SJSU Parking: Methodology

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SOURCES.DAT

What data is used?

This widget combines two public sources:

Occupancy percentage: taken from https://sjsuparkingstatus.sjsu.edu/GarageStatusPlain

Capacity breakdown: taken from https://www.sjsu.edu/parking/maps/garages.php

CALC.DAT

What’s calculated?

The SJSU parking status site provides a single overall % occupied per garage. It does not specify how that percentage is distributed across categories (General / Employee / Disabled / etc.).

Because of that, the widget shows:

> Total estimated availability across all categories (derived from % occupied and total capacity).

> Student worst-case availability, assuming occupied cars fill student (General) stalls first.

FORMULAS.DAT

Formulas

occupied = round(totalCapacity * (percentOccupied / 100))

totalAvailable = max(0, totalCapacity - occupied)

studentWorstCaseAvailable = max(0, studentCapacity - occupied)

LIMITS.DAT

Limitations

Not “spot-accurate”: the upstream source provides a percentage, not a live stall counter.

Category ambiguity: a garage can be “75% occupied” while General student stalls may be effectively full depending on how parking is distributed.

Missing category counts: some categories (e.g. North Garage motorcycles) are not listed on the public capacity page and are marked as Unknown.

GARAGES.DAT

Per-garage inputs

South Garage

Total: 2019 • Student (General): 1445
General1445
Disabled48
Employee448
Motorcycles25
R-Permit Only5
Special O24
Clinic Parking12
20-Minute Time Zone12
If percentOccupied is p, then occupied=1010 at p=50% (example). Student worst-case available would be 435.

North Garage

Total: 1837 • Student (General): 1445
General1445
Disabled8
Employee355
MotorcyclesUnknown
R-Permit Only7
30-Minute Time Zone22
If percentOccupied is p, then occupied=919 at p=50% (example). Student worst-case available would be 526.

West Garage

Total: 1184 • Student (General): 1135
General1135
Disabled9
Employee36
R-Permit Only4
If percentOccupied is p, then occupied=592 at p=50% (example). Student worst-case available would be 543.

South Campus Garage

Total: 1500 • Student (General): 1480
General1480
Disabled20
If percentOccupied is p, then occupied=750 at p=50% (example). Student worst-case available would be 730.
MAP.DAT

Parking map

The map draws the three main-campus garages, public lots, residential permit zones, and metered blocks around SJSU. Garages are colored by their live % occupied (under 30%, under 70%, 70% and up). Permit zones and meters change color when their enforcement hours start or end.

Geometry: City of San Jose GIS layers for parking lots, meters, and permit zones.

Enforcement hours: not in the city data. Permit zones are assumed 8am-6pm Mon-Fri and meters 8am-6pm Mon-Sat, based on posted signs.

> Permit zones: permit only until 6pm (permits 8am-6pm Mon-Fri)

> Meters: paid until 6pm (paid 8am-6pm Mon-Sat)

SJSUSouth--North--West--

> Hover a street, garage, or lot for details.

  • ■ SJSU garage, colored by how full it is now
  • ■ Public lot or garage (city or private)
  • ━ Permit zone, permit only ━ open to all
  • ━ Meter block, paid ━ free
  • South Campus Garage (off map, south of campus): --
  • Permit and meter hours are assumed from posted signs. Lot data: City of San Jose.
HISTORY.DAT

Busiest times

Every 5 minutes a scheduled job checks the SJSU status page. When its "Last updated" time changes, each garage's % occupied is added to a 15-minute bucket for that weekday. The chart shows the mean of every reading in each bucket from 6am to 10pm, averaged across garages.

Older readings were backfilled from public history archives, so the averages cover more than just the time since logging started. Days with no readings yet show an empty chart.