Exploring Agent-Based Modelling for Car-Based Volunteer Driver Program Planning

Abstract

Volunteer driver programs (VDPs) utilize the service of volunteers to replicate car-based, demand-responsive, door-to-door services in rural areas, but little is understood about how external factors (e.g., changes in service area) affect VDP sustainability. Agent-based modelling (ABM) simulates the operational behavior of individual agents (e.g., drivers, users) to evaluate their interaction under specified scenarios, and although it has been used in transportation research, it has never been applied to VDP analysis. Netlogo was used to develop a simplified VDP ABM, calibrated and validated with 1 year of program data from the New Brunswick Volunteer Driving Database. Three model scenarios were tested: increased health trip distance, increased service area, and increasing the number of drivers to meet initial distance targets. The ABM demonstrated intuitive results and established connections among changing operational scenarios, though additional research is needed for multipurpose trips and user/driver/dispatcher interactions.