Volunteer driver programs (VDPs) utilize the service of volunteers to replicate car-based, demand-responsive, door-to-door services in rural areas, but little is understood about how external factors (e.g., changes in service area) affect VDP sustainability. Agent-based modelling (ABM) simulates the operational behavior of individual agents (e.g., drivers, users) to evaluate their interaction under specified scenarios, and although it has been used in transportation research, it has never been applied to VDP analysis. Netlogo was used to develop a simplified VDP ABM, calibrated and validated with 1 year of program data from the New Brunswick Volunteer Driving Database. Three model scenarios were tested: increased health trip distance, increased service area, and increasing the number of drivers to meet initial distance targets. The ABM demonstrated intuitive results and established connections among changing operational scenarios, though additional research is needed for multipurpose trips and user/driver/dispatcher interactions.


    Access

    Download


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Exploring Agent-Based Modelling for Car-Based Volunteer Driver Program Planning


    Additional title:

    Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2022-06-06




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    Developing Transportation Engineering and Planning Metrics for Rural Volunteer Driver Programs

    Hanson, Trevor R. / Goudreau, Matthieu | Transportation Research Record | 2019


    Volunteer phytoplankton program

    Hall, S. | British Library Conference Proceedings




    Transport planning with stakeholders: An agent-based modelling approach

    Le Pira, Michela | British Library Online Contents | 2018