Parking is like at the supermarket checkout.

In the memory, one has stood in the wrong queue far too often, while the neighboring checkout seems to be moving faster.

But this impression is subjective: the negative emotions that accumulate while waiting are responsible for the fact that longer queues are more likely to be remembered than a quick walk through.

David Lindenfeld

volunteer.

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The same seems to be the case when looking for a parking space: Rare cases of long turns are superimposed in memory over the many in which one finds a parking space quickly and easily.

"Our results indicate that one has a certain distorted perception," says Tobias Hagen, who, as a professor at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, has been in charge of the "start2park - recording, understanding and forecasting parking search" research project, which has been running since July 2020.

Time spent looking for a parking space included

For the first time, he and his colleagues want to collect exact data on parking space searches and, in addition to an explanation model for the time it takes to search for a parking space, develop a forecast model that will be used in apps in the future and will also take into account the time spent looking for a parking space in addition to the driving time.

The premise of the scientists: The fact that navigation apps currently do not show when calculating how long the search for a parking space will take increases the attractiveness of the car - and reduces that of the other means of transport, although the destination could possibly have been reached much faster by bike, bus or train .

Including parking search time in such apps could thus prevent unnecessary parking search traffic and reduce emissions, traffic volume and travel time.

According to Hagen, even a few minutes can make a difference when choosing a mode of transport.

There are already a few studies that deal with the search for a parking space.

"From our point of view, however, the method used was not clean in all of them," says Hagen.

For example, there are different definitions of when the search for a parking space begins and, accordingly, different results.

In addition, no study measures the route from the car to the actual destination.

However, this plays a not unimportant role for the travel time.

This is where Hagen and his colleagues come in: In the "start2park" app, which anyone can download onto their smartphone to take part in the project, the user first specifies when the journey and the search for a parking space begin, and then finally when parked and when the destination can be reached on foot.

Hagen is particularly interested in "on-street parking spaces", i.e. those at the side of the road

But the scientists don't just want to gain insights into how long it takes to search for a park.

They also keep an eye on traffic looking for a parking space.

It depends on the parking costs in individual streets, the time of day and the location – the data should show in what proportion.

Push notifications as a reminder

Around 1000 users have installed the app so far.

“We would like to have 4000 so that we can get reasonably valid results,” says Hagen, who is still dissatisfied with the frequency of use.

"We are still working on the further development of the app to enable push notifications as a reminder." The recorded journeys will then be extrapolated with values ​​from a larger data set from navigation service providers and, after the end of the project in June 2023, will be made available to science and companies provided.

The app can be used across Europe, in the city and in the country.

It will continue to collect data after 2023.

The Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport is funding the project with 1.5 million euros.

The first results should be "taken with a grain of salt," says Hagen: "Corona has a major impact on traffic.

And we have not yet made any extrapolation to come to representative statements.” So far, it has been found that for around 20 percent of trips looking for a parking space at the side of the road, there is no search time at all.

It is more than four minutes in only ten percent of cases - but these are the ones that are badly remembered for a long time.