Improving utilization and customer satisfaction of parking space with M2M communications

The shortage of parking spaces creates a challenging problem for both drivers and parking space operators. In this research, we implement a parking simulation system to study operators' problems. The operator can use our method to evaluate different parking policies and find out the best policy. Furthermore, the operator can estimate the impact of smart parking system (SPS) on parking space management. An SPS not only tracks the number and locations of available parking spaces in a parking lot but also utilizes Machine-to-Machine communications (M2M) to provide drivers useful information. Based on the results, we are able to identify the best policy among all alternatives which achieves the highest satisfaction rate under the constraint of maintaining certain occupancy rate. Furthermore, our results show that the SPS can improve the satisfaction rate regardless scenarios under different assumptions.