MIT Real-Time Rides Research

Substantial Sources of Rideshare Information

Last modified on 2009-03-10 22:51:15 GMT.

• DynamicRidesharing.org - The DynamicRidesharing.org wiki is a substantial source of information for technology-driven ridesharing. While we have tried not to duplicate resources too much, there will be some overlap in what we have posted and what is posted by DynamicRidesharing.org.

• RideshareDirectory.com - Provides a state-by-state list of rideshare providers with links to their websites.

Ridesharing in the National Media

Last modified on 2009-03-10 22:49:15 GMT.

• Dynamic Carpooling with your Mobile (Telematics Update, Jan 2009)

• Need a Ride? Check your iPhone (New York Times, December 2008)

• Anybody Want a Ride? (Boston Globe Magazine, July 2008)

• Joining the Carpool, in the Internet Age (New York Times, April 2008)

• NuRide Hooks Up Car Poolers and Rewards Them For It (Fox Business News, April 2008)

• Carpooling - An Idea Whose Time has Come (Huffington Post, January 2008)

Visions for Ridesharing

Last modified on 2009-03-10 22:47:00 GMT.

• Smart ParaTransit: A New Vision for Urban Transportation - New York-based Streetsblog’s idea for shared vehicle transport

• Smart Jitney - A proposal bridging the idea of private owner supplied ridesharing and small-vehicle transit service.

• Empty Seats Traveling - Nokia Research Center Report on the potential for technology-enabled ridesharing.

• Hovercars Protocol for Catalyzing Ridesharing - Proposal to establish fixed rideshare zones and meeting points, essentially combining features of transit with ridesharing

• How I solved the Energy Problem - Blog entry from Scott Adams, creator of the cartoon Dilbert

Technology-driven Rideshare Trials

Last modified on 2009-03-10 22:44:27 GMT.

Rather than re-create the wheel, we direct you to various parts of the DynamicRidesharing.org website for a comprehensive list of past, present and proposed projects:

• Past, Present and Proposed Projects

• Projects Underway or Proposed by DynamicRidesharing.org Partners

• Ride Now! - Several Dynamic Ridesharing Trials conducted in the Bay Area

Slugging / Informal Ridesharing

Last modified on 2009-03-10 22:42:00 GMT.

• Slugging to Work: Anonymous Ridesharing - NPR Morning Edition piece from May 2008 on the ad-hoc ridesharing phenomenon in Washington, DC.

• Slug-Lines.com - An introduction and brief history to the concept of slugging.

• Casual Carpool 1998 Update: RIDES for Bay Area Commuters, Inc. - A very interesting survey about the commuting habits of casual carpoolers in San Francisco. Very interesting information on mode choice alternatives and why they choose to carpool.

Selected MIT Contributions on Ridesharing

Last modified on 2009-03-10 22:40:25 GMT.

• MIT Mobile Experience Laboratory Ride.Link - Combination of technologies to promote social interaction and ridesharing.

• MIT Vehicle Design Summit - Although little is written about ridesharing on the website itself, the VDS team is hoping to setup a demonstration of a dynamic rideshare concept with shared-use vehicles in India.

• MIT Mobile Experience Laboratory RideBook & RideFinder - Conceptual plan for dynamic ridesharing.

• Creating Trust in Ridesharing Networks - Student Course Project from Fall 2007

• Analysis of carpooling behavior and the formulation of carpool incentive programs - Our research advisor’s thesis from 1974

Academic / Public Agency Research

Last modified on 2009-07-02 02:45:21 GMT.

Below is a partial list of research papers and resources ordered by published date. We will be adding additional references and some summaries over the coming weeks

• Moving Cooler: An Analysis of Transportation Strategies for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions - (ULI & Cambridge Systematics, 2009)

• Paul Minett’s 2009 TCRP Carpool/Vanpool Research Proposal

• Covoiturage Dynamique: L’Etude Prealable avant Experimentation [Dynamic Ridesharing – Advanced Study before Experimentation] - (CERTU – Transport Technology, 2009) (French)

• Saferide Annotated Bibliography - This list of academic references for the Saferide Project serves as a good background on mode choice behavior.

• Fuel Savings and Ridesharing in the US: Motivations, Limitations, and Opportunities - (Jacobson and King, 2008)

• Interactive System for Real Time Dynamic Multi-hop Carpooling - (Gruebele, 2008)

• Examining Incentives and Preferential Treatment of Carpools on Managed Lane Facilities - (Ungemah et al., 2007)

• Casual Carpooling - Enhanced - (Kelley, 2007)

• Various UK government Reports [DfT & TfL] - (2000 – 2008)

• Who Chooses to Carpool and Why? Examination of Texas Carpoolers - (Jianling Li, TRR #2021, 2007)

• Dynamic Taxi-Sharing Service Using Intelligent Transportation System Technologies - (Chi-Chung Tao, 2007)

• Estimating commuter mode choice: A discrete choice analysis of the impact of road pricing and parking charges - (Washbrook, 2006)
  
  • “To estimate commuter mode choice behaviour in response to road pricing and/or increased parking charges, 548 commuters from a Greater Vancouver suburb who presently drive alone to work completed an individually customized discrete choice experiment (DCE) in which they chose between driving alone, carpooling or taking a hypothetical express bus service when choices varied in terms of time and cost attributes. Results indicate that improving travel time for alternative travel modes above a base level of service had only a small effect on mode choice and did little to decrease demand for SOV travel, nor did increases to SOV travel time. On the other hand, increasing the cost of SOV travel by introducing new charges had a substantial and significant effect on demand for driving alone…At moderate travel times, carpooling was a more attractive alternative than taking transit. Only short travel times with few or no transfers attracted drivers to transit.”

