Lucas Javaudin (THEMA, CY Cergy Paris University) will present "Modelling Ridesharing in a Large Network with Dynamic Congestion" (co-authored with André de Palma, Patrick Stokkink and Léandre Tarpin-Pitre)

Abstract :
In ridesharing, commuters with similar itineraries share a vehicle for their trip. Despite its clear benefits in terms of reduced congestion, ridesharing is not yet widely accepted. We propose a specific ridesharing variant, where drivers are completely inflexible. This variant can form a competitive alternative against private transportation, due to the limited efforts that need to be made by drivers. However, due to this inflexibility, matching of drivers and riders can be substantially more complicated, compared to the situation where drivers can deviate.
In this work, we identify the effect of such a ridesharing scheme on the congestion in a real network of the Île-de-France area for the morning commute. We use a dynamic mesoscopic traffic simulator, METROPOLIS, which computes departure-time choices and route choices for each commuter. The matching is solved heuristically outside the simulation framework, before departures occur. We show that even with inflexible drivers, ridesharing can alleviate congestion. By slightly increasing flexibility, the performance of the ridesharing scheme can be further improved. Furthermore, we show that ridesharing can lead to fuel savings, CO2 emission reductions and travel time savings on a network level, even with a low participation rate.