Toward converting some individual parks into smart parks in Kerbela city

University of Kufa, Najaf, Iraq

^* Corresponding author: hamid.aljameel@uokufa.edu.iq

Abstract

The city of Kerbela is from the famous holy cities in Iraq and in the world where the holy shrine of Imam Hussein there. This city suffers from lack of suitable parking area for the vehicles coming to this city. This study selects a surrounding section which is approximately the same as other sections surrounding the city center. Knowing the problems in this section give a comprehensive picture for parking problems in the whole city. The study area has serious parking problems; therefore five off-street parks have been surveyed for two days during ordinary day and the other one in religious day (Thursday at day and night). Other types of data have been collected such as vehicular flow and pedestrian flow in order to select the best management for this area. The location of these five parks is on the north side of the city facing the main arterial street surrounding the holy city and in the opposing direction to the main garage called Al-Garage Al-Muhad from which different trips end and start. The analysis results of field data show that parking behavior differs in the ordinary day from the day of religious issues. It is a specific location has been assigned for one park with multi-stories in the same area as alternative of these separated parks. In addition, it was found that there is a need for managing pedestrian movement related to the parking vehicles in this area. This study also suggests using smart parking system as first step towards building intelligent transportation system to manage the parking facilities.