Carpooling Simulation for Dublin: Analysis Using Agent-Based Model

This project explores the potential of carpooling to reduce travel time in Dublin using an agent-based simulation model with the Janus platform. The model simulates agents traveling from point A to B, sharing rides, and compares the time and cost against bus travel. The study reviews Dublin's current transportation infrastructure, including the Dublin City Centre Transport Study and the implementation of Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI). The research aims to critically examine the effect of introducing carpooling in Dublin and to verify if it has the potential to meet the increasing population and reduce congestion in Dublin. The project includes a literature review, methodology description, results, and a conclusion, focusing on alternative approaches to improve transportation and address passenger frustrations with existing public transport options.

Abstract
Carpooling is one of the emerging method people are using to reduce the cost and time of
commuting (Carroll, P., Caulfield, B. and Ahern, A., 2017). The technique is eco-friendly and
sustainable in terms of time saved, cost, resource use and traffic congestion (Shahram Tahmasseby,
Lina Kattan & Brian Barbour, 2015). Carpooling involves car-sharing between people going to
similar or different destinations in a particular direction. The process of carpooling starts with the
motive for car-sharing, communication of purpose between various agents, negotiation, and
feedback. The reasons for carpooling may be time-saving, convenience, cost of resources, and other
constraints.
The paper will focus on the simulation model of carpooling with the Janus multi-agent platform.
Essentially, it will simulate carpooling where one agent travelling from point A to B so will put a
request in the model which is also accessible by another person moving in the same direction who
will pool the same car. The model will tell how much time each of the agents takes to reach their
destinations assuming in the same direction. Therefore, the model can be used to compare the time
and cost taken by bus and car to travel the same route. The aim is to find an alternative to reduce
travel time in Dublin, mainly focusing on how carpooling if introduced, will help in achieving this.

Chapter 1
Introduction

1

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1.0 Introduction
1.1 Context
This research project is about exploring alternatives that could potentially reduce the travel time
users spend on public transport in Dublin. Independently of the demand for a particular route. In a
sense, the research project is about exploring alternative transportation options for Dublin, such as
carpooling; and understanding its potential impact via agent-based model experiments.
The public bus service follows strict timetable and other than being occasionally late it follows same
imposed rules, like for example bus 120 follows the route from Parnell Street to Ashtown and vice
versa starting from 6 a.m. with next bus at half an hour intervals and after 5 p.m the duration of next
bus increases to 45 to 50 minutes. With increasing use of technology, the public transport system
improved; however, its users still face many issues in travelling around; such as Real time passenger
information has been implemented, but the awareness and usage of this system differs from age
groups as per the finding mentioned in the case study of Dublin (Bryan Sweeney, Ba GPEP, 2012).
Even after the implementation of Real Time Information of the bus timings, there has been no
significant difference in the travel time that people experience (Bryan Sweeney, Ba GPEP, 2012). If
one misses the bus and has to be somewhere urgently the only current option is a taxi, and that is not
an affordable option to many, particularly if this need is presented with a certain regularity (e.g. daily
or occasional commute).
There are many routes in Dublin which are not connected by bus services or the frequency of buses
is just not good enough to meet the demand of the consumers, for example, if one has to travel from

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Clontarf to Blanchardstown, they will spend almost 1 and half hour by bus whereas the drive is just
20 minutes.
Figure 1: Clontarf to Blanchardstown by bus and by car travel time (GoogleMaps,
2005)
This is because there is no direct bus from Clontarf to Blanchardstown.
Another such example can be from Ashtown to Fairview.

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Figure 1: Ashtown to Fairview by bus and by car travel time (GoogleMaps, 2005)
1.2 Research Aims, Objectives and Hypothesis
1.2.1 Hypothesis
The hypothesis for the research project is 'Independent of the demand for a specific route Carpooling
if introduced can reduce the travel time spent in Dublin, thus providing an alternative travelling
option'.

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1.2.2 Aim
The study aims to critically examine the effect of introducing car-pooling in Dublin
and to verify if it has the potential to meet the increasing population and reduce
congestion in Dublin.
1.2.3 Objectives
In order for these aims to be achieved a number of objectives were set out:
 To explore the evidence on the benefits of implementing carpooling in
Dublin.
 To research and analyse existing systems or new approaches already proposed for the
same cause.
 To examine the reliability of carpooling.
 To establish what are the passengers greatest frustrations associated with taking
the bus, taxies etc. while traveling in Dublin.

