Agent Based Modelling for Simulating Taxi Services (original) (raw)

The 4th International Workshop on Agent-based Mobility, Traffic and Transportation Models, Methodologies and Applications (ABMTRANS) Agent based modelling for simulating taxi services

Taxi services account for a significant part of the daily trips in most of cities around the world. Due to the fact that most of the taxi markets are regulated by a central authority there is the need for developing tools for understanding the behavior of these markets to policy regulations and supporting decision makers. This paper presents an agent based model for simulating taxi services in urban areas. Taxi models presented in the literature can be grouped into aggregated, equilibrium and simulation models, with the latter having been studied to a lesser extent. Agent simulation is a powerful tool for analyzing such complex problems, where stochastic nature of the variables and spatial distribution hinders the application of aggregated models. The agent-based model is presented together with the behavioral rules of the agents and applied to the city of Barcelona, obtaining the optimum number of vehicles and performance indicators of the provision of taxi services under the dispatching operation mode.

International Workshop on Agent-based Mobility , Traffic and Transportation Models , Methodologies and Applications ( ABMTRANS ) Agent based modelling for simulating taxi services

2015

Taxi services account for a significant part of the daily trips in most of cities around the world. Due to the fact that most of the taxi markets are regulated by a central authority there is the need for developing tools for understanding the behavior of these markets to policy regulations and supporting decision makers. This paper presents an agent based model for simulating taxi services in urban areas. Taxi models presented in the literature can be grouped into aggregated, equilibrium and simulation models, with the latter having been studied to a lesser extent. Agent simulation is a powerful tool for analyzing such complex problems, where stochastic nature of the variables and spatial distribution hinders the application of aggregated models. The agent-based model is presented together with the behavioral rules of the agents and applied to the city of Barcelona, obtaining the optimum number of vehicles and performance indicators of the provision of taxi services under the dispa...

Agent-Based Simulation Framework for the Taxi Sector Modeling

Procedia Computer Science

Taxi services account for a significant part of the daily trips in most cities around the world. These services are regulated by a central authority, which usually monitors the performance of the taxi services provision and defines the policies applied to the taxi sector. In order to support policy makers, fleet managers and individual taxi drivers, there is a need for developing models to understand the behavior of these markets. Most of the models developed for analyzing the taxi market are based on econometric measurements and do not account for the spatial distribution of both taxi demand and supply. Only few simulation models are able to better understand the operational characteristics of the taxi market. This paper presents a framework for the development of agent based taxi simulation models. It is aimed at assessing policy makers, taxi fleet managers and individual drivers in the definition of the optimum operation mode and the number of vehicles.

Agent based modeling for simulating taxi services

This paper presents an agent based model for simulating taxi services in urban areas. The three operation modes (hailing, stand and dispatching) are modeled and tested in the Sioux Falls network. Taxi models presented in the literature are divided into aggregated and equilibrium models, with a very small presence of simulation models. The different programmed modules are presented together with the behavior rules of the agents. Performance indicators are calculated for each operation mode and compared in terms of driver earnings, user cost and vacant versus occupied time.

Agent Based Modeling for Simulation of Taxi Services

2013

This paper presents an agent based model for simulating taxi services in urban areas. The three operation modes (hailing, stand and dispatching) are modeled and tested in the Sioux Falls network. Taxi models presented in the literature are divided into aggregated and equilibrium models, with a very small presence of simulation models. The different programmed modules are presented together with the behavior rules of the agents. Performance indicators are calculated for each operation mode and compared in terms of driver earnings, user cost and vacant versus occupied time.  Index Terms-Agent based modeling, taxi modeling, taxi services.

