Track: Logistics, Transport and Traffic Management

Abstract

Rising traffic congestion is an unavoidable condition in metropolitan areas in South Africa, even worse in the main cities. Traffic congestion takes its toll on quality of life, fuel economy, and most prominently, air quality. Reality of the problem lies on the fact that vast amount of people seeking to move during rush hours use private vehicles, for two reasons; 1) most South Africans reside in low-density areas that reliable public transport fails to serve; and 2) privately owned vehicles are convenient for doing multiple tasks on one trip. As total household income rises, more people shifts from less expensive modes of transport to privately owned cars adding more cars on the road. This paper suggest a solution to reduce traffic congestion on South African roads which relies heavily on human behaviors (i.e., real-time ridesharing concept). We proposed a centralized solution in the form of an app. A mathematical optimization algorithm is developed to allocate passengers to drivers based on their geographic locations based on closeness and defined travel times. This tool helps in selecting best ride combination. The solution is envisaged to increase load factor per vehicle, which will reduce the number of vehicles on the road overtime.