research

Parking Issues at Beihang University

Yiling Zhang

11/6/2017

Dr.Pezzoli

Abstract

Traffic safety, management, and parking issues are major concerns of large universities. The number of students, native and international students and faculty’s use of vehicles make it difficult for university management to tackle the growing demand for parking lots. Therefore, the present study will focus the Beihang University of China as a case study to pinpoint its parking issues, the solution proposed by public and recommended solution based on both literature and participants of the study. Data will gather through a subjective questionnaire and analyze through descriptive statistics, discrete choice model and GIS.

Introduction

Universities can be considered as a small and growing town which binds the planners and policymakers to provide community facilities to each member of a community. Transportation facilities are basic needs of each member and it becomes more dynamic and complex due to the contribution of different factors. These include growing numbers of vehicles, for example, staff members, students, visitors and staff members who live near the campus area. Little attention has been given to university traffic issues, policies of universities, and planning of parking lots.

This unique combination of transportation land, its use, and planning provides us an ample opportunity to examine existing transportation policies and management process and propose recommendations to improve the existing transportation system while analyzing its outcomes. The matter of the fact is that land use refers the space which is used for transportation facilities within the campus of universities. In simple words, land use of parking lots, pedestrians, vehicular access roads and buildings consisting of administrative buildings, boarding and athlete buildings (Kuo 2015).

The relationship between transportation land and campus is that if the campus provides a convenient and easy transport, it increases the use of vehicle within campus area. Therefore, people take off the use of the alternative i.e. local transportation system. In the case of use of local transport system, and is left for auditoriums and additional buildings to accommodate other facilities in the campus. In the case of universities, transportation system requires proper planning, accurate estimation of demand and supply of transportation and provision of alternatives (Tahani Y. Al Hanaei 2007).

Commonly little attention to given to campus parking issues and transportation management system. It is important to give attention to campus area’s transportation planning because issues or mess in campus area has potential to affect the nearby town. The purpose of this research proposal is to identify the issues of parking and transportation fee and local transportation facilities available at Beihang University, Beijing, China.

Beihang University established in 1952 and enjoy the status of the first university offering aerospace technological education in the country. The university offers graduate, undergraduate and doctoral programs in areas of aeronautics, astronautics, and informatics. Roughly 10,282 students are enrolled in postgraduate programs, 12,523 in graduate programs and total 3,359 staff members. On the other hand, 49 fields offer doctoral programs, 144 programs for postgraduates and bachelors’ program consist of total 48 fields. On the other hand, the university offers highquality laboratories and libraries which have the status of China's top laboratories and libraries (BUAA.Edu.CN 2017).

The transportation system of the university is convenient and easy to access for local and international students as well. Different subways, railroads, and bus lines link the university with a different section of the city. Thus, for the present study, we aim to examine the parking behaviors of drivers, the duration of their parking, balance between demand and supply of parking vehicles, and their relationship with the parking management policies of the university. Additionally, this study will propose alternative transportation techniques and strategies to increase revenues (Boamahb 2016).

Framework of the Study

Traffic safety, management, and parking issues are major concerns of large universities. The number of students, native and international students and faculty’s use of vehicles make it difficult for university management to tackle the growing demand for parking lots. Although, universities have a large area the increasing numbers of disciplines, research centers and buildings for sports and alumni etc. make it impossible for university management to create new parking space in the existing area. Further, the crowd of traffic also becomes an important issue. This situation requires additional security as well managerial concerns (Boamahb 2016).

In the case of Beihang University, the transportation issues required more attention and care to handle them because of its central location in the city and facilities of research and mutual partnerships with government level institutions. A research study conducted at the Sharjah University of America, to investigate the issues of parking and alternative structures for meeting the parking needs of people. Further, this study examined the role of increased cost to meet the requirement of people. For achieving these goals, a survey study is conducted to investigate perceptions of people who use parking.