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1.3 Research Structure
This capstone research project paper comprises of five chapters. The first chapter is the
introduction; second is the literature review, which will cover a range of related topics
regarding alternative approaches to improve transportation in Dublin and Dublin transportation
study. Chapter 3 describes the methodology used in the primary research, the agent-based
model and algorithms. Chapter 4 includes all of the main findings in the results Chapter, and
Chapter 5 is the conclusion.

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Chapter 2
Literature Review

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2.0 Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
This chapter will discuss all the relevant literature with regard to the current Dublin
transportation study. The literature further gives insights into what other approaches are
suggested to improve Dublin transportation and what passengers find to be the most frustrating
aspect of taking the bus?
2.2 Study Reviews
Dublin city center transport study has been developed as an input into the Dublin City council
development plan. The aim was to redefine the framework so that it can provide better
sustainability towards the transport infrastructure. The infrastructure for transport is considered
as one of the major aspects that need to be resolved. It has been identified that within the year
2010 and 2015, funding for the transport system was done around €97 million. This was
mainly provided with the use of NTA to Dublin City Council for facilitating the transport
infrastructure of the city (Becker, T.A., Caulfield, B. and Shiels, 2017). This program helped
in delivering many projects successfully and ensured that the entire basic infrastructure is
developed. That included spanning bus infrastructure, cycling, and road resurfacing, and
walking schemes, along with Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) and traffic
management systems. The basic requirements that were identified by the city center transport
system include granting a future development that will meet the potential need of the city
center and will ensure that the infrastructure has been improved (Ahern, A., Vega, A. and
Caulfield, 2016). The main reason for implementing new infrastructure for the transport

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system is to overcome the basic issues. The issues that are faced while managing the transport
includes the ban on taxi in college green so that they can have better control over the transport
system. Apart from this, there is a huge concern related to the access over mobility and
disabled people (Gieras, J.F., Piech, Z.J. and Tomczuk, 2018). The transport is being prepared
based on the 11 major street areas. This includes the college green area, Grafton Street lower,
Suffolk Street and St. Stephen's green and many more other streets. Apart from this, the city
has also been developed with the facility of appropriate public transport so that the customer
can get access across the street. It is expected that the journey time will be reliable and
predictable. With the integrated transport system, it is expected that the fare structure will also
get integrated that will avoid unnecessary penalty. This offers an easy way -to-use cashless
payment system for the purpose of public transport trips and for utilizing the supplementary
services (Koç, Çağrı & Bektas, Tolga & Jabali, Ola & Laporte, Gilbert, 2016). This service
mainly includes facilities related to car parking that enable multi-modal trips within the city
centre. The source includes integrated traffic management, vehicular traffic management, real
time passenger information and integrated transport fares and payment. Real time passenger
information on Dublin bus will provide better support towards the passengers and operators
(Hussam Achour, Abdul-Ghani Olabi, 2016). They store all the details regarding the people
travelling on the bus. The RTPI technology is used for the passengers so that they can access
up to date, and real time information on buses. This is both from the end of RTPI poles at bus
stops, as well as via mobile apps, such as the Transport for Ireland Journey Planner.
The proposed network for the transport will provide a better outline for the Dublin city
council's development plan. This will ensure that all the key strategies are being fulfilled
successfully. The proposed strategy will ensure that the footpaths prepared are wider and are
at key locations. Apart from this, the proposed pedestrian routes will include good signage,
surfaces and lighting. Provision for tourists will be provided along with the linking key Dublin

