Machine Learning‐Based Prediction of Parking Space Availability in IoT‐Enabled Smart Parking Management Systems

Abstract

Parking space management has become a critical challenge in urban areas due to increasing vehicle numbers and limited parking infrastructure. This paper presents a comprehensive study of machine learning (ML) models in IoT‐enabled environments focusing on proposing an ML‐based model for predicting available parking space. The study evaluates the performance of various models including K‐nearest neighbors (KNNs), support vector machines (SVMs), random forest (RF), decision tree (DT), logistic regression (LR), and Naïve Bayes (NB) based on “precision, recall, accuracy, and F 1‐score performance metrics”. The results obtained by implementing ML models on the data with 65% and 85% threshold values are compared to draw meaningful conclusions regarding their performance in predicting parking space availability. Among the evaluated models, random forest (RF) demonstrates superior performance with high precision, recall, accuracy, and F 1‐score values. It showcases its effectiveness in accurately predicting parking space availability in the IoT‐enabled environment. On the other hand, models such as K‐nearest neighbors (KNNs), decision tree (DT), logistic regression (LR), and Naïve Bayes (NB) show relatively lower performance in complex parking scenarios. The paper concludes that the use of advanced predictive models, particularly random forest, significantly enhances the accuracy and reliability of IoT‐enabled parking management systems and also reduces the waiting time of the vehicles, leading to more efficient resource utilization, reduced traffic congestion in real‐time scenarios, and better user satisfaction in the IoT‐enabled environment.