Access control systems and reductions of driver´s wait time at the entrance of a car park

In parking garages massive arrival of vehicles may cause delays at the entrance when the arrival rate is similar to (or greater than) the service rate. Furthermore, if the number of vehicles leaving the facility is less than the number of arrivals a long queue could be observed. Recent literature shows that real-time parking information management reduces the search time; however in parking garages these systems generate a particular side effect, which is beneficial and has not been studied before. We realized that when the facility is full drivers waiting in queue do not have to wait for other clients to exit; they can enter when any space detector changes its status from “occupied” to “free”. This is not an information management strategy but a facility of the system that reduces wait time up to 24.7% and the number of vehicles in line by 21.0%. This also allows more clients to enter the facility -which is equivalent to increasing static capacity. These results were obtained from 1450 simulations carried out using field data, which represent approximately 2,867,375 drivers´ choices in 16 scenarios, in typical operation days.