated for parking.

Researchers conducted a continuous-time, game-theoretic traffic model of Pittsburgh and found that autonomous vehicles parked away from downtown to avoid steep parking prices until traffic at farther-out lots became congested, forcing a shift back to downtown parking.

Other factors researchers considered in the study were the time commuters left for work and traffic congestion after self-driving cars had dropped off commuters.

"In our study, we sought not to propose city-specific solutions, but to highlight general tradeoffs and dynamics in human behavior that emerge when AVs, commuters and infrastructure interact," Mirzaeian said. "Our model can serve as a guide, or even an early warning system, to recognize how seemingly small shifts in technology, costs or incentives can lead to large changes in commuter behavior and systemwide efficiency."

While researchers focused their study on Pittsburgh traffic patterns, their findings could be applied to other cities.

"These results suggest that cities with a central business district that experience congestion because of morning commute can benefit significantly from the mass adoption of AVs by adjusting their short-term and long-term transportation and infrastructure policies," the researchers concluded.