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tourist destinations into the "strategic" network (Consultation. dublincity.ie., 2019). This will
help in providing better services towards the tourist destination point. The proposed network
will also include removal of unnecessary street clutter that will provide better mobility. This
will allow facilitating the passenger with better services on Luas Cross City, that is currently
under construction.
In addition to this, with the implementation of these proposals, it will also increase the
frequency and carrying capacity that is associated with the DART Service. The other reason
behind facilitating the passenger services on the Phoenix Park Tunnel Link. This will also
enhance the interchange opportunities that are available between the rail services and other
public transport.
Thus from the above report, it can be concluded that with the proposal of a new transport
model it will become easy to manage the transport and traffic within the city centre. However,
there are several issues that are faced with an online survey. This includes access for
deliveries, access towards the car parks and ensuring that no anti-social behaviour. Thus it can
be stated that with the implementation of a new transport system it will become easy to
manage the activities.
According to (Kong, X., Li, M., Tang, T., Tian, K., Moreira-Matias, L. and Xia, F., 2018),
with the present implementation of the public transportation system, it is found that the people
are generally forced in order to adhere different types of timetables as well as fixed routes in
order to reach their journey however they are mainly impacted negatively with the rising issue
of the vehicles as well as because of the overcapacity. It is found that the buses generally need
to make different types of an endless journey in order to allow for the possibility of demand
with an improper way of knowing whether the entire trip that is done is worthy or not until it is
completed. Furthermore, this generally creates a harmful environmental impact with different

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types of wasted trips that generally leads to harmful emission that is being released for no
reason. It is stated by (Ball, Simon David, 2016) that a proper solution is considered to be a
more dynamic system that generally helps in catering the passengers that are needed as they
generally arise. This system needs to properly adhere to different types of strict timetables as
well as routes; however, they instead run when the need generally arises. It is found that this
type of system would not be required for adhering strict timetables as well as routes; however,
they generally run when the requirement mainly arises. It is quite necessary to make sure that
admission for each of the user who mainly signs are helpful that their passengers are generally
available for setting off as well as cutting out different needless journeys that are generally
reducing the journey which is mainly harmful to the entire environment. It is found that this
system will generally be helpful in allowing more communication between the drivers as well
as passengers for creating much more suitable transportation system within modern life.
It is opined by (Ampudia-Renuncio, M., Guirao, B. and Molina, R., 2018)that the present state
of art generally lacks implementation as well as justification for the entire transportation
system that is dynamically changing different destinations which is generally based on the
input of the user. There are a number of prototypes as well as proposals within the routing
system with different dynamic stops, but there are a number of publicly reflected results in
context to implementation. A prototype solution of Illinois Institute of Technology generally
put forward a prototype solution of a dynamic bus routing system that generally proposes a
system which is mainly created with the help of localized pickup as well as destination-based
locations for the different group of users that are generally dependent on the analysis of
demographic-based data. This is considered as one of the solutions that are helpful for bus
routing that does not account for proper stochastic demand as the requirement of the users can
change on a daily basis. It is stated by (Kosolapov, Andrey, 2017) that a system that uses the
present infrastructure including street lights however they do not properly implement the entire

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system out of the expectation which is generally based on the IT architecture that is required
for bringing the entire system to fruition. Other types of public transportation-based routes
generally have fixed locations that are mainly based on the start as well as endpoint and are
helpful in improving the entire flow look of the bus by changing the route between points.
According to (Le Vine Scott and Polak John, 2017), the floating bus system generally takes
proper advantage of the dynamic input with the help of the user requests from different
Android-based applications for creating floating bus stops in order to cater the needs of the
passengers. It is found that the requests are generally posted as well as assigned to existing
waypoints which are mainly aggregation of pick up as well as drop off based coordinates from
the different request that is received. These are further helpful in creating a route that is
generally assigned to a vehicle. In addition to this, feedback as well as information that is
provided by utilizing Google directions, Google maps, sa well as a display of request-based
concentrations. It is stated by (Freeman, E.L., Cox, R.J. and Splinter, K.D., 2017) that the
study helps in proposing a practical solution for the transportation system that is generally
referred as a floating bus. The floating bus system mainly takes advantage of the dynamic
input with the help of the user requests from different Android-based applications such as their
destinations coordinates and the needed number of seats for the entire journey.
According to (Caggiani, L., Camporeale, R. and Ottomanelli, M., 2017) it is reflected that a
floating bus generally has the potential to become of the viable solution so that it can be able
to create a proper transportation system within the entire city. The simulations generally run
against the entire system with the help of mock data with different pickup as well as drop-
down locations with a different number of passengers. This further involved issuing of a
number of requests to the entire system to its different locations of the Dublin city for handling
a number of vehicles where the results generally reflect that the vehicles are mainly assigned
to the most efficient routes depending on the direction as well as the capacity of the waypoint.

