We investigate simple strategies that embody the decisions that one faces when trying to park near a popular destination. Should one park far from the target (destination), where finding a spot is easy, but then be faced with a long walk, or should one attempt to look for a desirable spot close to the target, where spots may be hard to find? We study an idealized parking process on a one-dimensional geometry where the desired target is located at x=0, cars enter the system from the right at a rate λ and each car leaves at a unit rate. We analyze three parking strategies---meek, prudent, and optimistic---and determine which is optimal.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1904.06612,
title = {Simple Parking Strategies},
author = {P. L. Krapivsky and S. Redner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.06612},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
16 pages, 10 figures, IOP format. Revised version has various small corrections and nearly coincides with the published version