Autonomicity: A Modeling Framework for Equitable Policy Analysis for Future Transportation

An agent‐based simulation platform (“Autonomicity”) has been under development at UCI with SB‐1 funds. This platform has the necessary modules with proper state‐of‐the art routing, ride‐matching, pricing and other algorithmic components, as well as the real‐time communication among them. While the platform itself is not network‐specific, future mobility requires a study context, and a network in the city of Irvine, CA, is currently incorporated. This proposal is to develop the platform as a policy tool to study efficient and equitable/fair allocation of transportation supply, with methodological focus on congestion pricing under traveler heterogeneity. Current congestion pricing schemes may cause social barriers for low‐income populations. Thus, this project devises a smart mobility platform to study equitable options where travelers desiring a faster travel option pay for it, and travelers willing to yield his/her fastest option receive incentives. New behavioral paradigms such as envy‐theory will be used. Two main modules introduced in Autonomicity will be: 1) a pricing module to find the optimal tolls/incentives and 2) a dynamic traffic assignment module to find optimal systemwide traffic patterns. The research will result utilities for a user‐friendly decision‐support tool for policymakers.