Optimizing a Flexible Mobility on Demand System

This paper analyzes an innovative transportation concept called Flexible Mobility on Demand (FMOD), which provides personalized services to passengers. FMOD is a demand-responsive system: a list of travel options is provided in real-time for each passenger request. The system provides passengers with flexibility to choose from a menu that is optimized in an assortment optimization framework. For operators, there is flexibility in terms of vehicle allocation to service types: taxi, shared taxi, and minibus. The allocation of the available feet to these three services is carried out dynamically and is based on demand and supply so that vehicles can change roles during the day. The FMOD system is built on a choice model that enables it to analyze the consumer surplus. This paper describes the FMOD system and presents simulation results for a network in Tokyo. For FMOD, three models that maximize profit, consumer surplus, or both are considered. FMOD is compared with its counterpart, which does not have flexibility in vehicle allocation under different scenarios. The results show that FMOD improves profit and consumer surplus with a reasonable real-time performance for the considered network.