Business+ commute optimization system: model development and pilot real-life case study

Mitigating traffic congestion and reducing transportation emissions are among the leading goals of local, regional, national and international planning and transportation agencies. Current strategies include supporting: (1) mixed land-use and transit-oriented developments, (2) multimodal transportation systems, and (3) design of active transportation friendly environments. While these approaches can successfully contribute to the reduction of transportation related GHG and air pollutions emissions, additional innovative opportunities exist. The primary objective of this research is to identify and develop individual-specific commute incentives to optimize business commute footprints. To perform such work a geographical information system (GIS) model was developed and integrated with an optimization model to measure and quantify business commute factors and identify individual-specific commute incentives that can lead to the minimization of business commute footprints. The GIS model outputs include trip attributes (e.g. travel time, travel cost, greenhouse gas emission, and air pollution emissions) associated with every commuting mode from the traveler’s origin to the traveler’s destination. The optimization model uses such data to implement a single-objective function that optimizes travel times, travel costs, emissions, individual-specific commute incentives that target the commute departure time, travel mode (e.g. carpooling, transit, and active transportation) and route choice. To demonstrate the capabilities of the resulting Business+ Commute Optimization System (BCOS), pilot data using student commuters was collected and analyzed. Preliminary results for such a community suggest that GHG emission and air pollution could be reduced by 24% given a 15 minute commute-duration tolerance or that such emissions could be completely eliminated if a 40 minute commute-duration tolerance were permissible. Such results serve as a proof-of-concept for BCOS and highlight the effectiveness of such a new and innovative strategy for minimizing transportation related business emissions and traffic congestion.