Dynamic Lane Allocation in UAM Corridors for Efficient Multimodal Door-to-Door Mobility

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dynamic lane allocation method for urban air mobility corridors, optimizing airspace utilization and reducing travel times through a MILP model based on real demand data.

Contribution

It presents a novel MILP formulation for dynamic directional lane management in UAM corridors, improving capacity utilization and operational efficiency.

Findings

Dynamic policy reduces unused airspace capacity by 5x.

Lane utilization increases from 36-48% to 67%.

Travel time decreases by up to 21.6%.

Abstract

This article presents dynamic directional lane allocation in urban air mobility (UAM) corridors as a discrete-time mixed-integer linear program (MILP). This formulation activates, deactivates, and reverses lane direction as bi-directional airspace demand evolves. We model demand from disaggregate ground travel data by decomposing each trip into a multi-modal sequence with first-, middle-, and last-mile legs and routing the UAM-served middle-mile segment through a vertiport-side dispatch model. We use the San Francisco Bay Area as a case study by placing a multi-region spanning corridor between Contra Costa county and Silicon Valley. We find that the dynamic policy cuts unused airspace capacity by 5x, increases mean lane utilization from 36-48% to 67% at the same service level relative to baselines, and reduces commuting-population mean travel time by up to 21.6%. These results show that dynamic configuration of airspace capacity alleviates a significant percentage of the under-utilization issue of lane-based UAM airspace design and UAM concept of operations. This dynamic allocation also provides a safe, structural way to increase throughput, making UAM a more viable complement to multimodal door-to-door mobility systems.