A machine learning approach for modelling parking duration in urban land-use

Parking is an inevitable issue in the fast-growing developing countries. Increasing number of vehicles require more and more urban land to be allocated for parking. However, a little attention has been conferred to the parking issues in developing countries like India. This study proposes a model for analysing the influence of car user’s socioeconomic and travel characteristics on parking duration. Specifically, artificial neural network (ANN) is deployed to capture the interrelationship between driver’s characteristics and parking duration. ANNs are highly efficient in learning and recognizing connections between parameters for best prediction of an outcome. Since, utility of ANNs has been critically limited due to its ‘Black Box’ nature, the study involves the use of Garson’s algorithm and Local interpretable model-agnostic explanations (LIME) for model interpretations. LIME shows the prediction for any classification, by approximating it locally with the developed interpretable model. This study is based on microdata collected on-site through interview surveys considering two land-uses: office-business and market/shopping. Results revealed the higher probability of prediction through LIME and therefore, the methodology can be adopted ubiquitously. Further, the policy implications are discussed based on the results for both land-uses. This unique study could lead to enhanced parking policy and management to achieve the sustainability goals.