On Accessibility Fairness in Intermodal Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand Systems

On Accessibility Fairness in Intermodal Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand Systems | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article On Accessibility Fairness in Intermodal Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand Systems Mauro Salazar, Sara Betancur Giraldo, Fabio Paparella, Leonardo Pedroso, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6172438/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 12 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Most applied research exploring justice in the domain of transport has focused on the equity evaluation of existing systems. At the same time, most research on transport planning has been implementing conventional utilitarian paradigms, e.g., minimizing the average travel time of the population, without accounting for fairness. This paper aims to bridge this gap and adds to this literature in two ways: by exploring to what extent the application of different justice principles can enhance the fairness of the transport system; and by focusing on realizing such principles in the operation of transport systems rather than merely assessing a given system design. We use an intermodal Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand (AMoD) system as our case study, where a fleet of centrally controlled self-driving cars provides on-demand mobility synergistically with public transit and active modes (biking and walking). We explore how its operation can improve the situation of users that do not own a car. We first formally define a set of justice metrics that differ in terms of distributive principle and the good of concern. The metrics include: minimization of average travel time for the car-less population (i.e., a population-specific application of utilitarianism); avoidance of unacceptably long travel times for the car-less population in line with a sufficientarian approach; and delivery of reasonable travel times to a sufficient set of destinations. We showcase our framework in a real-world case-study in the city of Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Our results show that, compared to conventional utilitarian minimum-travel-time planning, it is possible to significantly improve the situation of the car-less users without affecting conventional performance metrics such as average travel time. Whilst the differences between the proposed sufficientarian deployment models are rather modest, they highlight intrinsic crucial trade-offs that require further consideration and analysis. Overall, these results underscore the importance of taking a transdisciplinary approach addressing planning problems from conceptualization to modeling and optimization in transport and mobility. Physical sciences/Engineering/Mechanical engineering Business and commerce/Operational research Physical sciences/Engineering Scientific community and society/Geography Social science/Complex networks Social science/Geography Transport Justice Autonomous Mobility Intermodal Mobility Mobility-as-a-Service Full Text Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. The last author (Karel Martens) is one of the guest editors of this collection. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 30 Apr, 2025 Reviews received at journal 26 Apr, 2025 Reviews received at journal 13 Apr, 2025 Reviews received at journal 09 Apr, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 12 Mar, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 11 Mar, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Mar, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Mar, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 09 Mar, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 09 Mar, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 07 Mar, 2025 First submitted to journal 06 Mar, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6172438","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":429018108,"identity":"8057b235-890c-4bde-bedf-8b1cd035d06c","order_by":0,"name":"Mauro Salazar","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAyklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDADPjBZASYZDxClhQ1MnjEAUyRoYWwjQotuA+8DZh6GOnk29uMPP1fO+5PYz8B7AK8WswPsBkAthw3beBKSJc9uM0ic2cCXQEALGwNQywHGNoaEA5KNQC0bDvAYEKOlzr6N/2Hzz8Y5Bon7idTCnNgmkcwm2dgAtIWBkJbDbAwH5xgcTm6TeMZm2XDM2HjGYUJajrcxPnhTUWfbz5/++GZDjZxsf3uP4QN8WhiYQbFggCYyCkbBKBgFo4BCAACog0IJC3gRXQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Eindhoven University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mauro","middleName":"","lastName":"Salazar","suffix":""},{"id":429018110,"identity":"0e80430c-56cd-4943-bd08-f7b16727522a","order_by":1,"name":"Sara Betancur Giraldo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Eindhoven University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Sara","middleName":"Betancur","lastName":"Giraldo","suffix":""},{"id":429018112,"identity":"e70360f3-499d-456a-be84-c45796650326","order_by":2,"name":"Fabio Paparella","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Eindhoven University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Fabio","middleName":"","lastName":"Paparella","suffix":""},{"id":429018113,"identity":"3c8e826b-f372-4a30-af8b-46418910a08f","order_by":3,"name":"Leonardo Pedroso","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Eindhoven University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Leonardo","middleName":"","lastName":"Pedroso","suffix":""},{"id":429018114,"identity":"32e67b0f-7f70-43f5-986f-ab71757df9fb","order_by":4,"name":"Karel Martens","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Technion – Israel Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Karel","middleName":"","lastName":"Martens","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-03-06 16:53:17","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6172438/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6172438/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":78670608,"identity":"383b544f-86db-4854-8c3a-25616f21f6b8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-03-17 12:27:14","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1717679,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Salazar.BetancurGiraldo.ea.NPJ25.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6172438/v1_covered_d715afec-de5a-498d-b244-15a1244c0660.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"Competing interest reported. 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