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It is opined by ( Munira Batool; Farhad Shahnia; Syed M. Islam, 2019) that the different types
of metrics that are recorded during simulations were the distance as well as time such the
pickup as well as drop off locations are done from the location that is assigned. With the help
of the distance that is travelled is mainly combined with an average output of pollution over
the entire impact of the environment on the floating bus is mainly calculated. These are
generally compared with the alternatives of fixed-route in order to reflect that environmental
impact that is associated with the routes of the floating bus is mainly calculated. These are
considered to be properly compared with the alternatives of fixed routes in order to reflect that
an improvement in context to the delivery of the passengers are helpful in minimizing the
entire impact on the environment.
According to a study focused on the user views on the implementation of Real Time Passenger
Information (RTPI) (Bryan Sweeney, Ba GPEP, 2012), this innovation has generally attracted
new users to the system; it improved its reliability and the experience of travelling in Dublin.
The study also identified an imbalance of how different age groups use RTPI with the younger
generations using it more often than older generations. Another highlight was the delays in bus
arrival times, exploring the occasional inaccuracy of the system and that implementing RTPI
did not reduce the travel time. This is particularly noticeable when there are no direct buses
from point A to B, so users have to change from one bus service to another, and this
connection time is often long due to waiting.
2.3 Available transportation in Dublin
Bus services
The state of Dublin owns Dublin Buses all over its routes, and several peripheral buses are
available by a private operator called Go-Ahead Ireland, this operator has buses on behalf of
NTA, the National Transport Authority. The Greater Dublin area consists of most of the public
that travel by buses, there the extensive network of peripheral buses are available across the

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city. The routes of the buses are marked separately for day and night, in the day time the routes
are recognized by letter with suffix and number, such as 25a,27c etc. whereas at the night time,
routes are recognized by suffixed of number on two consecutive night that is Friday and
Saturday such as 42n, 41n etc.
Across Dublin, the Real Time Passenger Information Service provides all the information
related to the buses run across the city, the time estimation of the bus arrival are all provided
they depend upon the GPS locations (Carroll, P., Caulfield, B. and Ahern, A., 2017). That
information is also available on the official website of the Dublin Bus as well as the
application are available for the smartphones.
The drawbacks of Dublin bus services are that the fare of the buses are determined by the
number of stages of fare are travelled, the fare could be only be paid through coins no cards
are accepted, the passengers have to provide exact fare for their travel route.
The buses run on fixed routes, so to travel in any diverse route would involve of break journey
that would result in more time and money consuming. If any passenger gives excess fare, they
won't get the changes back. However, leap cards are provided by the agents of Dublin buses.
These cards consist of cash balance and weekly pass from which the passenger having that
card can pay the fair of their route.
Commuter rail
The five lines in Dublin operated by Commuter rail. Northern Commuter runs from City
Centre of Dublin to Dundalk. The commuter service of South Western part of Dublin runs
from Heuston to Portlaoise and Kildare. The commuter service of Western part from Dublin
City to Longford and Maynooth. The commuter service of Eastern part runs from Gorey to the
city of Dublin. The orbital route services are unavailable anyway.
DART
The suburban network of railways system of Dublin consists of DART, the Dublin Area Rapid

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Transit that primarily runs along the Dublin Bay's coastline from Greystones to Malahide and
Howth. The DART is used by approximately 80,000 people of Dublin regularly, this service is
the only railway of the electrified path, and it has become the most famous public transport of
Ireland. On the initial days of the system of DART, it was very much overcrowded; however,
the future plans hold the capacity increase of the DART by 40% in the coming years. It can be
seen that overcrowding become a huge problem.
Luas
A Luas is a light rail tram named after a word "Speed" which is an Irish word. A plan called
Transport 21 was launched for the connection of two lines. Approximately 90,000 people
travel via the Luas every day. The profit of Luas increased in the year 2006 on ahead of time.
This transport runs without the assistance of the Government in the whole country.
Metro
The Metro is a two-line system of rapid transit launched in 2016. A North line was introduced
that would run to Swords from St. Stephen Green via Airport of Dublin and Northern Suburbs
of the city. The Metro would connect to several other commuters such as the DART, Bus,
Luas and Rail that could lead to different directions of the city those are West, Southwest and
North of the Dublin City.
Dublin Bikes
Since 2009, the rental bike system in the City of Dublin has been started, in this scheme the
bikes are given on rent, the bikes are of silver colour and can be used by both males and
females. Dublin City Council recognized the Dublin bike launch as better than the preceding
launches in other cities. However, bicycles limit the number of passengers in one bike and the
travelling time increases in motorcycles, which becomes a huge drawback to the Dublin
Bikes.
2.4 History of Carpooling

