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Dynamic Pricing on Round-Trip Carsharing Services: Travel Behavior and Equity Impact Analysis through an Agent-Based Simulation

Author

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  • Giulio Giorgione

    (Department of Engineering, University of Luxembourg, L-4364 Luxembourg, Luxembourg)

  • Francesco Ciari

    (Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, Montreal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada)

  • Francesco Viti

    (Department of Engineering, University of Luxembourg, L-4364 Luxembourg, Luxembourg)

Abstract

Carsharing companies can customize their service by adopting different pricing schemes and offers with the goal of increasing service attractivity, fleet usage and profits. Dynamic pricing strategies can be designed to adjust and balance cars’ availability temporally and spatially; they may pose some questions regarding customer equity, since such measures could impact their activities and mode choice. In this paper, we develop an experimental design for conducting an explorative analysis of how availability-based and time-based dynamic pricing schemes impact demand and supply performances. The strategy is simulated in the open-source agent-based software MATSim and compared to a fixed pricing policy scheme. Two spatial distributions of the value of time for the population of Berlin are applied (radially and coaxially) to systematically analyze agents’ behavior response to these pricing policies. Results confirm that when dynamic pricing is applied people with low value of time tend to abandon the carsharing mode in favor of other modes of transportation. Overall, the strategy applied in this study appears to be unfair, since it hinders low income groups from using the carsharing service.

Suggested Citation

  • Giulio Giorgione & Francesco Ciari & Francesco Viti, 2020. "Dynamic Pricing on Round-Trip Carsharing Services: Travel Behavior and Equity Impact Analysis through an Agent-Based Simulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-23, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:17:p:6727-:d:401182
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Lide Yang & Jiemin Xie & Tuo Sun & Junxian Wu & Jinquan Hou & Shuangjian Yang, 2023. "Application of Autonomous Transportation Systems: Detection of a Potential Sub-Leasing Type of Carsharing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Narayanan, Santhanakrishnan & Antoniou, Constantinos, 2022. "Expansion of a small-scale car-sharing service: A multi-method framework for demand characterization and derivation of policy insights," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).

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