Optimization of a Park Spot Route based on the A* Algorithm

Finding a free parking spot in crowded cities is a big challenge in today's daily life. Cruising for a free on-street parking lot raises emissions, causes a lot of stress for the driver and congests the city. This paper presents an approach to optimize the way of finding a free spot, while saving in-vehicle and walking time for the user. A park spot routing (PSR) algorithm, using on-street parking information, is presented and evaluated. It is based on the A* algorithm, a shortest path algorithm developed from the Dijkstra algorithm. The A* algorithm has the advantage that it can easily be adapted and implemented. For the PSR the cost function and heuristic of the A* is adapted so that it takes the travel time on a road segment, the expected walking distance and the parking probability into account. Simulation results in the city of Munich and Cologne showed that the PSR can help the driver to find a free on-street parking spot in a very efficient way, which makes random cruising for a free spot unnecessary. Finally, a short outlook on possible further developments will be given.