Reducing empty miles of shared mobility on highway corridors

Smartphone-app-based technology has provided business opportunities to various demand-responsive urban transportation services, including e-hailing taxis, ride-pooling, and microtransit. These shared mobility services exhibit great potential for enhancing transportation services in rural communities. A common side effect, however, is a substantial portion of empty vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on highway corridors, which induces further congestion to highway traffic in peak hours. A quantitative analysis tool is necessary for planning agencies and policymakers to assess the impact of shared mobility on highway traffic. The researcher's recent work investigating ride-pooling systems serving uniformly distributed demands in a single community shows that their efficiency is highly sensitive to online matching schemes. This impact is expected to be even more significant in spatially imbalanced demand patterns, such as those between suburban/rural communities. This project will develop a traffic assignment model to allocate vehicular trips to corridor networks linking suburban and rural communities, which will assist policymakers in (1) understanding the relations between the spatial distribution of inter-community travel demands and excessive VMT; (2) identifying the most vulnerable corridors affected by shared mobility services; and (3) evaluating the potentials of various regulatory policies and public surcharges in reducing empty vehicle mileage. Ultimately, the analysis tool will enable planning agencies to explore practical measures to improve the accessibility of suburban and rural communities with shared mobility services.

• Record URL:
  • https://ncst.ucdavis.edu/project/reducing-empty-miles-shared-mobility-highway-corridors

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $209,870.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DOT 69A3552348319

  DOT 69A3552344814

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Managing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Project Managers:

  Cliff, Sydney

• Performing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Principal Investigators:

  Zhang, Michael

• Start Date: 20260401
• Expected Completion Date: 20270630
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Shared mobility; Spatial analysis; Traffic assignment; Traffic congestion; Transportation policy; Vehicle miles of travel
• Subject Areas: Highways; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01985463
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Center for Sustainable Transportation
• Contract Numbers: DOT 69A3552348319, DOT 69A3552344814
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Apr 12 2026 11:16PM