Evaluation of a Ride-Sharing Service in Thessaloniki: The Perspective of Both the Service Provider and the Users

摘要

The concept of using shared transportation modes like bikes or cars, called as shared mobility, is a growing innovative trend in advanced cities. It aims at offering sustainable and effective transportation alternatives while improving air quality and congestion in urban environments. In the city of Thessaloniki, a shared mobility system was developed and tested for several months. This scheme is based on taxi/ride-sharing and offers shared trips from one suburb, Kalamaria, and one exurb, Thermi, to the city center and vice versa. The users are registered via a mobile app and are clustered into groups according to origin, destination and desired time of their trip. For each group, a trip is scheduled and broadcasted to the taxi association with all relevant details. The trip is assigned to a nearby vehicle, in order not to generate extra vehicle-kms. The service was monitored and assessed thoroughly by analyzing all the backend server data, a database with all requested and realized trips, taxi allocation details, notifications sent to users and drivers and delays with respect to the trip schedule. Further, floating car data are acquired from taxi OBUs and the users' smartphones enabling detailed analysis of trips. From the customer perspective, a service assessment regarding perceived quality, rate of satisfaction, problems or improvement suggestions was performed via questionnaires distributed to users.