Warren Lecture with Nikolaos Geroliminis

Nikolaos Geroliminis
EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland
"On the Inefficiency of Ride-sourcing Services Towards Urban Congestion"

ABTRACT: The advent of shared-economy and smartphones made on-demand transportation services possible, which created additional opportunities but added more complexity to urban mobility. Companies that offer these services are called Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) due to their internet-based nature. Ride-sourcing is the most notorious service TNCs provide. Little is known about the degree to which ride-sourcing operations interfere in traffic conditions. We experimentally analyze the efficiency of TNCs using taxi trip data from a Chinese megacity and an agent-based simulation with a trip-based MFD model for determining the speed. We investigate the effect of expanding fleet sizes for TNCs, passengers’ inclination towards sharing rides, and strategies to alleviate urban congestion.