A Simulation Assessment of Autonomous Mobility on Demand in the City of Edinburgh

Abstract

We present simulation scenarios of private and public transportation modes of transportation being replaced by autonomous mobility-on-demand (AMoD) system in Edinburgh, UK, based on realistic temporal and spatial demand patterns. Edinburgh is interesting to simulate because it is selected to be one of the top 50 congested cities despite the traditional layout of the city with a low population density. For each mode of transportation, we test five different operational policies (from the literature) for different fleet sizes. We examine the results both in terms of system expenditures and profits, as well as service quality. Additionally, we evaluate Pareto solutions that combine policies’ performance to give a trade-off between wait times and empty miles. In comparison with private cars, the Autonomous Vehicles (AV) resulted in 86% reduction in the number of cars on the road. In addition, the use of the AVs per day is at least two to seven times higher than the UK private car usage. A reduction in the number of vehicles will have a positive influence on the congestion. When compared with the public mode, AMoD vehicles require 62% less time and 60% less distance than buses for the same trips.