Modeling the competition between multiple Automated Mobility on-Demand operators: an agent-based approach

Automated Mobility-on-Demand (AMoD) systems, in which fleets of automated vehicles provide on-demand services, are expected to transform urban mobility systems. Motivated by the rapid development of AMoD services delivered by self-driving car companies, an agent-based model (ABM) has been developed to study the coexistence phenomena of multiple AMoD operators competing for customers. The ABM is used to investigate how changes in pricing strategies, assignment methods, and fleet sizes affect travelers' choice of different AMoD services and the operating performance of competing operators in the case-study city of The Hague, in the Netherlands. Findings suggest that an optimal assignment algorithm can reduce the average waiting time by up to 24% compared to a simple heuristic algorithm. We also find that a larger fleet could increase demand but lead to higher waiting times for its users and higher travel times for competing operators' users due to the added congestion. Notably, pricing strategies can significantly affect travelers' choice of AMoD services, but the effect depends strongly on the time of the day. Low-priced AMoD services can provide high service levels and effectively attract more demand, with up to 64.7% of customers choosing the very early morning service [5:30 AM,7:20 AM]. In the subsequent morning hours, high-priced AMoD services are more competitive in attracting customers as more idle vehicles are available. Based on the quantitative analysis, policies are recommended for the government and service operators. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.Industrial Ecolog

Assessing the potential of the strategic formation of urban platoons for shared automated vehicle fleets

This paper addresses the problem of studying the impacts of the strategic formation of platoons in automated mobility-on-demand (AMoD) systems in future cities. Forming platoons has the potential to improve traffic efficiency, resulting in reduced travel times and energy consumption. However, in the platoon formation phase, coordinating the vehicles at formation locations for forming a platoon may delay travelers. In order to assess these effects, an agent-based model has been developed to simulate an urban AMoD system in which vehicles travel between service points transporting passengers either forming or not forming platoons. A simulation study was performed on the road network of the city of The Hague, Netherlands, to assess the impact on traveling and energy usage by the strategic formation of platoons. Results show that forming platoons could save up to 9.6% of the system-wide energy consumption for the most efficient car model. However, this effect can vary significantly with the vehicle types and strategies used to form platoons. Findings suggest that, on average, forming platoons reduces the travel times for travelers even if they experience delays while waiting for a platoon to be formed. However, delays lead to longer travel times for the travelers with the platoon leaders, similar to what people experience while traveling in highly congested networks when platoon formation does not happen. Moreover, the platoon delay increases as the volume of AMoD requests decreases; in the case of an AMoD system serving only 20% of the commuter trips (by private cars in the case-study city), the average platoon delays experienced by these trips increase by 25%. We conclude that it is beneficial to form platoons to achieve energy and travel efficiency goals when the volume of AMoD requests is high.Industrial Ecolog

Mode substitution induced by electric mobility hubs: Results from Amsterdam

\ua9 2024 The Author(s)Electric mobility hubs (eHUBS) are locations where multiple shared electric modes including electric cars and e-bikes are available. To assess their potential to reduce private car use, it is important to investigate to what extent people would switch to eHUBS modes after their introduction. Moreover, people may adapt their behaviour differently depending on their current travel mode. This study is based on stated preference data collected in Amsterdam. We analysed the data using mixed logit models. We found that users of different modes not only have varied general preferences for different shared modes but also have different sensitivity for attributes such as travel time and cost. Public transport users are more likely to switch to eHUBS modes than car users. People who bike and walk have strong inertia, but the percentage choosing eHUBS modes doubles when the trip distance is longer (5 or 10 km)

WEpods project: Finding the potential for automated road public transport

Vehicle automation is developing rapidly, nevertheless a lot of wor k is still lacking, as we are not yet at a point where vehicles are able to drive themselves on a road without a human behind the wheel. One of the possibilities of automation is its use as public transport. In theWEpods project, led byT U Delft, we are looking at the technology but also on the operation and passengers' acceptance of this way of travelling.Transport & PlanningCivil Engineering and Geoscience

Potential of peer-to-peer bike sharing for relieving bike parking capacity problems at railway stations

