Modeling Autonomous Transit Service in Statewide Transportation Networks
Corresponding Author: Sevgi Erdogan, University of Maryland
Presented By: Sevgi Erdogan, University of Maryland
Abstract
The unprecedented developments in vehicle and fuel technologies bolstered by the information and communication technologies and economic innovation have significant influence on the transportation sector. The speed these developments have been happening only indicates that transformative changes in transportation industry are not a distant future but around the corner. While the change is certain, the form it will take depends upon many factors many of which are uncertain: individual values, societal goals, market forces, environmental challenges, political will, policy decisions are only a few of them. The transportation experts in academia, industry and government have been working to address some of these uncertainties in various ways. Some efforts address technological challenges such as alternative vehicle and fuel technologies, connected and automated vehicle (CV/AV) technologies, some focus on emerging modes of travel such as on-demand transportation, shared mobility, and others focus on infrastructure, planning, regulatory and economic issues these emerging changes in transportation system will introduce. In this study, we focus on the AV operations and challenge it presents for both regional and statewide transportation planning and modeling. It has been acknowledged that the existing statewide/regional transportation models need to go through significant improvements if not a paradigm shift to accommodate such technologies in the transportation system. Most AV related studies focus on demand side of the problem, and most existing modeling attempts rely on strong assumptions on both supply and demand. This study will take a practical approach that can be implemented with today’s technology to represent an AV transit system and present a framework for modeling such system in existing statewide/regional transportation models. We will demonstrate the proposed method on a statewide transportation model developed for Maryland and analyze impacts on the region's transportation patterns.