Chapters authored
Towards Shared Mobility Services in Ring Shape
A shared mobility service (SMS) under ring shape would combine the principle of service cycle along a fixed route (as in a transit line) and a fairly important territorial coverage, assuming that every user would accept to walk on some length to and from the service. Thus, service availability can be optimised, detours are avoided, vehicles achieve higher productivity. The synergy between the ring-shaped infrastructure and the vehicle fleet enables to optimise the quality of service in terms of access time and ride time, and also to reduce production costs - and therefore the tariff fares, under suitable regulation. The chapter aims to reveal these ‘systemic qualities’ of ring-shaped SMSs by providing a mathematical model called ‘Orbicity’. It has a four-fold architecture: (i) traffic operations, (ii) supply-demand equilibrium under elastic demand, (iii) service management with endogenous fleet size and fare rate, (iv) service policy in terms of technology (vehicle type, number of places, energy vector, driving technology) and also the regulation regime. After outlining the model for ring-shaped shuttle services, we explore a set of scenarios along two axes of technological generation and regulation regime. It appears that ring-shaped shuttle services could be supplied at very affordable prices, while achieving profitability and requiring no public subsidies.
Part of the book: Models and Technologies for Smart, Sustainable and Safe Transportation Systems