• The Ambivalence of Ridesharing - (Morency, 2006)

• Smart Jitney/Community-Enhanced Transit Systems - (Woodsworth & Behnke, 2006)

• Saving Oil in a Hurry - (International Energy Agency, 2005)

• Design Decisions in the RideNow Project - (Hemphill, Resnick & Wash, 2005)

• TCRP Report 95, Chap. 5 - Vanpools and Buspools - Traveler Response to Transportation System Changes - (TCRP, 2005)

• SocioTechnical Support for Ride Sharing - (Resnick, 2003)

• Organized Dynamic Ridesharing: The potential Environmental Benefits and the Opportunity for Advancing the Concept - (Levofsky and Greenburg, 2001)

• Mating Habits of Slugs: Dynamic Carpool Formation in the I-95/I-395 Corridor of Northern Virginia - (Shapiro & Spielberg, TRR #1711, 2000)

• Spatial and Temporal Factors in Estimating the Potential of Ridesharing for Demand Reduction - (Tsao & Lin, 1999)

• Casual Carpooling: An Update - (RIDES for Bay Area Commuters, 1998)

• The Marriage of Transit and Autos: How to Make Transit Popular Again - (Webber, 1998)

• The Rise and Fall of the American Carpool: 1970-1990 - (Ferguson, 1997)
  
  • “Recent declines in carpooling among American commuters are analyzed using data derived from the US Census of Population, the Nationwide Personal Transportation Study and the American Home Survey. The most important factors associated with recent declines in carpooling to and from work in the US include increasing household vehicle availability, falling real marginal fuel costs, and higher average educational attainments among commuters. Age, sex, family income, household lifecycle characteristics, urban form, racial diversity and relative poverty appear to have had smaller effects on observed changes in carpooling for the work trip.”

• Dynamic Ridesharing: Theory and Practice - (Hall & Qureshi, 1997)

• Real-Time Ridesharing: Does it Work? Results and Recommendations from the Sacramento-Area Field Operational Test - (Kowshik & Jovanis, 1997)

• Paratransit in America: Redefining Mass Transportation - (Cervero, 1997)

• Thinking small: Applying ITS technologies to TDM - (Orski, ITE Journal #65, 1995)

• Cost and Effectiveness of Transportation Control Measures (TCMs): A Review and Analysis of the Literature - (Apogee Research, 1994)

• Development Of User Needs And Functional Requirements For A Real-time Ridesharing System - (Kowshik & Jovanis, 1993)

• German ‘Smart Bus’ Systems: Potential For Application in Portland, OR - (Behnke, 1993)

• The Effectiveness of Ridesharing Incentives: Discrete-choice Models of Commuting in Southern California - (Brownstone, 1992)
  
  • “This paper studies the effects of certain incentives designed to promote ridesharing on work trips to reduce congestion and air pollution. Discrete choice models of commuters’ mode choices (always rideshare, sometimes rideshare, and always drive alone) are estimated using a new study of full-time workers’ commuting behavior in the greater Los Angeles are. Partial equilibrium policy simulations with our model indicate that providing all workers with reserved parking, ridesharing subsidies, guaranteed rides home, and high-occupancy vehicle lanes would reduce drive-alone commuting between 11 and 18 percent.”

• IVHS Technology for Improving Ridesharing - (IVHS America, 1992)

• Effects of Variable Work Hour Programs on Ridesharing and Organizational Effectiveness: A Case Study, Ventura County - (Freas et al., TRR #1321, 1991)

• The Determinants of Ridesharing: A Literature Review - (Hwang & Giuliano, 1990)

• Casual Carpooling in the San Francisco Bay Area - (Beroldo, Transportation Quarterly Vol. 44, 1990)

• Evaluation of Springfield Instant Carpooling - (Reno et al., TRR #1212, 1989)

• Factors Influencing Commuting Choices in Suburban Labor Markets – Case study of Pleasanton, CA - (Cervero, Transportation Research 22A, 1988)

• Analysis of Commuter Ridesharing behavior at Five Urban Sites - (Booth & Waksman, TRR #1018, 1985)

• The Coordination of Parking with Public Transportation and Ridesharing - (Public Technology Inc with support of USDOT, 1982)

• Ridesharing Needs and Requirements: The Role of the Private and Public Sectors - (TRB Special Report #193, 1981)

• Ridesharing: Psychological Factors - (Dueker et al., Journal of Transport Engineering #103, 1977)

Other Rideshare Sources

Last modified on 2009-03-10 22:36:42 GMT.

• OpenTrip - the beginnings of an open protocol data feed for sharing trip data among carpooling services and transit agencies.

• WSDOT RideshareOnline Replacement RFP - I am attempting to track down on online version

• Ridesharing Advice for Cities, Others - This blog posting on the New America Foundation website lists a number of the “structural issues” that ridesharing frequently runs into