Optimal number and location of parking facilities in presence of autonomous vehicles

Worldwide surveys have shown that autonomous vehicles will enter the transportation networks in the following decades. Therefore, investigating and analyzing the impacts of autonomous vehicles on traffic has been one of the most exciting issues. Autonomous vehicles affect facilities management, including parking location. For example, autonomous vehicles will change parking patterns. The conventional vehicle drivers have first to find a spot to park their vehicle and then walk to their destination. In contrast, the autonomous vehicle users can drop off right at their destination and do not experience walking or searching time for parking. Hence, the modeling of autonomous vehicles' effect on parking facilities' location is an important issue. This study seeks to present the optimal location of parking facilities in a mixed AV-HV traffic flow. We consider two structure layouts: (i) a corridor and (ii) a grid city. Also, we use the Continuum Approximation approach to model the problem and derive closed-form solutions. We prove that the demand (the infrastructure cost) increases (decreases) the required parking facilities. Numeric examples show that the share of autonomous vehicles decreases the number of parking facilities and the total cost.