Paper Details

Importance of transportation in development of a region is multidimensional. Parking is an integral part of awell-planned transportation system which is often ignored or ill planned in metropolitan cities. This force drivers to parkhaphazardly, consequently rising parking demand and congestion on the adjacent links.The parking problem in Peshawar is a big issue since long time but the Central Business District of Peshawar, Saddar regionhas affected at large. High parking demand and Traffic jam has become a daily nuisance, wasting time of the drivers,creating psychological distress, air and noise pollution which are detrimental to the environment. Also, it has a negativeeffect on the businesses in the region.Parking problems are caused by high trip generation rate in the peak hours due to the presence of major shopping malls andrecreational centers. Another big factor is the population growth rate which has risen at highest rate in the last decade andthis has led increased number of personal motorized vehicle ownership.Huge number of vehicles rush to Saddar in peak hours but there is no proper parking management system to cater thedemand. Existing parking policies encourage drivers to utilize On-street parking due to deficiency of Off-street parking.Although there are no parking provisions on some roads, but vehicles are still parked there due to weak enforcement and theunwillingness of drivers to park in Off-street parking that are at a distance from On-street parking.The CBD has shopping centers at small distances from each other with many of shopping centers and offices have no privateparking. Also, construction of new shopping centers is on the rise which is further increasing the already high parkingdemand. Until now there has no policies developed to cope with the increasing parking demand and traffic congestion.in this research, firstly in and out survey was conducted throughout the week to find the peak days and hours of parkingdemand. In the second stage detailed number plate survey was conducted in the peak parking demand period for two hoursand detailed data was collected for all the parking including accumulation, occupancy, average parking turnover andaverage parking duration. On-street parking showed high parking index as compared to off street. High parking demand wasrecorded from Monday to Wednesday. Although demand was low on Saturday as compared to Monday, Tuesday andWednesday but the peak hour shifted to later hours of the day. The overall parking demand for on-street parking was muchhigher than off-street due to the tendency of parkers to park near their destination and they are 38 in number while off-streetare only 6. After analysis it was clear that new off-street parking facilities need to be built to discourage on-street parking sothat it can equalize the on-street and off-street parking demand and relieve congestion in peak hours

Shah Faisal, Rawid Khan, Tariq khan, Manzoor Elahi, Kashif Durrani, “The Study and Optimization of Parking Facilities in Central Business District: A Case Study of Saddar Peshawar, Pakistan”, International Journal of Advance Engineering and Research Development (IJAERD), Vol. 6, Issue 8, pp. 70-82, August 2019.