As an alternative transportation paradigm, shared vehicle systemshave become increasingly popular in recent years. Shared vehiclesystems typically consist of a fleet of vehicles that are usedseveral times each day by different users. One of the main advantagesof shared vehicle systems is that they reduce the number of vehiclesrequired to meet total travel demand. An added energy/emissionsbenefit comes when low- polluting (e.g., electric) vehicles are usedin the system. In order to evaluate operational issues such asvehicle availability, vehicle distribution, and energy management, aunique shared vehicle system computer simulation model has beendeveloped. As an initial case study, the model was applied to aresort com- munity in Southern California. The simulation model has anumber of input parameters that allow for the evaluation of numerousscenarios. Several measures of effectiveness have been determined andare calcu- lated to characterize the overall system performance. Forthe case study, it was found that the most effective number ofvehicles (in terms of satisfying customer wait time) is in the rangeof 36 vehicles per 100 trips in a 24 h day. On the other hand, if thenumber of relocations also is to be minimized, there should be ap-proximately 18-24 vehicles per 100 trips. Various inputs to the modelwere varied to see the overall system response. The model shows thatthe shared vehicle system is most sensitive to the vehicle-to-tripratio, the relocation algorithm used, and the charging schemeemployed when electric vehicles are used. A prelimi- nary c
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