Estimation of Carsharing Demand Using an Activity-Based Microsimulation Approach: Model Discussion and Some Results

Carsharing is a system that allows individuals to use a car from a fleet on an hourly basis. The growing popularity of carsharing is reflected by a continuous increase in the number of users worldwide. However, the estimation of travel demand for this mode has only sporadically been addressed by researchers and not in a completely satisfactory way. The work reported in this article introduces a new methodology to estimate travel demand for carsharing: activity-based microsimulation. An existing open source software, MATSim, has been enhanced to allow modeling carsharing. This article reports the modeling approach and describes the implementation of the carsharing mode in the system. Some results, based on a simulation scenario with about 160,000 agents representing the urban area of Zurich, Switzerland, are presented and validated against customer data of Mobility Switzerland, the dominant carsharing operator active in the study area.