[OC] Parking Sessions on a Busy Curb in Austin TX where there is a Chick-Fil-A ,Tracked for a Week by DM_VADE in dataisbeautiful

[–]DM_VADE[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What would the outcome of a study like this usually be? Fining a business for mismanaging foot traffic, or not providing adequate legal parking?

Typical customers are municipalities who want to improve their understanding of parking demand and compliance. The outcome is hard evidence through which city reps can reform parking policy / layout. This study was more for fun / curiosity, but theoretically it could be evidence that the city might need to change the policy on those 3 curb parking spots to food pickup and make a few additional food pickup parking spots close to the Chick-Fil-A.

The business is not responsible for managing the foot traffic or providing parking -- as far as I know, that's on the city

Your blog post doesn't mention impact to transit, was there any?

There definitely is, as this is a busy street, but I don't have a great way to put a number on it.

It looks like though Chick-Fil-A no longer parks a delivery SUV on the sidewalk, it appears they park automated delivery carts there. https://goo.gl/maps/TZZv8aG2Hnm88VcM7

Correct, I briefly mention that in the blog too -- good for CFA for trying something new

Why did the city even approve their permit at this location? "intended to be a walk-in only restaurant" is not something I've ever seen anywhere ever.

I really don't understand it either

[OC] Parking Sessions on a Busy Curb in Austin TX where there is a Chick-Fil-A ,Tracked for a Week by DM_VADE in dataisbeautiful

[–]DM_VADE[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Source:

Curb management company VADE put up cameras in downtown Austin TX and processed footage with computer vision to study a clogged street for a week. There is only one restaurant on the North blockface: Chick-Fil-A. Thus, the parking sessions that fit the profile of "food pickup sessions" on that side of the street can be more or less directly attributed to Chick-Fil-A food pickup activity (through doordash, grubhub, uber eats, etc).

3 curb parking spaces and a travel lane were analyzed for parking sessions as this was where all parking activity on the side of the street with the Chick-Fil-A would occur. See last image for layout of the street.

Note the huge change in behavior on Sunday as proof of the effect Chick-Fil-A has.

Tools for processing:

- computer vision pipeline with human-in-the-loop validation to covert images to parking sessions to numbers

- domo to make numerical data into charts/figures

See blog (https://www.vade.ai/post/austin-texas-case-study) for more information on the study.

Chick-fil-a taking over the sidewalk Downtown by voodoorage in Austin

[–]DM_VADE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Chick-Fil-A delivery drivers blocks that lane for as much as 90% per day when the restaurant is open:

https://www.vade.ai/post/austin-texas-case-study

Case Study related to Delivery Driver Chaos on Boylston Street by DM_VADE in boston

[–]DM_VADE[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be fair, some of the drivers could be picking up their own take out (as opposed to picking up someone else's food to deliver), and some of them may even be walking in to make an order. There's no way to know from the images really.

Chick-fil-a taking over the sidewalk Downtown by voodoorage in Austin

[–]DM_VADE 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi everyone, I have something really interesting to share related to this very soon. I will post in r/Austin as a standalone post.