Sina Bahrami: Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Parking and Congestion

Speaker, computer lab
Sina Bahrami presents seminar at University of Toronto, May 17, 2019

Sina Bahrami, a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil + Mineral Engineering under the supervision of Professor Matthew Roorda, presented his thesis research at a public seminar entitled “Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Parking and Congestion”on May 17, 2019.

view from back of audience to speaker
Sina Bahrami presentation at University of Toronto, May 17, 2019

Although Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) will enhance mobility and safety, their impact on travel behavior and congestion is not clear yet. This is mainly because the promises and opportunities associated with AVs depend immensely on policies and regulations.

For instance, on one hand, AVs can promote car/ride sharing by decreasing its cost. On the other hand, the reduced cost of car sharing might nullify associated benefits if users shift travel mode from public transit to car/ride sharing, and zero-occupant trips.

speaker in front of audience in computer lab
Sina Bahrami, May 17, 2019

Hence, policies and regulations are extremely important because they can maximize the benefits of AVs while minimizing their negative consequences.

Sina’s research examines the impact of AVs on parking and congestion and provides managerial insights to help government agencies and policymakers:

  • Autonomous vehicle parking facilities can decrease the need for parking space by an average of 62% and a maximum of 87%. This revitalization of space that was previously used for parking can be socially beneficial if car-parks are converted into commercial and residential land-uses.
  • AVs will also change where travellers park. AV users can exit from their vehicle and send their vehicle to park in a strategic location. AVs can park farther from the destination in cheaper parking lots, or cruise for the whole activity time. While the same parking price across all the locations would exacerbate congestion by motivating more AVs to cruise, a toll for zero-occupant AVs would decrease congestion.

Sina Bahrami presentation file PDF.

speaker answers audience question
Sina Bahrami answers questions from the audience following his seminar at University of Toronto, May 17, 2019

Abstract

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are expected to improve mobility, safety, and parking accessibility. To capitalize on these benefits, all major car manufacturers are testing autonomous technology, and surveys show that people want to embrace autonomous features in their next vehicles.

It is estimated that AVs will be available on the market in the next decade. Hence, I will talk about AVs impacts on parking and congestion, and provide managerial insights to get the most of AVs benefits, including:

  • investigating the problem of finding the optimal AV car-park layout design
  • the operation of such an AV car-parks, and optimal parking and network control policies.
head shot of Sina Bahrami
Sina Bahrami

Sina Bahrami is a PhD candidate at University of Toronto. He received a BS and an MS in Civil Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. Sina’s research is focused on alternative fuel vehicles and autonomous vehicles. He models and studies the movement of individuals and freight in the transportation network and tries to come up with innovative solutions using optimization techniques.


This seminar was presented by the  University of Toronto Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Student Chapter.