Evaluating the travel impacts of a shared mobility system for remote workers

Abstract

Given the rapid rise of remote work, there is an opportunity for new shared mobility services designed to meet the needs of passengers with multiple possible work locations. This paper develops a new optimization model to enable shared mobility systems to match drivers and passengers when passengers have flexible destinations. Constraints representing employer policies, such as mandatory co-location of colleagues and limited capacity of satellite offices are introduced in order to explore the impact of employer remote work policies on travel demand. A case study using historical demand data demonstrates that incorporating flexible work locations can increase ride-pooling participation by up to 6.7% and reduce vehicle-kilometers traveled by 4.9%. Outcomes are found to be significantly affected by employer policies. The implications of the results for shared mobility business models, employer remote work plans and local transportation policy are discussed.