Results indicate that multi-level parking structure is not a good alternative. It has great impacts on surroundings including a mess of traffic, noise, and waste. Further, results indicated that university should plan and execute a comprehensive transportation plan which complies with the demand and supply of traffic in the campus area (Tahani Y. Al Hanaei 2007). This study recommends the importance of growing need for education and training programs to describe give awareness to the public about different modes of transportation available at the university campus. Moreover, the growing numbers of institutions and buildings required more place and a strategic planning to tackle issues in the university.

There exist other factors a well which contributes to campus traffic. These include staff residence and involvement of university in different projects with the private and public sector. The matter of the fact is that campus transportation becomes a great issue for the present time and future as well. an empirical study conducted at Beihang university indicate that growing numbers of buildings and new blocks, lowered the capacity of parking place and results are a shortage of parking space. For this purpose, researchers also gathered and analyzed drivers’ behaviors and attitude to parking duration and they're in an on-going time (aijun 2007).

A study conducted by Barat, Cruz and Ferreira, (2011) discussed problems and solutions of the traffic problems in campus areas. Results indicated low parking price and over crowdedness. On the basis of these results, it an integrated parking management policies are suggested. These policies will encounter a logical use of parking space, initiate charges to increase revenues, and balances demand and supply of vehicles. It is also suggested that university management must attract people towards alternative parking and traffic solutions. Public transportation as an alternative approach may have positive impacts on traffic issues (Eduardo Barata 2011).

Related literature reveals that parking issue is the biggest problem in large-scale universities. The important point to note that literature related to parking issues does not examine the mode of transportation as an active variable. Thus, the study by Riggs, (2014) examined the mode of transportation as an active variable which may have positive role to tackle transport related issues. Therefore, this research study studied the impacts of travelers’ information system, parking price reforms and incentives affect the people’s attitude towards a public transport and non-motorized modes for both faculties, students and other clerical staff. Survey results indicated that many social factors and incentive programs have positive influence to provoke people to use public transportation facilities. Thus, the campus should also benchmark a desirable behavior which people intend to follow (WilliamRiggs 2014).

In the same manner, further research in the area focuses the phenomenon of construction of new parking lots. It was observed that construction of new parking lots is not cost effective as compared to the expansion of existing parking lots. Therefore, in 2013, the university has initiated to develop new parking lots but turned its focus towards outreach mode-shift to review the driving patterns of affected drivers. During the study, researchers analyze a shift in commute patterns of drivers.

This can be done because of a marketing campaign and but at the same time provided guidance about the alternative routes. This also indicated that one to one interaction with people also brought change in their commuting patterns. Results showed that people did not drive alone when they knew their targeted outreach. Thus, the research showed that this kind of programs proved effective and useful for urban cities universities campuses (Kuo 2015).

Literature reveals that increasing demand for parking is the major and increasing issue for the urban universities campuses. There exist much cause of this problem. Here, the most important point is to highlight the causes and attributes to park a vehicle in a certain place highly affected by social factors like reasons of visits, arrival and departure time are major factors to influence parking choices. For this purpose, a survey was conducted to assemble driver’s views who parked their cars, on regular basis. Analysis through discrete choice technique and binary logic model illustrated that along with these factors, parking fee, security and available parking facilities were important factors which should be kept in mind to prepare a parking plan for urban university campus (AMPANSIRIRAT 2011).

Review of the above research studies indicated that universities located at the center of an urban area require a sophisticated, integrated and strategic planning. There are numbers of reasons which imbalance the demand and supply of parking lots. Moreover, this continuous imbalance of two forces allows university management to take steps for solving these issues. Further, many strategies like alternative approaches, targeted outreach, and public awareness are recommended. The matter of the fact is these studies examine parking problems according to policy perspectives, review consumer’s thoughts but not include them while proposing a solution.

Thus, the main purpose of this study is to highlight the issues of parking and other traffic issues on the university campus of Beihang University. This study will adopt a research approach which incorporates consumers or drivers to point out the issues, they face in routine. Further, they will also suggest some potential recommendations to improve the parking conditions of the university. This new approach will give way to further developments on the campus. The matter of the facts is drivers’ involvement in the identification of problems and recommendations for improvements will provide a new and creative insight into the issues.

