Assessing service characteristics of an automated transit on-demand service

With the introduction of automated vehicles, new operating regimes for public transport services will become possible. A station-based Automated Transit on Demand service could be an attractive alternative to the current modes of transportation. In this paper, the impact of this kind of service on the modal share for the city of Zurich, Switzerland, and its surrounding area is modeled using an agent-based approach. Different scenarios regarding the operating area, pricing scheme, and a cordon charge are tested on their potential to make use of the benefits of the new service while preventing an overflow of automated vehicles in the urban core. Results show that if left unconstrained the proposed service can substantially impact the demand for public transport. A pricing scheme that bases the pricing of the new service relative to the accessibility of the current public transport service is a promising solution to increase the accessibility of the rural areas while maintaining a high modal share for public transport in the city center. Finally, using an optimization algorithm we show that the total car-fleet and public parking space can be reduced at the cost of a slight increase in vehicle kilometers traveled. Moreover, we find that the cost coverage of the proposed transit service is potentially much higher in comparison to current public transport services.