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Since the shortage of oil started in the mid-1970s, the governments started taking an interest in
the area of carpooling and started preparing policies and plans about it for carpooling
encouragement. However, the carpooling rate got decreased after 1980 as the fuel prices
decreased with better transportation and increase in individual income result in the decrease of
carpool trips (Massaro, D.W., Chaney, B., Bigler, S., Lancaster, J., Iyer, S., Gawade, M.,
Eccleston, M., Gurrola, E. and Lopez, A., 2009). In the process of encouraging carpools, High
Occupancy Vehicle lanes were introduced. Researches have shown that the introduction of
HOV lanes have introduced controversies as the HOV lanes in a busy highway can increase
the congestion of the overall highway. However, the efficiency of the highway increased as a
whole for the HOV lane. If a larger amount of carpools are introduced, then the efficiency of
the carpool reserved lanes would also increase the size of a carpool can be increased with the
addition of similar services of carpool.
2.5 Factors encouraging Carpooling
The factors affecting the activities related to carpooling involves the perception of the
traveller's cost, benefits and time management. It is seen that convenience and cost of time are
two main factors in choosing carpool over other travelling services such as bus, train, tram etc.
(Carroll, P., Caulfield, B. and Ahern, A., 2017). Reduction in the stress of driving and
introduction of HOV lanes would encourage the carpooling more. Involvement of technology
like the carpooling could be booked through mobile applications, which increased its use
more. Personal comfort of the passengers as well as the mix in the gender of the passenger has
affected the carpooling rides. The biggest factor is the time management, for reaching a
destination the time is the greatest factor, and with the increase of population, the congestion
on roads has also increased. Therefore, a passenger travelling in the same route have benefited
with carpooling and with the involvement of HOV lanes increases the efficiency of the whole
process.

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2.6 Introduction of HOV lanes
To reach the point B from point A, the users had to change several buses and face congestion
on lanes as well as the waiting in boarding other buses consume time a lot; therefore, the
introduction of carpooling along with the HOV lanes would increase the efficiency of
travelling. An HOV lane is a restricted lane that is used exclusively for carpools and vanpools
during the peak hours of travel time. The HOV lane was created with the aim of reduction of
travel time and avoiding the congestion of normal traffic. Solo drivers of vehicles can share
their vehicle with other travellers of the same route and make effective use of the HOV lane
(Carroll, P., Caulfield, B. and Ahern, A., 2017). The HOV lane has separate roadway or
different marking on the general road. The High Occupancy Toll lane is such lane those have
the facilities of HOV lanes along with pay for the toll. The fare for toll varies with the different
time frame of the day. The aim of these toll fare is to reduce the congestion of these High
Occupancy Toll lane. A separate lane only for the vehicles of carpooling would consume less
time in travelling, increase the safety of the passenger, travelling to different routes would be
easier, changing lanes in HOV lanes are easier.
2.7 Constraints of Carpooling
Time-saving is the main constraints of Carpooling, according to a report of Urban Mobility, it
was found that drivers spent about 38 hours more on traffic every year than 16 hours more in
1982. The resources involved in running a car as the gas needed, the cost of the gas could be
split with the other passengers. The maintaining cost of the vehicle could also be shared by the
passengers boarding the same vehicle. The passengers could choose their carpooling vehicles
according to their convenience.

