Simulation of Potential Use Cases for Shared Mobility Services in the City of Ann Arbor

Abstract

In this paper, we model and simulate special use cases of on-demand shared mobility services for the City of Ann Arbor, MI. We define shared mobility as any motor-vehicle-served transportation option between private vehicles and public transit, such as taxis, demand-responsive transit, and dynamic shuttles. Here, we present and evaluate a suite of four different service types that could potentially complement existing transportation services in Ann Arbor. A novel aspect of this study is that it tests scenarios that were developed in consultation with city planners looking for insights into real-world problems. This study used fleet simulation software to test four service configuration scenarios for a hypothetical on-demand shared mobility service: citywide shuttle, a corridor-based downtown shuttle, a park and ride shuttle, and a transit-complementary service. Three levels of demand were tested for each scenario: 3%, 9%, and 15% of all private vehicle trips in the city. Findings indicated that citywide on-demand shared mobility services struggled to achieve higher vehicle occupancies than private vehicles at approximately 1.4. Service configurations with aggregated trip density resulted in slightly improved occupancies, as found in downtown- and park and ride shuttle scenarios. More impactful was aggregating demand by moving from “many-to-many” routing as with citywide floating services to “many-to-one” routing as with downtown- or park and ride shuttle services, which increased vehicle occupancy from 1.4 to almost 2. Lastly, we also discuss the potential benefits of reduced congestion and parking needs.