Re:Where to park your car, according to math
by croon on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @07:37AM
(#21069704)
There are a few parking lots at my workplace, and I park at one fairly close, at a time where the last spots usually fill up.
I haven't kept a tally, but there have been multiple times (after a few earlier experiences on the other end of the spectrum) where I've gotten the last spot on the far end of the lot, only to see the few cars ahead of me drive around and eventually end up going off to another lot.
In my case I'm the meek driver on a micro/lot level, but a prudent/optimistic one on a macro/workplace level. But in my anecdata it's probably saved me more time than any other behavior I could employ.
"However, if there a few meek drivers while the majority follow the prudent or optimistic strategy, then the meek strategy is not bad because meek drivers will park a distance λ from the target."
I am a 'meek' driver for this very reason. My assumption is that the majority of other drivers are either 'optimistic' or 'prudent,' and as such the parking cost of the meek strategy is much lower. Would be very interesting to test this in the real world!