June 20, 2024 (Thursday) 4:30-5:30pm
Due to the rapid development of the e-commerce market and the surging urban logistics demand, the concept of collaborative passenger and freight transportation in the urban context (urban co-modality) is becoming increasingly popular. Urban co-modality exploits the under-utilized capacity in existing urban multimodal transportation systems. This talk will introduce three types of urban co-modality, namely, co-modality based on public transit systems, individual travelers (crowdshipping), and emerging modular vehicles. In this talk, we first introduce analytical and optimization studies of the co-modality problem based on public transit systems, including quantifying the impacts of introducing co-modality on public transit and urban freight systems, examining the Pareto-improving co-modal system that benefits both users and operators, and designing co-modal service networks. We then present recent studies on crowdshipping – engaging travelers in the crowd to carry freight. The optimal pricing strategies of the crowdshipping platform in alternative business formats are identified. Finally, we discuss prospective opportunities to use modular vehicle-based transit systems for co-modal service. Our studies demonstrate that collaborative passenger and freight transportation is a future trend of sustainable transportation, which has the potential to alleviate congestion, reduce carbon emissions, facilitate urban mobility, and create social benefits for users and operators.
