An Integrated Approach to Parking Management and Traffic Congestion Mitigation in Small Cities: The Sanawad City Experience

Sanawad city (9.42 sq.km) which is a subdivision headquarter is a small urban area of Madhya Pradesh state with population of 44,009. One of the problems created by road traffic in urban areas is parking. It has an impact on the overall transport development system .Vehicle requires sufficient street space to move and to park, where occupant can be loaded and unloaded. Traffic congestion and parking are synonymous to each other because failure to meet parking results in traffic congestion. With the growing population of motor vehicles the problem of parking has assumed serious proportions. The availability of less space in urban areas has increased the demand for parking space specially in central business areas. A systematic study of parking demand and characteristics are done for controlling parking activities which would be of help to the traffic engineer and town planner. Four major centers in arteries in the heart of Sanawad city which have insufficient parking space namely Triangle square to Mortakka Chauraha,Bharat Petrol Pump to Mortakka Chauraha, Subhash chowk to Vegetable market and Bus Station to Subhash Chowk . Extensive surveys are being done at these four places to determine the demand and supply of parking. To find the mean parking time of the vehicle, graphs are also plotted between cumulative parked vehicle and their parking duration. Parking demand model is also developed by regression analysis. To obtain a higher value of R2, linear and non-linear models are also used.