The Intersection of Parking Data and Mobility
By Jennette Cheung
Team members conducting fieldwork in the Ala Moana neighborhood. Photo: Kaz Sakamoto.
Two Twelve Principal and Columbia University Adjunct Ann Harakawa and Columbia University Adjunct Professor Kaz Sakamoto, with support from Two Twelve and a grant funded from the Ulupono Fund at Hawai‘i Community Foundation, selected graduate students from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and University of Hawai‘i to pose and begin answering the research questions of: How can technology augment parking studies for improvement in accuracy and efficiency? What are the technologies currently available and gaps in need that could be filled in the parking management industry?
In August 2019, the group led efforts to count and map on- and off-street parking in the Ala Moana neighborhood. They trained on Coord (a Sidewalk Labs spin-off and an augmented-reality curb asset management platform) and traditional GPS data collection methods to document parking spaces and provide the inventory data to the Ulupono Initiative and the City & County of Honolulu. Compared to having individual surveyors use traditional methods of data collection with a GPS device and data spreadsheets, Coord’s Toolkit was 3x faster than the traditional methodology. Coord’s toolkit also allowed for easier data processing, instead of additional time-consuming transcription by hand, in order to make the data assets more useful and easier to understand. The value of the curb asset management platform is not only time efficiency, but also the reduction of human error and increased accuracy of the data.
Workshop Team Members. Photo: Jennette Cheung.
The report highlights the value of up-to-date information and the importance of a centralized database for parking data collection and analysis. Oversupply of parking along with uneven distribution contributes to a discrepancy between how parking spaces in the neighborhood are perceived and utilized. Such a discrepancy contributes to underutilized parking spaces, congestion, and other public safety issues. The opportunity is in coordinated, multifaceted efforts between all stakeholders, public and private entities, to establish standardized data collection and management strategies, in-depth analyses, and increased community awareness to optimize parking space for public good and service.
Read more about the study here: https://www.arch.columbia.edu/summer-workshops/29-urban-data-parking-in-the-ala-moana-neighborhood-and-its-impact-on-mobility
Download the report: https://cdn.filepicker.io/api/file/ZC2uTtXDRnyqZfj03vcQ?
Workshop Team Members
Workshop Team Leaders
Jennette Cheung
Ann Harakawa
Kaz Sakamoto
Columbia University
Kevin Kim (MS, Urban Planning ‘20)
Ri Le (MS, Urban Planning ‘20)
Lorraine Liao (MS, Urban Planning ‘20)
Tola Oniyangi (Masters in Architecture; MS, Urban Planning ‘20)
Qi Yang (Masters in Architecture ‘20)
University of Hawai'i
Derek Ford (Masters in Geography)
Kendrick Leong (Masters in Urban and Regional Planning '19)
City & County of Honolulu, Department of Transportation Services
Frankie Burgos
Zachary Ramos