Agent-based simulation for testing vehicle-on-demand services in rural areas

Abstract

Conventional road traffic is reaching its limits in many cities because the existing infrastructure is often not designed for the number of vehicles used in a city. This causes inefficient traffic, which is apparent as congestion, and wasting of spatial resources. Therefore, the need for new mobility concepts such as “vehicle-on-demand” can open up new possibilities to succeed in challenges in contemporary mobility. This concept has already been simulated in various large cities scenarios with promising results. However, rural areas have not yet been taken into account in such simulations. Therefore, the concept “vehicle-on-demand” is implemented as part of the open-source simulation framework Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO). The considerations in the implementation of the vehicle-on-demand service are presented, and finally, the implemented service is evaluated with the rural area scenario of Furtwangen. By this, the result of the simulation reveals contrasting results in comparison to large cities. Ultimately, the concept of “vehicle-on-demand” is applicable in rural areas with the implemented service.