Smart Parking Management Field Test: A Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District Parking Demonstration

Smart parking management technologies may provide a cost-effective tool to address near-term parking constraints at transit stations. Smart parking management systems have been implemented in numerous European, British, and Japanese cities to more efficiently use parking capacity at transit stations by providing real-time information via changeable message signs to motorists about available parking spaces in park-and-ride lots. This working paper describes the interim results of a smart parking field operational test, which operated at a San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District station in Oakland, California from December 2004 to April 2006. This working paper includes a literature review on the travel effects of smart parking-related systems, a description of the smart parking field operational test, user analyses (focus groups and surveys), and preliminary cost estimates of the field test.