Parking sharing problem with spatially distributed parking supplies

This study models and manages the parking sharing problem in urban cities, where private parking owners can share their vacant spaces to parking users via a parking sharing platform. The proposed model takes into account the spatial dimension of parking, where clusters of curbside spaces and private shareable ones are distributed over different locations. On the supply side, private parking owners can “sell the right-of-use” of their spaces to the platform based on the rent they can receive and the inconvenience they would experience due to sharing. On the demand side, travelers make their parking choices of space type (curbside or shared) and location under given parking capacities and prices. The resulting parking choice equilibrium is formulated as a minimization problem and several properties of the equilibrium are identified and discussed. The platform operator's pricing strategy, i.e., rent paid to space owners and price charged on space users, can significantly affect the private parking owners’ sharing decisions and the choice equilibrium of parking users. In this context, we examine the platform operator's optimal pricing strategies for revenue-maximization or social-cost-minimization. Numerical examples are also presented to illustrate the models and results and to provide further insights.