SSUET Parking Facility, A Case Study; Current Scenario, Future Needs and Proposed Solution

This paper presents results of a study carried out for planning a parking facility in order to mitigate traffic congestion problem on Sardar Ali Sabri Road near Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology (SSUET) Chowk in Gulshan-e-Iqbal town of Karachi city. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) guidelines were used in planning of the parking facility. The planned parking facility has capacity to accommodate around 700 cars and 2000 motorcycles. A traffic study has been carried out to estimate the space required by vehicles for parking in the SSUET. Data analysis of traffic growth of Karachi city has been performed to study the co-relation between traffic growth rate of Karachi and number of parking vehicles in SSUET. It is found that no such co-relation exists and the city's traffic has no impacton number of parking vehicles in SSUET. It is found that the parameters, affecting growth of parking traffic in SSUET, are number of departments of the university and number of seats per discipline allowed by HEC/PEC. Finally, construction of a parking plaza in SSUET is proposed for improvement of parking facilities.