Research Question

Following will be the research questions of the current study;

1. What are common issues, drivers face while parking at Beihang University?

2. What are their proposed solutions to parking issues at Beihang University?

3. What will be the possible solutions to parking issues at Beihang University?

Methodology

Parking Structure of Beihang University

Beihang University occupied Xueyuan Road, the China’s heart of Silicon Valley. The campus can be divided into four components; staff residency zone, teaching area, students’ dormitory area and buildings for public activities. The matter of the fact is that as compared to teaching area, the residency area and public activity area have to face the main responsibility of traffic. The public area covers banks, shops, museum, playground, post offices, and hospitals. Thus, 442 parking lots are available in public areas and 662 in residents’ area. These parking lots provide parking facilities to outsiders as well. Thus, the case study mainly focuses the public area parking lots, their issues as explained by drivers, prospective solutions, and recommendations for future.

Design of Study

The research design will be the case study. This design allows us to examine the present phenomenon with all targeted aspects. Thus, the primary purpose of this study is to highlight the parking issues at Beihang University, China. Therefore, the parking lots located in public area of the campus will represent as a case in this study. Therefore descriptive survey research method will be employed to conduct current study. The descriptive survey is used to determine the current status of large population demographic information of the population (Kelley 2003).

The tool of the study is consist of a descriptive survey, consists of two parts, close-ended questions and open-ended questions. The close-ended questions will deal with the numbers of arrivals in campus, time spends on campus, and issues they face during parking in public area of the campus. On the other hand, open-ended questions will be designed to get their subjective ideas that how improvement would be made to improve quality of parking facilities. The use of a questionnaire as a tool to gather data in survey method as an instrument made it easy for researchers to analyze. It provided subjective information, easy administration, and generalization. It is also useful to measure attitudes which are difficult to measure with observational techniques (Levin 2009).

Process of Data Collection

There are two gates through which people can enter in the public area of the university. It is important for researchers to count the occupancy of each parking lot. Thus, for measuring the time span in university, researchers will distribute each entering vehicle a questionnaire in which time of their arrival will be mentioned. Researchers request drivers to return questionnaire when they exist. In this way, the researcher will be able to note their total time spending on campus.

This process will benefit the study in two ways, in the first way when researchers distribute questionnaire, they can measure the demand for parking lots in public area of the campus. Secondly, this process will also be useful even when people do not fill the questionnaire but researchers will note their exit time. The matter of the fact is that researchers will questionnaire within two consecutive days. Researchers will remain present at two gates for two days, from 9: am to 5: pm. The cost of this survey study will comprise of questionnaire papers and cost of photocopies.

Analysis Techniques

The data will be analyzed through statistical techniques, mean and standard deviation. These techniques highlight the numbers of people who use parking lots, regularly. On the other hand, researchers can compare the demand ratio among different parking lots. Further, the discrete choice model will be used to analyze the choice patterns of drivers to park in a specific parking lot. We assume that safety, parking fee, location, the distance between their visited building and nature of their visit are some factors which affect their parking behaviors.

On the next stage of the study, the geographical information system will be used to analyze the spatial patterns of university campus area. GIS is a technology which enables researchers to collect, analyze, store and interpret information regarding decision-making process and will be useful to problem-solving. This data will prove useful when cross-examines with the survey data. GIS information will inform about different elements or objects, their relationship and existence in the university area (Folger 2009).

Outcomes and Contribution to the Study

The primary purpose of this research study is to highlight the issues and demand of parking lots in public area of Beihang University. This study will be unique in the sense that it will involve consumers’ opinion, i.e. consumers’ information about their parking attitudes and problems. Further, they will also share their opinion that how parking facilities can be improved in future. Results will also prove useful for policymakers and traffic management to improve parking structure through the elimination of undesired elements and addition of required facilities. Thus, this will grab the people who park on the campus and create traffic issues.

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