The research results of " Mobility service design with equity-aware choice-based decision-support tool: New York case study " published by LOUD in TRD journal

The Shanghai Key Laboratory Of Urban Design And Urban Science ( LOUD,key laboratary) published a paper entitled " Mobility service design with equity-aware choice-based decision-support tool : New York case study " in the journal " Transportation Research Part D : Transport and Environment. "

Plot : Spatial distribution of time value in New York state ( left ) and New York City ( right )

Pictured : Vulnerable groups in New York state

Customized travel services are rapidly gaining popularity. However, due to the lack of regional-scale travel data and efficient traffic models, how to evaluate their impact on fairness is challenging. This study uses synthetic population data and a traffic optimization model based on traveler selection to provide support for fairness-oriented travel service scope design. This paper builds a decision support tool to formulate the optimal operating range for future travel services under budget constraints to achieve specified goals, such as minimizing travel utility differences. The research scope and data are based on synthetic data tests in New York State and show how the tool is used by considering new ride-hailing and micro-bus services. The article estimates the ' cost of transport equity ' : at a specific budget level, each vehicle requires a subsidy of $ 71.39 / day to minimize the difference in travel utility, and a subsidy of $ 29.86 / day to minimize the underutility of travel. By quantifying the differences and trade-offs between different service, target and budget levels, the results support the allocation of regional funds and resources, and provide reference for related research and practice.

Ren Xiyuan, the first author of the article and a doctoral student in the laboratory, said that regional ( state ) scale travel service projects often ignore the impact of project implementation on traffic fairness. On the one hand, because the travel data across metropolitan areas and urban and rural communities is difficult to obtain, it is impossible to construct a travel choice model that considers the preferences of multiple groups of people ; on the other hand, because most of the relevant research focuses on the overall income or user satisfaction of travel services, there is no consensus on how to measure traffic fairness. This study combines the synthetic population of New York State with the traffic model considering traveler choice, and constructs four core indicators ( overall income, total travel utility, travel utility difference, and travel utility deficiency ) to compare the optimal operating range of emerging travel services under the guidance of traffic efficiency and fairness, and provide a reference for regional capital and resource allocation. He plans to further incorporate the environmental impact of travel services ( such as carbon emissions, noise / environmental pollution ) into core indicators in subsequent studies, and apply the developed decision support tools to more practical cases.

This study is built on a collaborative platform jointly established by LOUD and the C2SMART University Transportation Center, which is directed by Professor Joseph Chow of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, specifically for joint research, doctoral training, and research cooperation.

Article links :

Ren, X., Chow, J. Y., Guan, C. (2024). Mobility service design with equity-aware choice-based decision-support tool: New York case study. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 132, 104255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2024.104255