An agent-based simulation model for analyzing the impact of asymmetric passenger demand on taxi service

Ksce Journal of Civil Engineering, 2011

In this study, a time-dependent agent-based taxi simulation model was developed. Modeling of taxi system is a complex task because it is dependent on the spatiotemporal pattern of passenger demand. However, the role of taxi as a public transport cannot be under-estimated in the urban area. Not only as a paratransit for the elder and disabled but also as a public transport for complementing the mass transit systems such as subways and arterial buses, a taxi conveys huge number of passengers every day. In this context, a practical modeling method for a taxi system was developed based on equilibrium philosophy and an agent-based simulation framework. In this study, the authors developed a simulation framework for the evaluation of taxi service for enhancing the quality of urban taxi transportation system. The developed model was tested with various passenger travel patterns, and a meaningful policy-related issue for improving the service performance of a taxi system was found for dealing with an asymmetric demand pattern.

Modeling framework for supporting taxi policy making

International Journal of Traffic and Transportation Management

Taxi services account for a significant part of the daily trips in most cities around the world. These services are regulated by a central authority, which usually monitors the performance of the taxi services provision and defines the policies applied to the taxi sector. In order to support policy makers, fleet managers and individual taxi drivers, there is a need for developing models to understand the behavior of these markets. Most of the models developed for analyzing the taxi market are based on econometric measurements and do not account for the spatial distribution of both taxi demand and supply. Only few simulation models are able to better understand the operational characteristics of the taxi market. This paper presents a framework for the development of taxi models both aggregated and simulation-based. It is aimed at assessing policy makers, taxi fleet managers and individual drivers in the definition of the optimum operation mode and the number of vehicles.

TaxiSim: A Multiagent Simulation Platform for Evaluating Taxi Fleet Operations

2011

Taxi service is an important mode of public transportation in most metropolitan areas since it provides door-to-door convenience in the public domain. Unfortunately, despite all the convenience taxis bring, taxi fleets are also extremely inefficient to the point that over 50% of its operation time could be spent in idling state. Improving taxi fleet operation is an extremely challenging problem, not just because of its scale, but also due to fact that taxi drivers are self-interested agents that cannot be controlled centrally. To facilitate the study of such complex and decentralized system, we propose to construct a multiagent simulation platform that would allow researchers to investigate interactions among taxis and to evaluate the impact of implementing certain management policies. The major contribution of our work is the incorporation of our analysis on the real-world driver's behaviors. Despite the fact that taxi drivers are selfish and unpredictable, by analyzing a huge GPS dataset collected from a major taxi fleet operator, we are able to clearly demonstrate that driver's movements are closely related to the relative attractiveness of neighboring regions. By applying this insight, we are able to design a background agent movement strategy that generates aggregate performance patterns that are very similar to the real-world ones. Finally, we demonstrate the value of such system with a real-world case study.

A review of the modeling of taxi services

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2011

This paper presents a review of the different models developed for the taxicab problem. The presented models are grouped in two categories, aggregated and equilibrium models. Each model is analyzed from different points of view, such as market organization, operational organization and regulation issues. Conclusions extracted by authors are presented, listed and compared, analyzing each affirmation in terms of market regulation and organization. Finally, a state of the practice is presented, analyzing the configuration of the taxi market regulations along the world, linking the conclusions obtained by the authors with the real market situations.

Informed Versus Non-Informed Taxi Drivers: Agent-Based Simulation Framework for Assessing Their Performance

2018

1 Data driven research is becoming a standard in Transport. Recent advances in the Artificial 2 Intelligence and Machine Learning related areas enable the possibility of automatically 3 generating highly-accurate predictive analytics frameworks, under any context. Such frameworks 4 can potentially provide unprecedented levels of information to all mobility actors regarding not 5 only the current but also the future status of network variables – such as Origin-Destination 6 flows. This fact elevates the decision support to a new standard, where operations can be 7 optimized in real-time and in near-autonomous fashion. However, such advances also bring new 8 questions: How much can a transport operator benefit from this? Is there a limit for the amount 9 of information that all actors should have? 10 This paper aims to answer such questions by introducing an agent based model able to simulate 11 the behavior of individual taxi drivers on their passenger-finding strategies. Multiple st...