{"title":"Analysis of car sharing operation area performance: An idle time prediction approach","authors":"Andrea Papu Carrone , Jeppe Rich , David Watling","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2024.104241","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Free-floating car sharing (FFCS) extends traditional station-based services by providing a more flexible car sharing alternative for users. However, the increased user flexibility introduces challenges from an operator perspective. To make services profitable, the total idle time of vehicles needs to be minimised and available vehicles should be located where demand exists. To increase profitability, it is important to carefully choose the operational area based on the expected idle time that different locations may offer, and only strategically expand into areas where the sustainability of the service can be maintained. In this paper, we present a hazard-based duration model for the idle times of a car sharing vehicle service. It is argued that modelling of idle time as opposed to bookings, which is the common approach, allows to circumvent the problem of latent demand and thereby presents itself as a simpler modelling strategy. In the paper, the model is applied to the city of Copenhagen, where we study the operational performance on the basis of 327,610 electric free-floating car trips in the period 2017-2018. We study the performance over 92 existing zones and predict the expected performance for an additional 28 zones by considering geographical and socio-economic drivers of demand. This enables the prediction of which areas to include as part of an expansion of the operational area, and thus serves the purpose of a strategic planning tool for growing such services. It is found that the additional zones differ substantially in their performance, which is a consequence of zones being more or less aligned with the local FFCS drivers of demand. This leads to a prioritisation of zones for further expansion based on performance, where the idle time of the best performing zones is seen to be as much as one hour less than the worst performing zones.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"190 ","pages":"Article 104241"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856424002891/pdfft?md5=d84f1695468856ea8ea1c364373789a1&pid=1-s2.0-S0965856424002891-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856424002891","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Free-floating car sharing (FFCS) extends traditional station-based services by providing a more flexible car sharing alternative for users. However, the increased user flexibility introduces challenges from an operator perspective. To make services profitable, the total idle time of vehicles needs to be minimised and available vehicles should be located where demand exists. To increase profitability, it is important to carefully choose the operational area based on the expected idle time that different locations may offer, and only strategically expand into areas where the sustainability of the service can be maintained. In this paper, we present a hazard-based duration model for the idle times of a car sharing vehicle service. It is argued that modelling of idle time as opposed to bookings, which is the common approach, allows to circumvent the problem of latent demand and thereby presents itself as a simpler modelling strategy. In the paper, the model is applied to the city of Copenhagen, where we study the operational performance on the basis of 327,610 electric free-floating car trips in the period 2017-2018. We study the performance over 92 existing zones and predict the expected performance for an additional 28 zones by considering geographical and socio-economic drivers of demand. This enables the prediction of which areas to include as part of an expansion of the operational area, and thus serves the purpose of a strategic planning tool for growing such services. It is found that the additional zones differ substantially in their performance, which is a consequence of zones being more or less aligned with the local FFCS drivers of demand. This leads to a prioritisation of zones for further expansion based on performance, where the idle time of the best performing zones is seen to be as much as one hour less than the worst performing zones.
期刊介绍:
Transportation Research: Part A contains papers of general interest in all passenger and freight transportation modes: policy analysis, formulation and evaluation; planning; interaction with the political, socioeconomic and physical environment; design, management and evaluation of transportation systems. Topics are approached from any discipline or perspective: economics, engineering, sociology, psychology, etc. Case studies, survey and expository papers are included, as are articles which contribute to unification of the field, or to an understanding of the comparative aspects of different systems. Papers which assess the scope for technological innovation within a social or political framework are also published. The journal is international, and places equal emphasis on the problems of industrialized and non-industrialized regions.
Part A''s aims and scope are complementary to Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Part C: Emerging Technologies and Part D: Transport and Environment. Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. The complete set forms the most cohesive and comprehensive reference of current research in transportation science.