Manage the Curb: Optimization of Time-Varying Parking Zones in Micromobility Systems.

The article focuses on the Parking Zone Design Problem (PZDP), an optimization approach for micromobility service providers to plan time-varying parking zones under dynamic municipal parking restrictions managed via curbside management software (CMS) and geofencing technology. It formulates PZDP as a deterministic, single-stage problem on a weighted graph representing a city's street network, aiming to minimize total costs—including per-period, inception, and termination costs of parking edges—while ensuring representative user trips meet travel time budgets. Two mixed-integer programming (MIP) models are proposed and benchmarked, with a case study in Berlin-Mitte demonstrating that dynamic parking zones reduce curb space usage and provider costs compared to static operating areas, benefiting residents and providers but slightly increasing user travel times. The study also finds that PZDP solutions are robust against variations in mobility demand, municipal pricing, travel time expectations, and uncertain vehicle availability, though it acknowledges limitations such as ignoring congestion, competition, and stochastic demand, suggesting these as directions for future research.