Comparison of ride pooling and full traffic simulations
Shared pooled mobility has been studied as a stand-alone system and as part of full traffic simulations with vastly different results. While full traffic simulations are unable to find significant amounts of pooling, in direct ride pooling simulations, arbitrarily high values of pooling can be found depending on the system parameters. In this project we want to gain a better understanding of this discrepancy and find parameters such that full traffic simulations achieve pooling.
Pricing and Efficiency
The convenience and efficiency, as well as potentially the price of ride-pooling for the individual user changes with the request rate. We want to develop an agent-based model for individual mode choice decisions and analyze its behaviour with different parameters.
Thesis Proposal: Assessing the Reduction of External Social Costs through
Ride-Pooling in Urban Private Vehicle Traffic
Ride-pooling presents a promising strategy for mitigating the negative externalities
associated with private car use, such as CO₂ emissions, noise pollution, and road
congestion (Creutzig et al., 2024). By bundling similar travel routes into shared rides,
ride-pooling reduces the total number of vehicle trips and the number of vehicles
required on the road.
As a foundational reference, we build on findings from (Schmaus et al., 2025), where
it was demonstrated that in Berlin, a fleet of approximately 26,500 ride-pooling vehicles
could theoretically replace all private domestic car trips. Moreover, this scenario would
lead to an estimated 61% reduction in total vehicle kilometers traveled.
This thesis aims to investigate the implications of a vehicle reduction around 98% on
the external social costs of urban private vehicle traffic. Specifically, we want to
calculate potential savings in terms of land use (e.g., parking demand), green house
gas emissions, air pollution, noise exposure, and traffic accidents (Creutzig et al.,
2025). By determining these impacts, the thesis seeks to contribute to a more
comprehensive understanding of the societal value of ride-pooling as a sustainable
urban mobility solution.
Adjustments of the topic are of course possible. This work can be accepted as a
Master's thesis. The thesis can start from June 2025. Background: industrial
engineering, business informatics or similar.
Contact: Alexander Schmaus, schmaus@pik-potsdam.de
