2013 Volume 10 Pages 1009-1024
Abstract: In regions of Japan, in small, low-density communities that have inadequate public transport services, the lack of support systems for persons of limited mobility is emerging as a social issue. To complement this, this study focuses on volunteer-based dynamic ridesharing. In this paper, the feasibility of ridesharing is analyzed by pre-survey data and the availability is examined through a field experiment. The pre-survey showed that the field suited the ridesharing experiment, due to some results of a proper proportion between demanders and suppliers for rideshare, and a synchronicity of trip destinations and travel times, etc.. The experiment, however, revealed issues such as worry and hesitation of volunteer-based suppliers who have no opportunity to match other demanders except stable-matching pairs, incentives for their participation and their reservation, and sudden cancellation of the suppliers at the matching locations after their reservations. This paper describes improvements of the proposed ridesharing system.