METHOD FOR OPTIMIZING ROUTES FOR VEHICLE PARKING ENFORCEMENT

• US 20090024430A1
• Filed: 07/11/2008
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Cooper Marcus
• Original Assignee: Cooper Marcus
• Inventors: Marcus, Cooper
• Application Number:
  US12/171,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20090024430A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3407 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3685 the POI's being parking facilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration

Abstract

A method for optimizing routes for vehicle parking enforcement includes collecting input variable data, optimizing a parking enforcement route based on the input variable data, and communicating the optimized parking enforcement route to an enforcement agent.

Claims

1. A method for optimizing routes for vehicle parking enforcement comprising:

a) collecting input variable data;

b) optimizing a parking enforcement route based on the input variable data; and

c) communicating the optimized parking enforcement route to an enforcement agent.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the input variable data includes one selected from the group consisting of enforcement notifications, clusters of parking violators, severity of a violation, price magnitude of a violation, proximity of enforcement agent to parking violator, time to reach parking violator, time to generate a citation, a parking grace period allowed by the lot, and number of enforcement agents.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the input variable data includes one selected from the group consisting of:

year, season, month, week, day of the week, time of day, parking lot scheduling, and special event parking.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the input variable data includes predicted violations, wherein the predicted violations are calculated from historical data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the historical data includes one selected from the group consisting of parking space historical data and parking space occupant historical data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the input variable data includes an optimization constraint.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the optimization constraint is selected from the group consisting of maximizing revenue, minimizing enforcement cost, maximizing enforcement rate, minimizing enforcement time, and maximizing the patrol area of each enforcement agent.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the input variable data are each weighted, and wherein a set of weights of each input variable corresponds to the optimization constraint.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of optimizing a parking enforcement route based on the input variable data includes one optimization algorithm selected from the group consisting of linear programming, convex optimization, and dijkstra'"'"'s algorithm.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the optimization of a parking enforcement route includes outputting a first optimized enforcement route and a second optimized enforcement route.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first optimized route and the second optimized route are optimized for different optimization constraints.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating the optimized parking enforcement route to an enforcement agent includes providing enforcement route directions to the enforcement agent.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the enforcement route directions are presented to the enforcement agent visually.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the enforcement route directions are presented to the enforcement agent on a map.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the enforcement route directions are presented to the enforcement agent via audio.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the enforcement route directions are presented to the enforcement agent via email or text messages sent to a mobile device.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of repeating steps a), b) and c) to generate a new optimized enforcement route.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the new enforcement route is updated based upon updated enforcement notifications.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the new enforcement route is updated at a fixed time interval.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the new enforcement route is updated upon request of the enforcement agent.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the new enforcement route is updated based upon predicted violations or cost of violations.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of collecting feedback from an enforcement agent.