Sustainable mobility with bi-modal public transport
von Puneet Sharma
Datum der mündl. Prüfung:2023-12-05
Erschienen:2024-02-27
Betreuer:Prof. Dr. Stephan Herminghaus
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Stephan Herminghaus
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Stefan Klumpp
Dateien
Name:Ph_D_Thesis.pdf
Size:13.4Mb
Format:PDF
Description:Ph.D. Thesis
Zusammenfassung
Englisch
The escalating problems of pollution, traffic congestion, resource consumption, and environmental degradation are becoming increasingly significant due to the growing demand for urban mobility. This mounting crisis is largely attributed to the dominant use of private cars as the primary mode of transportation. While other alternatives like public transport offer a promising solution, they are often perceived as inconvenient and less attractive. In this Ph.D. thesis, we propose an alternative hybrid mode of transportation, bi-modal transportation, that combines a fixed rail service with on-demand shuttles. Line services, characterized by fixed routes and schedules, facilitate high vehicle occupancy and faster service. Meanwhile, shuttles offer seamless on-demand transportation to and from line service stops. In a first approach, we consider an idealized model geometry with a square grid of railways (line service) on which transport occurs via trains. We identify the conflicting objectives for optimization, i.e., user convenience and energy consumption, and evaluate the system's performance in terms of Pareto fronts. By means of simulation and analytical theory, we find that energy consumption can be significantly reduced as compared to private cars, at line service densities typically found in real settings. We then study the impact of rail stop density on system performance, revealing that, within realistic technical parameters, more stops can slow down trains without substantial improvements in overall performance. Consequently, we propose reducing the number of stops in existing railway systems and integrating bi-modal transit as a complementary solution. Finally, we study the feasibility of bi-modal transportation in Berlin and Brandenburg. We find that the existing network of rails with shuttles can be used to deploy a bi-modal public transit system that can reduce energy consumption while providing a service quality superior to customary public transit systems. With this work, we provide a possible answer to the pressing question of designing sustainable future mobility solutions.
Keywords: Sustainable mobility; Public transportation; Carbon emission; Traffic reduction; Agent-based simulation; Ride pooling