Commuter Departure Time Choice Considering Parking Space Shortage and Commuter’s Bounded Rationality

In order to better understand how commuters decide departure time considering parking space shortage and commuters’ bounded rationality, the reference point hypothesis of prospect theory is applied in the departure time decision-making. Commuter personal perception differences, the road congestion situation, destination parking status, and other factors were also analysed in the influence of commuter departure time choice. Based on prospect theory, an experiment was designed to investigate the intention of the commuter departure time choice. The experiment results show that the commuter’s travel satisfaction and the departure time choice of the next trip are related to the parking space residual status after the commuter arrives at the destination. The satisfaction degree of the commuter is reduced, with the decrease of the remaining parking spaces. If the commuter is satisfied with the travel result, the commuter’s departure time of next trip tends to be later. In the case of illegal parking, different penalty measures may lead to different decisions of next departure time choice. A commuter tends to depart earlier when more severe punishment for illegal parking is enforced. The research results can reveal to some degree the travellers’ departure time choice behaviour when they face the risk of no parking spaces and provide a theoretical and practical support for parking management and car travelling decision.