Characteristics of Parallel On-Street Parking in Qatar

Abstract

One of the main reasons for traffic congestion is the existence of on-street parking on the side of the road. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of parallel on-street parking on the traffic flow movement in Qatar using data collected at two locations with a different number of through lanes in the city of Doha. Several variables were measured including the required time to complete the entering and leaving parking maneuvers, the queues and delay that occur on the road due to the parking maneuvers, and the gap needed to join the traffic stream after leaving the parking space. The results of this study showed that the presence of parallel on-street parking causes a high delay for the through vehicles. This delay is mainly caused by the formed queue due to the in and out maneuvers of the on-street parking vehicles. The results also show that the maneuvering time increases as the parking occupancy level increases. Furthermore, the delay measured with higher for the four-lane divided road compared to the six-lane road.