On the Empty Miles in Ridesourcing Systems

Ridesourcing services provided by companies like Uber, Lyft and Didi Chuxing are playing an increasingly important role in meeting mobility needs in many metropolitan areas. Other than delivering passengers from their origin to destination, ridesourcing vehicles generate massive vacant or empty trips from the end of one passenger trip to the start of the next. These vacant trips represent unproductive use of labor supply. They also contribute additional traffic demand and may worsen the traffic conditions in urban networks. In this talk, we will discuss the factors impacting the number of empty miles in a ridesourcing system, and explore countermeasures to reduce empty miles in the system. Lastly, we introduce the modeling of ridesourcing services to estimate empty miles and capture their impacts on traffic congestion.

Dr. Yafeng Yin is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He works in the area of transportation systems analysis and modeling, and has published more than 120 refereed papers in leading academic journals. His current research focuses on connected and automated mobility systems. Dr. Yin currently serves as Area Editor of Transportation Science, Associate Editor of Transportation Research Part B: Methodology and Department Editor of Service Science, and was the Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies between 2014 and 2020. Dr. Yin received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, Japan in 2002, his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 1996 and 1994 respectively. Prior to his current appointment at the University of Michigan, he was a faculty member at University of Florida between 2005 and 2016, a postdoctoral researcher and then assistant research engineer at University of California at Berkeley between 2002 and 2005. Between 1996 and 1999, he was a lecturer at Tsinghua University. Dr. Yin has received recognition from different institutions, including the Monroe-Brown Foundation Education Excellence Award from University of Michigan, a Doctoral Mentoring Award from University of Florida, Outstanding Leadership Award by the Chinese Overseas Transportation Association (COTA), and the Stella Dafermos Best Paper Award and the Ryuichi Kitamura Paper Award from  transportation Research Board.