Pricing scheme design of ridesharing program in morning commute problem

This paper examines the dynamic user equilibrium of the morning commute problem in the presence of ridesharing program. Commuters simultaneously choose departure time from home and commute mode among three roles: solo driver, ridesharing driver, and ridesharing rider. Considering the congestion evolution over time, the authors propose a time-varying compensation scheme to maintain a positive ridesharing ridership at user equilibrium. To match the demand and the supply of ridesharing service over time, the compensation scheme should be set according to the inconvenience cost functions and the out-of-pocket cost functions. When the price charged per time unit is higher than the inconvenience cost per time unit perceived by the ridesharing drivers, the ridesharing participants will travel at the center of peak hours and solo drivers will commute at the two tails. Within the feasible region with positive ridership, the ridesharing program can reduce the congestion and all the commuters will be better off. To support system optimum (SO), the authors derive a time-varying toll combined with a flat ridesharing price from eliminating queuing delay. Under SO toll, the ridesharing program can attract more participants and have an enlarged feasible region. This reveals that the commuters are more tolerant to the inconvenience caused by sharing a ride at SO because of the lower travel time. Compared with no-toll equilibrium, both overall congestion and individual travel cost are further reduced at SO.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2017.02.020
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968090X17300608
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/0968090X
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Liu, Yang
  • Li, Yuanyuan
• Publication Date: 2017-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 156-177
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies
  • Volume: 79
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0968-090X
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0968090X

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bottlenecks; Commuters; Commuting; Departure time; Equilibrium (Systems); Morning; Pricing; Ridesharing; Variable tolls
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01635479
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 25 2017 1:56PM