A new algorithm raises parking rates in busy neighborhoods and lowers them elsewhere, guaranteeing free parking spots regardless of location. Christopher Intagliata reports.

一种新的算法提高了城市繁忙地带的停车率，并且降低了其它地方的停车率，这样就保证了城市任何地方都有停车位。—— Christopher Intagliata报道。

If you drive in a city, you’ve no doubt experienced the frustration¹ of circling block after block, cruising for parking. But scientists who study that phenomenon² have a solution to free up more spots:

如果你在一个城市开车，毫无疑问，你肯定会有开过一个又一个的街区，苦苦寻觅停车位的经历。但近日，研究这种现象的科学家找到了可以带来更多停车位的解决方案：

"You make them more expensive, so people have to decide whether to park farther away and pay less, or closer and pay more." Itzhak Benenson, a system scientist at Tel Aviv University.

“如果让中心地带的停车费变得更加昂贵，人们就必须决定是否是把车停在更远的地方，支付更少的停车费，还是停的近，付得多。” Itzhak Benenson说到，他是特拉维夫大学的系统科学家。

San Francisco has piloted a program that raises parking rates based on demand—and it’s been shown to reduce cruising. But the sensors³ required for those systems can cost millions of dollars to install and operate, Benenson says. So instead, writing in IEEE Intelligent Transportation⁴ Systems Magazine, he and his colleague Nir Fulman describe an algorithm that can determine smart pricing, without the use of sensors. [Nir Fulman and Itzhak Benenson, Establishing Heterogeneous⁵ Parking Prices for Uniform Parking Availability for Autonomous⁶ and Human-Driven Vehicles]

在旧金山已经试行了一项根据需求提高停车费率的计划 - 并且已经证明该计划可以减少人们找停车位的时间。 但Benenson表示，这些系统所需的传感器安装和操作成本可能高达数百万美元。因此，取而代之的，在IEEE智能交通系统杂志上，他和他的同事Nir Fulman论述了一种可以在不使用传感器的情况下进行智能定价的算法。 [Nir Fulman和Itzhak Benenson著，建立可以实现汽车和人力驱动车都能停车的多元停车定价系统 Establishing Heterogeneous Parking Prices for Uniform Parking Availability for Autonomous and Human-Driven Vehicles]

They tested it on the Israeli city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. First, they divide the city into zones. They estimate the parking demand in each zone, by calculating the number of apartments and offices there. Then they factor in parking supplyin the area, along with how wealthy potential parkers might be. Using that data, the algorithm suggested pricing for each zone that would guarantee a 90-percent occupancy rate of parking spots city-wide. Meaning 10 percent of spots were always available to drivers willing to pay the price, regardless of neighborhood.

他们在特拉维夫附近的以色列城市巴特亚姆进行了测试。 首先，他们将城市划分为区域。他们通过计算每个区域公寓和办公室的数量来估算每个区域的停车需求。然后，他们将该地区的停车供应、以及潜在停车客户财富实力纳入考量。通过使用该数据，该算法设定出每个区域的定价可以保证全市停车位占用率达到90%。这意味着有10%的停车位总是可供愿意支付价格的司机使用，无论位处何处。

Of course, not everyone will agree that jacking up parking prices will ease driver frustrations⁷. Last time Benenson proposed hiking rates for city residents? "I got about 100 reactions on the web and 99 of them that said they have never heard such a stupid statement from the professors, and I should be punished and fired."

当然，并非所有人都会同意提高停车价格可以减轻驾驶员在找停车位时的心力交瘁。 Benenson曾有次提议提高居民的住房租金 “我在网上收到了大约100条反馈，其中99个说他们从未听过教授会做出那么愚蠢的建议，他们说我应该受到惩罚、并被解雇。”

Ultimately, he says, it’ll be up to cities themselves to gauge⁸ their residents’ political appetites for an easier parking spot.

他说，归根结底，要由城市自己来衡量居民对建立一个更容易停车体系的政治意图。