Parking | EPFL Graph Search

thumb|Exemple de parking souterrain en Allemagne. thumb|Projet d'hôtel à parking intégré (Automobilhotel) à Berlin, Allemagne, 1928. Un parking, parc de stationnement, aire de stationnement ou stationneur, est un espace ou un bâtiment spécifiquement aménagé pour le stationnement des véhicules. Il peut être public ou privé, en enclos, en élévation ou souterrain. On en trouve le plus souvent à côté des bâtiments publics (gare, aéroport), des lieux de travail, des centres commerciaux ou devant les grandes surfaces pour accueillir les usagers. Le symbole signalétique presque universel signifiant « parking » est un « P » majuscule blanc sur un disque ou un carré bleu. En Amérique du Nord par contre, le fond est vert. On le trouve sur des panneaux qui signalent l'abord d'un parking d'ouvrage, d'un parc de stationnement ou de places de stationnement. Il est également repris comme tel sur les cartes routières et les plans de villes. En Amérique du Sud, on trouve le « E » de l'espagnol estac

Requalifier la plaine Bellevue. Un campus ouvert à Sierre (VS)

Samuel Tschopp

Le projet propose d'offrir à la ville un centre dédié à la formation et à la culture sous la forme d'un campus dont le programme exprime une réponse à une demande réelle : la logique de regroupement des hautes écoles invite les facultés à se rassembler sur quelques sites denses afin de partager leurs connaissances, l'augmentation de nouveaux étudiants contraint les écoles à agrandir leurs locaux, la ville souffre d'une pénurie de logements bon marché. Calé longitudinalement sous la voie ferrée, le projet illustre son impact au cœur de la ville en complétant une figure urbaine qui dessine un axe majeur transversal à la vallée du Rhône en contenant la gare. Après plusieurs paliers, l'axe aboutit sur le Petit-Bois qui vient clore la séquence spatiale en surplombant le cimetière. Le geste architectural unificateur perce la barrière de croissance des voies CFF en reliant la Plaine Bellevue à la ville via un forum souterrain. Le bâtiment triparti renferme dans son socle minéral et pérenne un parking public et des salles de classe tandis que sa superstructure préfabriquée contient ponctuellement, en tête, l'Ecole Cantonale d'Art du Valais et, en corps, des unités de logement pour les étudiants dont la construction s'échelonnera dans le temps en fonction des besoins. La haute école existante termine le complexe à son extrémité ouest et fournit les trois niveaux de référence dont le socle du projet se nourrit et qu'il propose d'étendre comme autant de promenades et de vues sur la Plaine.

