Empirical evaluation of a dynamic and distributed taxi-sharing system

Modern societies rely on efficient transportation systems for sustainable mobility. In this paper, we perform a large-scale and empirical evaluation of a dynamic and distributed taxi-sharing system. The novel system takes advantage of nowadays widespread availability of communication and computation to convey a cost-efficient, door-to-door and flexible system, offering a quality of service similar to traditional taxis. The shared taxi service is assessed in a real-city scenario using a highly realistic simulation platform. Simulation results have shown the system´s advantages for both passengers and taxi drivers, and that trade-offs need to be considered. Compared with the current taxi operation model, results show a increase of 48% on the average occupancy per traveled kilometer with a full deployment of the taxi-sharing system.