Parking occupancy estimation

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for estimating parking occupancy. For a paid parking period, parking meter transaction data may be acquired for a parking meter encompassed by a zone of one or more parking spaces. The parking meter transaction data may be evaluated to determine status data, such as an estimation of whether one or more parking spaces are available, occupied, and/or will become available. A parking occupancy, indicative of a likelihood of available parking spaces, may be estimated based upon the status data. For a free parking period, the parking occupancy may be estimated based upon vehicle flow data that is indicative of vehicles entering, parking, and/or leaving the one or more parking spaces. In this way, the parking occupancy may be provided to a driver to mitigate wasted time and/or gas otherwise spent searching for an available parking space.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for estimating parking availability, comprising:
 acquiring cellular data associated with a zone;   evaluating the cellular data to determine status data for one or more parking spaces, the status data comprising an estimation as to whether the one or more parking spaces are available or occupied, the status data comprising an estimated availability time at which one or more occupied parking spaces are estimated to become available;   estimating a parking availability for the zone based upon the status data; and   displaying the parking availability through a user interface based upon an availability threshold range corresponding to the parking availability, the displaying comprising:
 responsive to the parking availability corresponding to a first availability threshold range, displaying a first availability status for a user interface element representing the zone through the user interface; and 
 responsive to the parking availability corresponding to a second availability threshold range, displaying a second availability status for the user interface element. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , the cellular data comprising vehicle flow data associated with one or more vehicles, the method comprising:
 evaluating the vehicle flow data to determine a net number of vehicles within the zone at a point of time;   integrating the net number of vehicles over time to determine a net number of vehicles observed to be remaining in the zone compared to leaving the zone; and   updating the parking availability for the zone based upon the net number of vehicles observed to be remaining in the zone compared to leaving the zone to create an updated parking availability for the zone.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 estimating a set of parking availabilities for one or more zones encompassing portions of a block of parking spaces;   determining a block parking availability for the block of parking spaces based upon the set of parking availabilities; and   displaying the block parking availability through the user interface.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , the displaying the block parking availability comprising:
 responsive to the block parking availability corresponding to the first availability threshold range, displaying the first availability status for a block user interface element representing the block of parking spaces through the user interface; and   responsive to the block parking availability corresponding the second availability threshold range, displaying the second availability status for the block user interface element.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising:
 matching transaction data to the net number of vehicles observed to be remaining in the zone compared to leaving the zone to obtain a scale factor and offset; and   applying the scale factor and offset to the net number of vehicles observed to be remaining in the zone compared to leaving the zone.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 3 , the displaying the block parking availability comprising:
 responsive to the block parking availability being indicative of a restriction, displaying a restriction status for a block user interface element representing the block of parking spaces through the user interface.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 evaluating transaction data to determine a payment rate.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , the updating the parking availability for the zone comprising:
 normalizing the net number of vehicles observed to be remaining in the zone compared to leaving the zone based upon transaction data.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , comprising:
 displaying the payment rate through the user interface.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 generating a parking availability model based upon the parking availability; and   predicting a future parking availability for the zone based upon the parking availability model.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , the generating a parking availability model comprising:
 training the parking availability model based upon parking availabilities associated with at least one of a weather condition, a season, or an event occurrence.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , the displaying the parking availability comprising:
 displaying a textual indication of the parking availability through the user interface.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , the cellular data comprising global positioning system (GPS) data. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 determining a total paid parking duration for a first time period; and   estimating a first parking availability for the first time period based upon the total paid parking duration.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 acquiring transaction data, the transaction data comprising an identifier, a timestamp associated with a payment, and a paid parking duration for which parking was paid, the evaluating based upon the transaction data.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 2 , the vehicle flow data comprising a location of a vehicle, a speed of the vehicle, and a heading of the vehicle. 
     
     
         17 . A system for estimating parking availability, comprising:
 a processor; and   memory comprising instructions that when executed by the processor perform operations comprising:
 acquiring data associated with a zone; 
 evaluating the data to determine status data for one or more parking spaces; 
 estimating a parking availability for the zone based upon the status data; and 
 displaying the parking availability through a user interface based upon an availability threshold range corresponding to the parking availability, the displaying comprising:
 responsive to the parking availability corresponding to a first availability threshold range, displaying a first availability status for a user interface element representing the zone through the user interface; and 
 responsive to the parking availability corresponding to a second availability threshold range, displaying a second availability status for the user interface element. 
 
   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , the operations comprising:
 estimating a set of parking availabilities for one or more zones encompassing portions of a block of parking spaces;   determining a block parking availability for the block of parking spaces based upon the set of parking availabilities; and   displaying the block parking availability through the user interface.   
     
     
         19 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which when executed perform a method for estimating parking availability, comprising:
 acquiring data associated with a zone;   evaluating the data to determine status data for one or more parking spaces, the status data comprising an estimation as to whether the one or more parking spaces are available or occupied, the status data comprising an estimated availability time at which one or more occupied parking spaces are estimated to become available;   estimating a parking availability for the zone based upon the status data; and   displaying the parking availability through a user interface based upon an availability threshold range corresponding to the parking availability, the displaying comprising:
 responsive to the parking availability corresponding to a first availability threshold range, displaying a first availability status for a user interface element representing the zone through the user interface; and 
 responsive to the parking availability corresponding to a second availability threshold range, displaying a second availability status for the user interface element. 
   
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 19 , the method comprising:
 generating a parking availability model based upon the parking availability; and   predicting a future parking availability for the zone based upon the parking availability model.