Analysis of Illegal Parking Behavior in Jeddah

Abstract

Parking spaces play a vital role in the transportation system. Parking policies ensure the efficient of the transportation system and the management of traffic demand. Illegal parking practice can hamper sustainability of transportation system. This paper attempts to analyze the illegal parking behavior in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. Car parking in the city of Jeddah is largely uncontrolled and there is a lack of management of the public parking supply and controlled parking system. Parking survey at five main locations (roads) at Jeddah city was conducted. Legal and illegal parking were observed at the five roads. The observations were distributed over three time periods: 7:00-9:00 am period (morning peak), 12:00-15:00 pm period (afternoon peak) and 18:00-21:00 pm period (evening peak). The observations were collected, studied and compared for weekdays and weekend. Results indicate that illegal parking seems to be common in Jeddah city both on weekdays and weekend hampering the sustainability of transportation system. It is crucial for Jeddah city to deploy stringent parking policies in order to reduce the consequences of illegal parking behavior and to achieve sustainability in transportation.