This paper introduces an innovative transportation concept called Flexible Mobility on Demand (FMOD), which provides personalized services to passengers. FMOD is a demand responsive system in which a list of travel options is provided in real-time to each passenger request. The system provides passengers with flexibility to choose from a menu that is optimized in an assortment optimization framework. For operators, there is flexibility in terms of vehicle allocation to different service types: taxi, shared-taxi and mini-bus. The allocation of the available fleet to these three services is carried out dynamically and based on demand and supply so that vehicles can change roles during the day. The FMOD system is built based on a choice model and consumer surplus is taken into account in order to improve the passenger satisfaction. Furthermore, profits of the operators are expected to increase since the system adapts to changing demand patterns. In this paper, we introduce the concept of FMOD and present preliminary simulation results that quantify the added value of this system.
We integrate latent attitudes of the individuals into a transport mode choice model through latent variable and latent class models. Psychometric indicators are used to measure these attitudes. The aim of the inclusion of attitudes is to better understand the underlying choice preferences of travelers and therefore increase the forecasting power of the choice model. We first present an integrated choice and latent variable model, where we include attitudes towards public transport and environmental issues, explaining the utility of public transport. Secondly, we present an integrated choice and latent class model, where we identify two segments of individuals having different sensitivities to the attributes of the alternatives, resulting from their individual characteristics. The calibration of these types of advanced models on our sample has demonstrated the importance of attitudinal variables in the characterization of heterogeneity of mode preferences within the population.
This paper presents a systematic way of understanding and modelling traveler behavior in response to on-demand mobility services. We explicitly consider the sequential and yet interconnected decision-making stages specific to on-demand service usage. The framework includes a hybrid choice model for service subscription, and three logit mixture models with interconsumer heterogeneity for the service access, menu product choice and opt-out choice. Different models are connected by feeding logsums. The proposed modelling framework is essential for accounting the impacts of real-time on-demand system's dynamics on traveler behaviors and capturing consumer heterogeneity, thus being greatly relevant for integrations in multi-modal dynamic simulators. The methodology is applied to a case study of an innovative personalized on-demand real-time system which incentivizes travelers to select more sustainable travel options. The data for model estimation is collected through a smartphone-based contextaware stated preference survey. Through model estimation, lower VOTs are observed when the respondents opt to use the reward system. The perception of incentives and schedule delay by different population segments are quantified. The obtained results are fundamental in setting the ground for different behavioral scenarios of such a new on-demand system. The proposed methodology is flexible to be applied to model other on-demand mobility services such as ridehailing services and the emerging MaaS (Mobility as a service).
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