Introduction

Every day, a large percentage of drivers in single occupancy cars look for a
parking lot. In addition, less experienced drivers contribute to increased traffic
congestion .Cities witness a wide range of activities, on a daily basis in general,
and the main proportion of these activities is concentrated in the Central
Business District (CBD), i.e. the commercial and business center of a city .
Notably, the reason behind the difficulty of developing and sustaining effective
parking policies lay in the lack of information concerning parkers’ behaviors
and preferences in choosing a certain parking location in the CBD area,
especially for commuting, business and shopping trips .Consequently, the
effective method to evaluate the effects of parking strategy measures lays in the
proper understanding of parking behavior . Since the shortage of space
availability in urban areas can conduce to a rise in the demand for parking
spaces .With the rising growth of vehicle density on road, the parking problem
is expected severe on road. Therefore, a systematic study of parking
characteristic, demand, and regulatory measures that are likely to achieve
control over parking is extremely significant .
As a matter of fact, parking can exert negative effects on urban settings.
. Among these effects are

A- Congestion: Parking occupies considerable street space reducing the

capacity of road. Therefore; traffic speed will be limited, journey time and
delay will also grow as a result. The operation cost of vehicles increases
.inducing a considerable economical loss to the society

B- Environmental pollution: Parking is also responsible for causing

pollution. This is caused environment pollution since stopping and starting
vehicles during parking and unparking creates noise and fume emissions. In
addition, it may distort the aesthetic quality of the buildings since vehicles
parked at each existing space generate a sense that building rises from a
plinth of vehicles. Regarding cars parked illegally, vehicles waiting on the
road to get a free space for cars and looking for an available parking lot
have a strong impact on traffic flow

The aim of this study is to investigate the parking behavior in urban streets
such as in Al- Najaf city because limited or no specific studies may deal with
on-street parking especially in Al-Najaf city or generally in Iraq. The
objective of this study could be achieved through the collection of data and

knowing the number of parked vehicles on both sides of the road and the
..waiting time for these vehicles