The market economy of trips

Abstract

Mobility on Demand (MOD) systems allow users to pick-up and drop-off vehicles (bikes, automobiles) ubiquitously in a network of parking stations. Asymmetric demand patterns cause unbalanced fleet allocation decreasing level of service. Current redistribution policies are complex to plan and typically cost more that the usage revenues of the system. The Market Economy of Trips (MET) explores a new operation model based on a double auction market where cost-minimizing users are both buyers and sellers of trip rights while profit-maximizing stations are competing auctioneers that trade them. Trip rights are priced relatively to the inventory needs of origin and destination stations. A theory, a game, and a model are presented to explore equilibrium and limits of efficiency of MET under different demand patterns and income distribution.