2005

A Dynamic Network Approach for Multimodal Urban Mobility

Nan Zheng

Recent advances in traffic flow theory at the network level, namely the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD), reveals the existence of well-defined laws of congestion dynamics at aggregated levels. The same knowledge for multimodal networks however is limited. It is critical to understand how urban space can be allocated and managed for multimodality. The objective is to develop aggregated modeling and optimization approaches, which will contribute on the knowledge of congestion dynamics in cities of different structures and mode usages, and ultimately facilitate the design of efficient and equitable urban transport policies. Building on the knowledge of the single-mode MFD theory, a bi-modal MFD model considering the effect of mode conflict is proposed for mixed networks of buses and cars. A system-level model is developed for multiple-region city network. The flow dynamics among regions are described by a regional level flow conservation law. A non-linear optimization framework is performed to optimize space allocation, minimizing the total passenger cost, given certain demand, city structure and road facility. Then, parking limitation is integrated in the proposed multi-modal system model, where vehicles cruising for parking are also integrated. The extra delay of cruising is captured by a geometric distribution related to the time-dependent parking availability and estimated at the aggregated level. The delay cost to other users is also estimated via the bi-modal MFD, and it shows the effect of cruising on all travelers who do not require parking. Optimal parking pricing policies for on-street and garage parking are obtained through the optimization framework, as well. The existence of a three-dimensional MFD (3D-MFD) for mixed bi-modal networks is investigated and analyzed via micro-traffic simulation studies. A 3D-MFD relates vehicular production of a network (flow, travel distance) to the density of cars and buses, where the impact of each mode on network performance can be directly observed. To further compare the modal impact on performance, the Bus-Car Unit equivalent value is estimated, indicating that this value is state- and mode-composition dependent rather than deterministic. In addition to the conventional vehicle-flow-based analysis, a passenger 3D-MFD is derived which provides a different perspective of the flow characteristics in bi-modal networks. Simulation study on 3D-MFD based perimeter-control shows promising performance in real-time control. The final part of the thesis concerns the MFD-controlled congestion pricing. Feedback-type control mechanisms are proposed to determine and adjust the time-dependent tolls, based on congestion level as expressed by the MFD. One pricing scheme also considers userâs adaptation to the toll cost, allowing a great flexibility in toll adjustment, and deals with the promotion of public transport usage. The performance of the pricing schemes is investigated in an existing agent-based model where the complex travel behavior in real-life is reasonably reproduced. Results demonstrate that the pricing schemes are effective in congestion reduction. Remarkably, smooth behavioral equilibrium in long-term operation is found under such pricing schemes. Furthermore, user heterogeneity with respect to value-of-time is introduced in the agent-based model. By realizing and treating this heterogeneity, pricing strategies can achieve even higher efficiency and equitable benefit.

EPFL2014

AGIR - A decision support tool for Geneva ring-road traffic management during important events

Emmanuel Bert

Geneva is a city used to organise international events like for example the International Motor Show which takes place every year. Most of these events are hold on the Palexpo area, a group of buildings situated near the Geneva airport. Both places are closely connected to the city ring highway. Traffic generated by this type of events obviously implies a totally different demand distribution shape compared to usual days. In addition, traffic volumes recorded during the event peak hours, (usually observed around the opening and closing hours), can reach up to the double of the ones ordinarily experienced. Given that the road network has not been design to handle this type of demand, important congestions are consequently observed during event periods implying important accidents risk, parking lot saturation and an overuse of the local network provoking annoyances for residents. In order to minimize these problems, the Geneva Transport Office asked Arx iT and CITEC (both local consultancy companies) to develop a method for supporting traffic management on the ring road. The basic concept is to implement in the Geneva highway traffic centre an on- line traffic data analysis tool which is able to, depending on the traffic situation (data coming from loop detectors and cameras) and parking lots occupancy, suggest a set of recommendations to be provided to road users through variable message signs. The whole process mainly relies on comparisons between the current network status and historical situations already observed during past events. For each of these situations correspond a traveller information scenario which has been designed based on empirical experiences. Although this tool has been offering reasonably good results for three years, situations without clear correspondence with past conditions are still frequently observed and the lack of experience on this particular cases lead sometimes to erroneous information scenario selection. Of course, facing these new situations allows traffic operators to increase their human knowledge, on which mainly relies the current AGIR process. Nevertheless, need for more systematic analysis process has been clearly identified. Reproducing various traffic situations without having to wait them to occur in reality is one of the major purposes of using traffic simulation tools in transportation studies. Thus, EPFL (Swiss federal Institute of Technology) has been in charge to assess the current AGIR system performances and to improve the knowledge data base through artificial experiments using a microsimulation model of the Geneva ring highway and part of the local network. For this task, EPFL has been helped by TSS, the company developing AIMSUN NG, the traffic simulator used for this analysis. The use of microsimulation offered the possibility of dynamically study the network’s traffic reaction to the information provided to simulated drivers by the AGIR system. This reaction implying new traffic data outputs, which are used as input for the AGIR process, the time dependent interaction between traffic situation and information system is fully captured. As simulation models offer statistical traffic outputs for each network element, global performance indexes could be computed offering a more realistic assessment of situation that only relying on traffic detection data. This complementary approach has been shown to be particularly efficient to improve current process and offer better answers to non frequent situations. Currently done off- line, possible integration of the simulation tool for on- line decision process is discussed for the future.