Spatial Analysis of Curb-Park Violations and Their Relationship with Points of Interest: A Case Study of Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Car parking is a challenging part of urban transportation and traffic violations cause many problems for citizens. Studies have shown that there is a direct relationship between vehicle parking violations and urban places. In this study, we investigated the spatial distribution of vehicle violations in a region of Tehran, Iran, that is suffering from a heavy traffic load and heavily polluted air. Although there are two dissimilar urban segregations in the north and south of the study area, in both of the regions, about 70% of all curb-parks are legal, while the remaining are illegal. However, our analysis indicates a dissimilar pattern of car parking violations. Additionally, spatial analysis reveals a direct relationship between some POIs (Point of interests) and the occurrence of car park violations. For example, the number of vehicle park violations around the hospitals is more than the average of the study area. However, the number of park violations around the universities is less than the average. Our results also show that POIs have an impact radius that leads to violations occurring in that area. For example, the influence range of a hospital on the creation of car park violations was estimated at 125 meters. Our presented approach along with the discussed findings and conclusions can be useful to an extensive range of stakeholders, including urban planners, traffic police departments, local municipalities, law enforcement agencies and environmentalists, to have a better perspective of infrastructure planning.