A Study on vehical users behaviour leading to parking problems in urban areas : with special references to two selected cities in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka has experiencing the continuous incensement of motor traffic. Approximately 350,000 vehicles have been yearly added to the vehicle volume in Sri Lanka. It also affects adversely on city functioning by creating compound problem of parking. People make their parking decisions thus, the parking behaviour to be determined by their attitudes and behavioral intentions. On the other hand, an individual’s perception has been influenced by the determinant factors of the same. This study is trying to analyze the relationship between the perception determinant factors and parking determinant factors in order to recognize how far they have influenced on the inferences of the parkers in their behaviour. This study proves that majority of parkers viewed that parking is as a facility not a requirement of a city functioning. As long as the users think that the parking is a facility, they tend to park at any vacated space within the city without considering other issues that can arise due to their behaviour based on perception as analysed. The factors that are contributing to the user behaviour are the distances to the desired destination from the palace of parking based on Gender. Age is a factor even the aged parkers like to park as much as close to their desired destination than young users. In terms of safety, females and older aged parkers are very concern about the safety of their vehicle. It has anticipated, with a full cover insurance parkers may accept to park at a considerable distance such as 200 meters. However, the study revealed that in terms of safety the full cover vehicle insurance has no effect on selecting the parking location. Further the study revealed that in prioritizing the distance to the desired destination and the safety disregarded other factors, majority of the parkers are selecting close proximity than the safety. The behaviour of parkers against the parking fee proved that the paid parking at the city center is acceptable. It signifies that the parkers are willing to bear the cost of parking if available at convenient location in the city Center. In summarizing the above factors, it indicates that the user behaviour of the parkers has been affected by their own individual perception for increasing trend on, on-street parking which ultimately led to parking problems.