A simulation effort showed that allocating curb space for rideshare pick-up/drop-off trips reduces CBD traffic delay up to 20 percent.

Modeling study of congestion and operational impacts of new curb use scenarios related to rideshare services in Lisbon’s Central Business District (CBD).

Date Posted
06/08/2018
Identifier
2018-B01272
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PTV software determines the impact of ridesharing on curbside activity for new ITF report

Summary Information

In addition to the competing activities that occur along city streets now, increased levels of shared mobility, as well as urban logistics and increases in single parcel deliveries, are adding to curbside congestion. In this study, VISSIM traffic modeling and simulation software was used to analyze curb-specific impacts that stem from a growing uptake of rideshare services to help public policy define potential reallocation strategies.

To determine how increased levels of shared mobility services impact curbside activity and traffic congestion, different consumer rideshare adoption scenarios were assessed with and without managed curbside space. Data extracted from the adoption scenarios provided an insight into what transitioning to new mobility services may look like. The analysis adopted a three-phase modeling system to ensure a realistic representation of traffic conditions with rideshare services.

  1. Rideshare trip requests obtained from the Lisbon mobility data was fed into the MaaS Modeler (Mobility-as-a-Service software), which optimized the dispatching and routing of the vehicle fleet to individual person trip requests.
  2. VISSIM software was used to simulate background traffic conditions of private vehicle trips.
  3. Detailed simulation of curbside activities, including individual vehicle behavior and interaction with the background traffic was then carried out with the VISSIM microsimulation software.


Findings
The findings showed that if no dedicated curb space is provided for pick-up/drop-off, the vehicle flow capacity reduces by up to 50 percent, due to the effect of double-parked rideshare vehicles causing congestion. However, the introduction of dedicated pick-up/drop-off curb space reduces delays to traffic flow in the Lisbon CBD by up to 20 percent.

Goal Areas
Results Type
Deployment Locations