Description:

Northwestern University Transportation Center presents:

"Will ride-pooling change the nature of transit network design?"

SIDA LUO
PhD Candidate in Civil Engineering
2020 NUTC Dissertation Year Fellow
Northwestern University

>> REFRESHEMENTS SERVED @ 3:30PM <<

Abstract:
We examine the basic design trade-off in six distinctive transit systems, including two state-of-the-art fixed-route systems and four hybrid systems that use ride-pooling as an integrated feeder service. The systems are analyzed using a continuous approximation approach, and the resulting optimal design problem is formulated and solved as a mixed integer program. We find that ride-pooling changes little the fundamental laws inherent in transit design. Specifically, all six systems, despite their seemingly vastly different design features, display the following laws: (1) that the per capita agency cost correlates linearly with the per capita user cost, (2) that both costs are power functions of the demand density with an exponent close to -1/3 and -0.4 for agency and user costs, respectively, and (3) that the per capita agency cost is not significantly affected by city size but the user cost is. This finding suggests that ride-pooling may have a rather limited impact on the economy of scale in mass transit systems. However, mixing ride-pooling with fixed-route services, in many cases, promises modest improvements to the overall system efficiency. It also tilts the balance of trade-off considerably in the user’s favor, at the operator’s expense.

Speaker Bio:
Sida Luo is a PhD candidate studying Transportation Systems in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University. His PhD dissertation is focused on hybrid multimodal mobility systems and their application in providing “mobility-as-a-service”. During his PhD study, he had also published on such topics as analyzing floating bike-sharing systems and modeling unconventional intersections. Prior to joining Northwestern University, Mr. Luo received a BS in Traffic Engineering from Southeast University, Nanjing, China. He received a Baogang Scholarship and a Mao Yisheng Railway Education Student Scholarship from Southeast University, a Terminal Year Fellowship from Northwestern and is a Transportation Center Dissertation Year fellow. Mr. Luo was born in Wuhan, China.

...

Remote Streaming & Dial-In:
***Join by computer or phone***

Streaming:
https://bluejeans.com/8474917287
Meeting ID: 847 491 7287

Dial-In:
+1.408.740.7256 (US (San Jose))
+1.888.240.2560 (US Toll Free)
+1.408.317.9253 (US (Primary, San Jose))
(Global Numbers)
Meeting ID: 847 491 7287

Parking & Public Transit:
Parking @ Northwestern University
Permits Required: Monday - Friday, 8am - 4pm
2-hour-limit parking on Foster Street
Closest El / CTA Stop: Foster - Purple Line
Closest Metra Station: Davis Street/Evanston, Union Pacific North line