MOVES-Style Autonomous Transit Network Design, Economic, and Operational Analysis

Abstract

Transportation is the realization of the demand to travel from point A to B, suchthat one gains utility from the destination, in exchange for expending resources to get there. We all engage in transport throughout each day, and in doing so travel to work, school, grocery stores, recreation centers, family, friends, and a host of other very specific, yet all important destinations. However, the lack of transportation in the United States, perpetuated by a lack of public transit and the large number of households that own zero or one vehicles, makes access to destinations much more challenging. People living in urban settings can often be restricted in both their job opportunities and confined to food deserts due to their lack of access to reliable and connected transportation solutions. Self-driving cars have the potential to revolutionize transportation by simultaneously reducing the time penalty of traveling somewhere, as now one can do other tasks while traveling, and lowering the financial burden that automobiles can incur through ride-sharing cost savings. Car manufacturers have begun to implement self-driving technology in personalvehicles and heavy-duty trucks, experiencing growing pains in both the software and human elements of the process. However, it seems that the primary focus has been on personal ownership of autonomous vehicles. I argue that leveraging this technology into fleets of autonomous taxis (aTaxis) that can serve both intra-region transit and longer trips would provide an increase in ride-sharing, decrease in congestion and emissions, and provide equitable transportation access to a wide group of people who have often been left to the wayside as technologies advance. The fleets would serve to create a Mobility & Opportunity: Vehicles Equity System (MOVES) in order to best help those who need transportation the most, and facilitate This thesis documents efforts to synthesize existing work as well as new creations, in assembling economic metrics, data visualization tools, and trip simulations to allow the reader to conceptualize aTaxi networks within the urban centers of Trenton and Perth Amboy.