Cost of a Parking Space
OPTIMIZATION OF RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION IN THE GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY PARKING SYSTEM
Student team: Stephen Cannon, Shakeb Rehman, Alberto Mendez, Vincent Vo, Ana Maria Ordoñez, Amit Singh Faculty Advisor: George L. Donohue Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research Client Advisor: Kenneth E. Bumgarner George Mason University University Services Fairfax, VA kbumgarn@gmu.edu KEYWORDS: Urban affairs, system engineering, parking, George Mason University, Transportation, Decision-making, Optimization, Monte Carlo Simulation, Eventoriented Model, Parking System ABSTRACT The users of George Mason University’s parking system are quickly outgrowing the capacity of the system and are dissatisfied with the quality of the service this system provides, yet George Mason parking services are still in debt from previous expansion projects. Plans are already underway to increase the capacity of the system but not without great financial expense. Our objective is to provide a more effective means of distributing the resources of the parking system at George Mason University that is relatively inexpensive and that will work in conjunction with the existing plans to expand George Mason’s parking system. Our system design consists of a series of policies to be enacted on the George Mason University parking system by 2004. These policies are: providing carpooling incentives, restricting resident students from parking in the most valuable parking spaces, selling reserved spaces via a uniform price sealed bid auction, and differentiating the decal prices into several value groups. The effect of these policies was modeled using a computer simulation that replicated the acquisition of the system’s parking spaces by George Mason University (GMU) plans to grow to 30,000 students by 2007 and decrease its teacher to student ratio to 1:14. The effective growth rate between 2002 and 2007 will be approximately 1000 a year. Figure 1 displays the historic and projected student
Student team: Stephen Cannon, Shakeb Rehman, Alberto Mendez, Vincent Vo, Ana Maria Ordoñez, Amit Singh Faculty Advisor: George L. Donohue Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research Client Advisor: Kenneth E. Bumgarner George Mason University University Services Fairfax, VA kbumgarn@gmu.edu KEYWORDS: Urban affairs, system engineering, parking, George Mason University, Transportation, Decision-making, Optimization, Monte Carlo Simulation, Eventoriented Model, Parking System ABSTRACT The users of George Mason University’s parking system are quickly outgrowing the capacity of the system and are dissatisfied with the quality of the service this system provides, yet George Mason parking services are still in debt from previous expansion projects. Plans are already underway to increase the capacity of the system but not without great financial expense. Our objective is to provide a more effective means of distributing the resources of the parking system at George Mason University that is relatively inexpensive and that will work in conjunction with the existing plans to expand George Mason’s parking system. Our system design consists of a series of policies to be enacted on the George Mason University parking system by 2004. These policies are: providing carpooling incentives, restricting resident students from parking in the most valuable parking spaces, selling reserved spaces via a uniform price sealed bid auction, and differentiating the decal prices into several value groups. The effect of these policies was modeled using a computer simulation that replicated the acquisition of the system’s parking spaces by George Mason University (GMU) plans to grow to 30,000 students by 2007 and decrease its teacher to student ratio to 1:14. The effective growth rate between 2002 and 2007 will be approximately 1000 a year. Figure 1 displays the historic and projected student
References: Coyne, Marty (2002) “Master plan parking portion.” In proceedings of the university master plan as presented to the board of visitors by Sasaki Associates. Jones, Margaret D. (2002) “Parking Lot Crimes2001.” George Mason University Police Department. Office of Institutional Research and Reporting. 2000-2001 GMU Factbook.(2001) http:// irr.gmu.edu/factbooks/0001/index.html. Online Transportation Demand Encyclopedia (2001) Victoria Transport Policy Institute. http://www.vtpi.org/tdm. Systems Engineering Senior Design Project (2001) “Intracampus Transportation System.” Department of Systems Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax Va. BIOGRAPHIES Stephen Cannon is a fifth-year Systems Engineering student from Sterling, VA specializing in telecommunication systems and environmental systems. Mr. Cannon is also getting a Minor in Computer Science and Business. Shakeb Rehman is a fourth-year Systems Engineering student from Fairfax, VA specializing in Electrical Engineering and Networking. Mr. Rehman will stay at George Mason to continue with his M.S degree in Systems Management. Shakeb will work at DataTech Corp. in Mclean, VA after graduation. Alberto Mendez is a fourth-year Systems Engineering student originally from Bethesda, MD specializing in Database and System Management. Mr. Mendez belongs to the GMU Tennis team. Vincent Vo is a fourth-year Systems Engineering student from Fairfax, VA. Mr. Vo is currently working at the Department of Energy and plans to travel after graduation before starting his career as a Systems Engineer. Ana Maria Ordoñez is a fourth-year Systems Engineering student from Fairfax, VA specializing in Telecommunications Hardware. Ms. Ordoñez is also getting a Minor in Computer Science and will stay at George Mason to continue with her M.S. in Telecommunications. She is currently working at America Online. Amit Singh is a fourth-year Systems Engineering student from Centreville, VA specializing in Computer Networks. Mr. Singh is pursuing various job opportunities in different industries as a Systems Engineer.