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2.8Summary
The draw of the Floating bus approach is the request bottleneck, which does cause inefficient
routing of such floating buses. In other words, it is difficult to handle all requests in a way that
does equally satisfy every different passenger needs. According to a Dublin City Centre
transport study (Dublin City Centre Transport Study, 2016), over the coming years, the city
will have to cater for the needs of a growing population so that it does remain a desirable place
to live in. This means taking into consideration how people will travel and how the city's
infrastructure can help improve the environment and the economy. According to a study
focused on the user views on the implementation of Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI)
(Bryan Sweeney, Ba GPEP, 2012), this innovation has generally attracted new users to the
system; it improved its reliability and the experience of travelling in Dublin. The study also
identified an imbalance of how different age groups use RTPI with the younger generations
using it more often than older generations. Another highlight was the delays in bus arrival
times, exploring the occasional inaccuracy of the system and that implementing RTPI did not
reduce the travel time. This is particularly noticeable when there are no direct buses from point
A to B, so users have to change from one bus service to another, and this connection time is
often long due to waiting.
Carpooling system is one of the approaches to see how it can help in meeting the demands of
increasing population and reducing congestion thus making sure that Dublin transport keeps
working effectively and has the capacity to cater the future needs. The study is focused on
identifying the impact of carpooling on transportation in Dublin. To verify if carpooling has

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the potential to provide solutions to the issues identified from the research and mentioned
above.
Chapter 3

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Methodology

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3.0 Methodology
3.1 Introduction
The research is about exploring alternatives to reduce travel time in Dublin. One way to
consider would be regular carpooling, where users could daily share their commute and also
share fuel costs based on their mutual understanding of what it would be a fair price for each
occasion. This could be implemented in a commercial fashion (i.e. profits to be made) or non-
commercial way. Carpooling does seem an opportunity to reduce congestion on roads and
provide a cheaper travel alternative. Given the initial unpredictable and dynamic nature of
carpooling demand, there is no need to collect data on this regard as this can be simulated for
the purpose of testing scenarios of interest in an agent-based model that does take into account
travel needs of users in Dublin.
Geographical datasets, including accurate maps of Dublin, will be imported from GeoFabrik
(Geofabrik, 2007) into Netlogo (Uri Wilensky, 1999), the platform where the agent-based
model will be created. The scenarios of interest as a proof-of-concept for this research project
include the following experimental setups:
Users' independently requiring travel from A to B evaluating both bus and carpool options
according to each estimated time, costs –and, if applicable, how many would carpool.
Different user picks up points, for example if sharing with four people will it be four stops or
everyone picked up from 1 stop or based on the location assigning closest pickup points for
users.
The results of these simulations will be analyzed in order to understand the feasibility of

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introducing a carpooling system in Dublin as a convenient way to travel across in Dublin and
to explore the likely impact of carpooling implementation in transportation.
3.2 Carpooling Model
An agent is an independent entity with autonomy in decision making on schedules and needs
in traveling. The route schedule is the trips made in certain period of time. The model used in
this study consider socio-economic factors such as age, work, income, gender, education,
relationships, vehicle, ownership and among others as set of data inputs.
Figure 1: Agent-based Model for the Carpooling Application
Creation of Car
The main components of the programs are maps, cars, ways and algorithms. Cars as the agent
have distinct attributes and targets. They have identifications which make them differentiable
from others. They are also differentiated in terms of association with passengers. The cars

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keep the records of trips made and time taken on each trip from the start to destination. The
simulator provides users with an interface to select cars with a probability of selecting car-
pooler provider. There are three car-pooler providers, including A, B, and C, which are
selected with certain probabilities. The simulator will try to match the users with car-poolers,
and hence, a new itinerary is created. The picks and drops depending on the number of
passengers in the car. The maximum number of passengers in a car is 4 and when it is reached
the car is not available in the pool. Below is the screenshot of the simulation.
Figure 2: Screenshot of dynamic carpooling service simulator
Creation of User
The user is the one seeking service from the car-poolers. The simulation needs to match the
users with the most suitable service provider. The clients are identified using IDs as passengers
present, and the time spend on the trip and distance. The cost depends on the number of
passengers in the car.

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Matching Algorithms
The algorithm is used to match the clients with the most suitable driver. When the user
requests for service, the system matches the user with a driver using the same direction. The
possible cars are listed while the algorithm compares the user origin and destination to decide
on the most suitable car to pool the user. When the user is assigned to the driver, the driver
adds the passenger to the destination list. If there is no suitable driver, the user will wait.
High Populated Areas
There are some parts in Dublin that are highly populated while others have high demand as a
destination. People are highly concentrated at the centre of Dublin city compared to the
outskirts. The area with a high population is simulated, as shown below.
Figure 3: Screenshot of area with high concentration
System Output
Besides other information displayed by the system, there are extra outputs with extra

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data. In figure 4 below shows the “num-car-carpoolers” shows the number of car
poolers. The “cars-pooling” gives the number of cars available for trips. The “num-
user-carpooling” shows the number of users seeking services. The “users-carpooling”
number of users matched with cars available.

