Enhancing network equilibrium models for capturing emerging shared-use mobility services

Abstract

Driven by the development of vehicle connectivity and automation, shared-use mobility services are expected to play a major role in meeting urban mobility needs. However, existing network equilibrium models cannot adequately model these emerging services, as these models are trip centric, assigning vehicular trips to transportation networks. With shared-use mobility, vehicular trips are the outcome of the interactions between service operators and travelers, a missing ingredient in the current network equilibrium analysis methodology. In this study, we will enhance the methodology by explicitly modeling the behaviors of both service operators and travelers. We will consider two implementations of shared-use mobility: one of a decentralized system in which vehicles choose which areas to serve based on their individually defined utility functions, and one of a centralized system in which a shared-use mobility service provider optimally assigns vehicles to requests based on a system-level objective function. The proposed models are expected to enhance the planning practice for shared-use mobility services.