Evolution of the parking system characteristics for the commercial vehicles in the centre of Thessaloniki

Περίληψη

The urban road freight transport requires specific and significant infrastructure in order to carry and distribute goods to the final destinations, such as dedicated parking places along the road network, designed by the local policy makers in such way to service as many as possible receivers. However, in most cases, the urban centers struggle to provide the minimum required parking places needed, since the number of vehicles using the road network over exceed the number of the available parking places. In this framework, drivers of the passenger vehicles often use the dedicated to the commercial vehicles parking places thus creating major problems to drivers of commercial vehicles concerning their loading/ unloading procedures. The present paper, presents the difference between the actual and the expected usage of the dedicated to commercial vehicles parking places. Furthermore, the paper investigates the issue of knowledge of the locations of these dedicated parking places to be used by the drivers of the commercial vehicles. This investigation is based on a questionnaire addressed to the drivers of commercial vehicles. The questionnaire based survey performed during the period September - December 2014. The results obtained can be useful for planners in order to better understand the interaction between the land use system and the transport system.