In Nederland is bij veel grotere treinstations een tekort aan stallingscapaciteit voor fietsen. Dit is het gevolg van zowel een stevige groei in het treingebruik als een toename van het marktaandeel van de fiets in de voor- en natransportmiddelen. In de paper worden de mogelijkheden verkend om het capaciteitstekort te verkleinen door een vorm van fietsdelen in te voeren waarbij door treinreizigers gestalde particuliere fietsen beschikbaar gesteld worden voor andere gebruikers. Deze fietsen staan nu ongebruikt plaats in te nemen; als aankomende treinreizigers die een fiets nodig hebben deze voor beperkte tijd kunnen gebruiken zal het aantal gestalde fietsen kleiner worden en het capaciteitstekort dalen. We duiden fietseigenaren die hun fiets voor enige tijd bij een station stallen aan als ‘aanbieder’ en arriverende reizigers die voor enige tijd een fiets nodig hebben als ‘vrager’. Twee soorten vragers worden onderscheiden: reizigers die nu een fiets gebruiken voor de ‘last mile’ (actuele vragers) en reizigers die heel goed een fiets hadden kunnen gebruiken maar nu een andere modaliteit kiezen (potentiële vragers). De analyses zijn gedaan met data van de nationale verplaatsingsonderzoeken en betreffen de verkenning van een maximum potentie, namelijk de impact van fietsdelen op de benodigde capaciteit indien alle aanbieders bereid zijn hun fiets te delen en alle vragers particuliere fietsen willen gebruiken. Aannemend dat de werkelijke potentie een stuk lager ligt kan op basis van de analyse geconcludeerd worden dat deze vermoedelijk beperkt van omvang is; voor de grotere stations zou de potentie in de orde van 10% kunnen liggen. Verder onderzoek naar de bereidheid van reizigers om fietsen te delen en naar de mate waarin potentiële vragers door fietsdeelprogramma’s overgehaald kunnen worden om te gaan fietsen kan een nauwkeuriger cijfer opleveren. De analyse laat ook zien dat fietsdelen een groot effect kan hebben op de verdeling van de gestalde fietsen over de dag; dit is met name het geval als veel potentiële vragers besluiten te gaan fietsen. Nu is de fietsbezetting overdag redelijk gelijkmatig met een piek rond één uur ‘s middags. Deze kan veranderen in een verdeling met twee pieken in elk van de beide reisspitsen en een veel lagere fietsbezetting in de tussengelegen periode

Modeling the competition between multiple Automated Mobility on-Demand operators: an agent-based approach

Automated Mobility-on-Demand (AMoD) systems, in which fleets of automated vehicles provide on-demand services, are expected to transform urban mobility systems. Motivated by the rapid development of AMoD services delivered by self-driving car companies, an agent-based model (ABM) has been developed to study the coexistence phenomena of multiple AMoD operators competing for customers. The ABM is used to investigate how changes in pricing strategies, assignment methods, and fleet sizes affect travelers' choice of different AMoD services and the operating performance of competing operators in the case-study city of The Hague, in the Netherlands. Findings suggest that an optimal assignment algorithm can reduce the average waiting time by up to 24% compared to a simple heuristic algorithm. We also find that a larger fleet could increase demand but lead to higher waiting times for its users and higher travel times for competing operators' users due to the added congestion. Notably, pricing strategies can significantly affect travelers' choice of AMoD services, but the effect depends strongly on the time of the day. Low-priced AMoD services can provide high service levels and effectively attract more demand, with up to 64.7% of customers choosing the very early morning service [5:30 AM,7:20 AM]. In the subsequent morning hours, high-priced AMoD services are more competitive in attracting customers as more idle vehicles are available. Based on the quantitative analysis, policies are recommended for the government and service operators. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V

Assessing the potential of the strategic formation of urban platoons for shared automated vehicle fleets

This paper addresses the problem of studying the impacts of the strategic formation of platoons in automated mobility-on-demand (AMoD) systems in future cities. Forming platoons has the potential to improve traffic efficiency, resulting in reduced travel times and energy consumption. However, in the platoon formation phase, coordinating the vehicles at formation locations for forming a platoon may delay travelers. In order to assess these effects, an agent-based model has been developed to simulate an urban AMoD system in which vehicles travel between service points transporting passengers either forming or not forming platoons. A simulation study was performed on the road network of the city of The Hague, Netherlands, to assess the impact on traveling and energy usage by the strategic formation of platoons. Results show that forming platoons could save up to 9.6% of the system-wide energy consumption for the most efficient car model. However, this effect can vary significantly with the vehicle types and strategies used to form platoons. Findings suggest that, on average, forming platoons reduces the travel times for travelers even if they experience delays while waiting for a platoon to be formed. However, delays lead to longer travel times for the travelers with the platoon leaders, similar to what people experience while traveling in highly congested networks when platoon formation does not happen. Moreover, the platoon delay increases as the volume of AMoD requests decreases; in the case of an AMoD system serving only 20% of the commuter trips (by private cars in the case-study city), the average platoon delays experienced by these trips increase by 25%. We conclude that it is beneficial to form platoons to achieve energy and travel efficiency goals when the volume of AMoD requests is high

Preferences of travellers for using automated vehicles as last mile public transport of multimodal train trips