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Chapter 4

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Results

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4.0 Results
4.1 Introduction
This chapter showcases the simulation results.
4.2 Simulated Results
The simulation assumed that users could afford trips, and there is an available car carpooling.
The results of the simulation will compare the normal trips where traffic jams are unavoidable
with an ideal situation where time and distance covered will be compared.
The results show 15 parameters which are simulated under both conditions that are normal and
ideal trips. Each scenario in the system takes 50 per cent of cars. Each car has a capacity of 3
passengers. The map of the city and lanes used by the cars are similar. Also, the terminal and
destination are the same for cars and passengers in both scenarios. The centre of the city
measures 2km by 2km = 4km2. The results are displayed in the table below.
In the ideal estimation, the distance covered and the time spends on each trip are similar in
normal conditions and ideal situation when the number of cars is low — the scenario changes
when the number of car increases. Therefore, the time and cost of commuting can be compared
between the ideal and normal circumstances. The time spent and distance covered in each trip
at normal situation increase by 6.6 and 8.4 per cent respectively when the number of cars
increases from 300 to 500. Similarly, when the cars are taken to be 1000, the amount of time
and distance covered increases. The performance increases when the number of drivers
carpooling is higher than the number of clients waiting to be served.
N Number Users Users User not Ideal Ideal Normal Normal

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of cars Served Served Distance Time Distance Time
1 100 40 8 32 117.7 271.75 119.2 278.38
2 100 100 16 84 252.58 545.50 256.63 562.19
3 200 40 18 22 124.38 284.83 124.50 291.11
4 200 100 26 74 175.09 389.69 180.39 408.35
5 300 40 18 22 144.9 339.40 145.68 344.61
6 300 80 38 42 197.67 480.29 197.73 480.30
7 300 150 48 102 180.90 428.35 182.56 432.12
8 300 300 86 214 151.68 341.91 153.93 356.92
9 500 100 49 51 152.73 355.39 178.08 399.48
10 500 250 106 144 199.48 445.77 200.23 473.44
11 500 400 150 250 205.22 458.79 209.22 489.85
12 500 500 184 316 205.39 450.22 221.05 487.98
13 1000 200 110 90 181.23 428.89 191.74 573.78
14 1000 500 236 264 201.62 469.61 217.74 654.07
15 1000 1000 391 609 210.56 471.08 220.01 675.45

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Chapter 5
Conclusion

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5.0 Conclusion
The simulation shows a dynamic carpooling system that can be used to optimally utilize the
transport system available as people share rides and costs of commuting. The simulation was
developed using Netlogo to study the most efficient and convenient method of commuting in
the city of Dublin.
The simulation shows that users have the advantage of carpooling over other methods of
commuting like personal cars. These are economic advantages like lowers cost of commuting,
save on time, more distance covered in less time. The simulation offers a solution to the
problem of traffic jams, time spent and distance covered during commuting. As a result, the
model is ideal to be used by highly populated areas like cities where numerous traffics jam to
reduce the number of cars in the city and hence the time and cost spend in commuting.

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5.1Summary
The overall report could be summarized as the emerging method of Carpooling. It can be used by the
people in the reduction of time, resource cost, make it convenient for the people and several other
constraints. Carpooling supports the idea of giving less time travelling in public transport.
Carpooling follows the idea of vehicle sharing. A simulation model is used to evaluate the
carpooling system by taking time as a factor of evaluation. Two agents would travel from one point
to another in the same direction, taking a pool, and the model will calculate their travelling time and
compare them. The reliability of carpooling is explored in brief. The constraints faced by the
common people in travelling through public transport are like buses, trams, metro etc. The
introduction of HOV lanes in addition to the Carpooling can increase the efficiency of travelling as
well the HOT lanes would generate toll for further usage like maintenance as well as reduce the
congestion in those lanes. The new approach in the implementation of Carpooling in Dublin would
benefit the people aiding in less congestion on the roads and saving a lot of time.

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