TU Delft alumnus Daphne van den Hurk won the Q-Park prize for her master thesis. Her thesis titled 'The effects of private automated vehicles on drivers' parking location choice' shared the first prize with another student from Erasmus University.
During the Q-Park event called 'Thought Leader Event' a panel of parking experts evaluated the finalists. Daphne was one of them, her paper got selected from the submitted papers of different universities by an academic panel. In the end, the academic panel decided that there were two first prize winners, and Daphne was one of them!
Winning thesis
The objective of Daphne's research was to find out the importance of different factors and constraints that could influence the parking location choice behaviour when automated vehicles become widely available. Her thesis looked at two considered parking locations, inside the inner city and at the edge of a city. Her thesis showed that parking in the city is preferred over parking at the edge of a city.
It showed that attributes as parking costs and the risk of additional waiting time have a negative influence on parking location choice behaviour. Whereas attributes as surveillance by personnel has a positive influence. The conceptual framework is shown in the figure.
Furthermore, the thesis suggest different directions for policies regarding parking regime, price and capacity. Among them are that short-term parking of automated vehicles in the inner city, and long-term parking in the edge of the city should both be stimulated. This to reduce the amount of empty vehicle kilometres. It is also advised to invest in flexible parking facilities at the edge of the city to offer more capacity when needed.
Of course, this is just a concise summary of the thesis. Her full thesis can be found here, take a look at it!
About Daphne
Daphne van den Hurk graduated Delft University of Technology in May 2017. Daphne finished her master Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics. Right now, she is a mobility and (outdoor) space consultant at Goudappel Coffeng.