Carpooling as an immediate strategy to post-lockdown mobility: a case study in university campuses

Abstract

Carpooling is a mobility concept that has been showing promising results in reducing single occupancy use of private cars, which prompted many institutions, namely universities, to implement carpooling platforms to improve their networks sustainability. Nowadays, currently under a pandemic crisis, public transportation must be used with limitations regarding the number of occupants to prevent the spread of the virus and commuters are turning even more to private cars to perform their daily trips. Carpooling under a set of precaution rules is a potential solution to help commuters perform their daily trips while respecting COVID-19 safety recommendations. This research aimed to develop an analysis of the road traffic and emission impacts of implementing carpooling, with social distancing measures, in three university campus networks through microscopic traffic simulation modeling and microscopic vehicular exhaust emissions estimation. Results indicate that employing carpooling for groups of up to three people to safely commute from their residence area to the university campus has the potential to significantly reduce pollutant emissions (reductions of 5% and 7% in carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides can be obtained, respectively) within the network while significantly improving road traffic performance (average speed increased by 7% and travel time reduced by 8%).