On the Interaction between Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand and Public Transportation Systems

TL;DR

This paper develops a network flow model for intermodal autonomous mobility-on-demand and public transit, proposing a pricing scheme to optimize social welfare, with a case study demonstrating significant benefits of coordination.

Contribution

It introduces a novel network flow model for intermodal AMoD and public transit, along with a pricing scheme to achieve social optimality in a market setting.

Findings

Coordination between AMoD and public transit improves efficiency.

The proposed pricing scheme achieves social welfare maximization.

Case study in NYC shows significant benefits of intermodal coordination.

Abstract

In this paper we study models and coordination policies for intermodal Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand (AMoD), wherein a fleet of self-driving vehicles provides on-demand mobility jointly with public transit. Specifically, we first present a network flow model for intermodal AMoD, where we capture the coupling between AMoD and public transit and the goal is to maximize social welfare. Second, leveraging such a model, we design a pricing and tolling scheme that allows to achieve the social optimum under the assumption of a perfect market with selfish agents. Finally, we present a real-world case study for New York City. Our results show that the coordination between AMoD fleets and public transit can yield significant benefits compared to an AMoD system operating in isolation.