25,388 research outputs found
A dynamic ridesharing dispatch and idle vehicle repositioning strategy with integrated transit transfers
We propose a ridesharing strategy with integrated transit in which a private
on-demand mobility service operator may drop off a passenger directly
door-to-door, commit to dropping them at a transit station or picking up from a
transit station, or to both pickup and drop off at two different stations with
different vehicles. We study the effectiveness of online solution algorithms
for this proposed strategy. Queueing-theoretic vehicle dispatch and idle
vehicle relocation algorithms are customized for the problem. Several
experiments are conducted first with a synthetic instance to design and test
the effectiveness of this integrated solution method, the influence of
different model parameters, and measure the benefit of such cooperation.
Results suggest that rideshare vehicle travel time can drop by 40-60%
consistently while passenger journey times can be reduced by 50-60% when demand
is high. A case study of Long Island commuters to New York City (NYC) suggests
having the proposed operating strategy can substantially cut user journey times
and operating costs by up to 54% and 60% each for a range of 10-30 taxis
initiated per zone. This result shows that there are settings where such
service is highly warranted
Carbon Free Boston: Social equity report 2019
OVERVIEW:
In January 2019, the Boston Green Ribbon Commission released its Carbon Free Boston: Summary Report, identifying potential
options for the City of Boston to meet its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The report found that reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 requires three mutually-reinforcing strategies in key sectors: 1) deepen energy efficiency while reducing energy
demand, 2) electrify activity to the fullest practical extent, and 3) use fuels and electricity that are 100 percent free of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The Summary Report detailed the ways in which these technical strategies will transform Boston’s physical
infrastructure, including its buildings, energy supply, transportation, and waste management systems. The Summary Report also
highlighted that it is how these strategies are designed and implemented that matter most in ensuring an effective and equitable transition to carbon neutrality.
Equity concerns exist for every option the City has to reduce GHG emissions. The services provided by each sector are not
experienced equally across Boston’s communities. Low-income families and families of color are more likely to live in residences that are in poor physical condition, leading to high utility bills, unsafe and unhealthy indoor environments, and high GHG
emissions.1
Those same families face greater exposure to harmful outdoor air pollution compared to others. The access and
reliability of public transportation is disproportionately worse in neighborhoods with large populations of people of color, and
large swaths of vulnerable neighborhoods, from East Boston to Mattapan, do not have ready access to the city’s bike network.
Income inequality is a growing national issue and is particularly acute in Boston, which consistently ranks among the highest US
cities in regards to income disparities. With the release of Imagine Boston 2030, Mayor Walsh committed to make Boston more
equitable, affordable, connected, and resilient. The Summary Report outlined the broad strokes of how action to reach carbon
neutrality intersects with equity. A just transition to carbon neutrality improves environmental quality for all Bostonians, prioritizes socially vulnerable populations, seeks to redress current and past injustice, and creates economic and social opportunities
for all.
This Carbon Free Boston: Social Equity Report provides a deeper equity context for Carbon Free Boston as a whole, and for
each strategy area, by demonstrating how inequitable and unjust the playing field is for socially vulnerable Bostonians and why
equity must be integrated into policy design and implementation. This report summarizes the current landscape of climate
action work for each strategy area and evaluates how it currently impacts inequity. Finally, this report provides guidance to the
City and partners on how to do better; it lays out the attributes of an equitable approach to carbon neutrality, framed around
three guiding principles: 1) plan carefully to avoid unintended consequences, 2) be intentional in design through a clear equity
lens, and 3) practice inclusivity from start to finish
On the interaction between Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand systems and the power network: models and coordination algorithms
We study the interaction between a fleet of electric, self-driving vehicles
servicing on-demand transportation requests (referred to as Autonomous
Mobility-on-Demand, or AMoD, system) and the electric power network. We propose
a model that captures the coupling between the two systems stemming from the
vehicles' charging requirements and captures time-varying customer demand and
power generation costs, road congestion, battery depreciation, and power
transmission and distribution constraints. We then leverage the model to
jointly optimize the operation of both systems. We devise an algorithmic
procedure to losslessly reduce the problem size by bundling customer requests,
allowing it to be efficiently solved by off-the-shelf linear programming
solvers. Next, we show that the socially optimal solution to the joint problem
can be enforced as a general equilibrium, and we provide a dual decomposition
algorithm that allows self-interested agents to compute the market clearing
prices without sharing private information. We assess the performance of the
mode by studying a hypothetical AMoD system in Dallas-Fort Worth and its impact
on the Texas power network. Lack of coordination between the AMoD system and
the power network can cause a 4.4% increase in the price of electricity in
Dallas-Fort Worth; conversely, coordination between the AMoD system and the
power network could reduce electricity expenditure compared to the case where
no cars are present (despite the increased demand for electricity) and yield
savings of up $147M/year. Finally, we provide a receding-horizon implementation
and assess its performance with agent-based simulations. Collectively, the
results of this paper provide a first-of-a-kind characterization of the
interaction between electric-powered AMoD systems and the power network, and
shed additional light on the economic and societal value of AMoD.Comment: Extended version of the paper presented at Robotics: Science and
Systems XIV and accepted by TCNS. In Version 4, the body of the paper is
largely rewritten for clarity and consistency, and new numerical simulations
are presented. All source code is available (MIT) at
https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.324165
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