Study on the Feasibility of Short-to-Medium Distance Intermodal Transport Based on Agent Model

摘要

Intermodal transport, as a highly efficient transportation mode, has received strong support from governments as well as industry sectors. While incentive policies are limited to long distances transport and few studies are aimed at short-to-medium distance intermodal transport, some successful cases of short-to-medium distance intermodal transport reveal new opportunities in transportation market. An agent-based model is built for this study. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of short-to-medium distance intermodal transport, the performance of different distance-based intermodal transport is compared against road transportation under different scenarios considering three different factors: price, transit time and carbon emission. The results show that the price is the important determinant with certain distance limit and that the advantage of environmental protection is remarkable for intermodal transport.