In the recent years many developments took place regarding automated vehicles (AVs) technology. It is however unknown to which extent the share of the existing transport modes will change as result of AVs introduction as another public transport option. This study is the first where detailed traveller preferences for AVs are explored and compared to existing modes. Its main objective is to position AVs in the transportation market and understand the sensitivity of travellers towards some of their attributes, focusing particularly on the use of these vehicles as egress mode of train trips. Because fully-automated vehicles are not yet a reality and they entail a potentially high disruptive way on how we use automobiles today, we apply a stated preference experiment where the role of attitudes in perceiving the utility of AVs is particularly explored in addition to the classical instrumental variables and several socio-economic variables. The estimated discrete choice model shows that first class train travellers on average prefer the use of AVs as egress mode, compared to the use of bicycle or bus/tram/metro as egress. We therefore conclude that AVs as last mile transport between the train station and the final destination have most potential for first class train travellers. Results show that in-vehicle time in AVs is experienced more negatively than in-vehicle time in manually driven cars. This suggests that travellers do not perceive the theoretical advantage of being able to perform other tasks during the trip in an automated vehicle, at least not yet. Results also show that travellers’ attitudes regarding trust and sustainability of AVs are playing an important role in AVs attractiveness, which leads to uncertainty on how people will react when AVs are introduced in practice. We therefore state the importance of paying sufficient attention to these psychological factors, next to classic instrumental attributes like travel time and costs, before and during the implementation process of AVs as a public transport alternative. We recommend the extension of this research to revealed preference studies, thereby using the results of field studies

Potential of peer-to-peer bike sharing for relieving bike parking capacity problems at railway stations

In Nederland is bij veel grotere treinstations een tekort aan stallingscapaciteit voor fietsen. Dit is het gevolg van zowel een stevige groei in het treingebruik als een toename van het marktaandeel van de fiets in de voor- en natransportmiddelen. In de paper worden de mogelijkheden verkend om het capaciteitstekort te verkleinen door een vorm van fietsdelen in te voeren waarbij door treinreizigers gestalde particuliere fietsen beschikbaar gesteld worden voor andere gebruikers. Deze fietsen staan nu ongebruikt plaats in te nemen; als aankomende treinreizigers die een fiets nodig hebben deze voor beperkte tijd kunnen gebruiken zal het aantal gestalde fietsen kleiner worden en het capaciteitstekort dalen. We duiden fietseigenaren die hun fiets voor enige tijd bij een station stallen aan als ‘aanbieder’ en arriverende reizigers die voor enige tijd een fiets nodig hebben als ‘vrager’. Twee soorten vragers worden onderscheiden: reizigers die nu een fiets gebruiken voor de ‘last mile’ (actuele vragers) en reizigers die heel goed een fiets hadden kunnen gebruiken maar nu een andere modaliteit kiezen (potentiële vragers). De analyses zijn gedaan met data van de nationale verplaatsingsonderzoeken en betreffen de verkenning van een maximum potentie, namelijk de impact van fietsdelen op de benodigde capaciteit indien alle aanbieders bereid zijn hun fiets te delen en alle vragers particuliere fietsen willen gebruiken. Aannemend dat de werkelijke potentie een stuk lager ligt kan op basis van de analyse geconcludeerd worden dat deze vermoedelijk beperkt van omvang is; voor de grotere stations zou de potentie in de orde van 10% kunnen liggen. Verder onderzoek naar de bereidheid van reizigers om fietsen te delen en naar de mate waarin potentiële vragers door fietsdeelprogramma’s overgehaald kunnen worden om te gaan fietsen kan een nauwkeuriger cijfer opleveren. De analyse laat ook zien dat fietsdelen een groot effect kan hebben op de verdeling van de gestalde fietsen over de dag; dit is met name het geval als veel potentiële vragers besluiten te gaan fietsen. Nu is de fietsbezetting overdag redelijk gelijkmatig met een piek rond één uur ‘s middags. Deze kan veranderen in een verdeling met twee pieken in elk van de beide reisspitsen en een veel lagere fietsbezetting in de tussengelegen periode.Transport and Plannin

A Network-Based Model of Passenger Transfer Flow between Bus and Metro: An Application to the Public Transport System of Beijing

In a multimodal public transport network, transfers are inevitable. Planning and managing an efficient transfer connection is thus important and requires an understanding of the factors that influence those transfers. Existing studies on predicting passenger transfer flows have mainly used transit assignment models based on route choice, which need extensive computation and underlying behavioral assumptions. Inspired by studies that use network properties to estimate public transport (PT) demand, this paper proposes to use the network properties of a multimodal PT system to explain transfer flows. A statistical model is estimated to identify the relationship between transfer flow and the network properties in a joint bus and metro network. Apart from transfer time, the number of stops, and bus lines, the most important network property we propose in this study is transfer accessibility. Transfer accessibility is a newly defined indicator for the geographic factors contributing to the possibility of transferring at a station, given its position in a multimodal PT network, based on an adapted gravity-based measure. It assumes that transfer accessibility at each station is proportional to the number of reachable points of interest within the network and dependent on a cost function describing the effect of distance. The R-squared of the regression model we propose is 0.69, based on the smart card data, PT network data, and Points of Interest (POIs) data from the city of Beijing, China. This suggests that the model could offer some decision support for PT planners especially when complex network assignment models are too computationally intensive to calibrate and use. </p