This paper presents an approach to develop region-specific simulation models for quantifying and evaluating the traffic-related, environmental, and economic implications of combined passenger and freight transportation via shared autonomous vehicles (SAV). Based on a broad literature review, conceptual peculiarities, interdependencies and characteristics were derived and transferred into a conferrable, agent-based object library. Finally, to ensure its usefulness and credibility, an initial evaluation of the object library was carried out by developing and visually validating a simulation-prototype for a rural area in Hanover, Germany.
Autonomous and integrated passenger and freight transport (APFIT) is a promising approach to tackle both, traffic and last-mile-related issues such as environmental emissions, social and spatial conflicts or operational inefficiencies. By conducting an agent-based simulation, we shed light on this widely unexplored research topic and provide first indications regarding influential target figures of such a system in the rural area of Sarstedt, Germany. Our results show that larger fleets entail inefficiencies due to suboptimal utilization of monetary and material resources and increase traffic volume while higher amounts of unused vehicles may exacerbate spatial conflicts. Nevertheless, to fit the given demand within our study area, a comparatively large fleet of about 25 vehicles is necessary to provide reliable service, assuming maximum passenger waiting times of six minutes to the expense of higher standby times, rebalancing effort, and higher costs for vehicle acquisition and maintenance.
