Department of Transport and Planning, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
Department of Transport Systems, Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Poland.
Sci Rep. 2021 Mar 30;11(1):7201. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-86704-2.
Urban mobility needs alternative sustainable travel modes to keep our pandemic cities in motion. Ride-pooling, where a single vehicle is shared by more than one traveller, is not only appealing for mobility platforms and their travellers, but also for promoting the sustainability of urban mobility systems. Yet, the potential of ride-pooling rides to serve as a safe and effective alternative given the personal and public health risks considerations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic is hitherto unknown. To answer this, we combine epidemiological and behavioural shareability models to examine spreading among ride-pooling travellers, with an application for Amsterdam. Findings are at first sight devastating, with only few initially infected travellers needed to spread the virus to hundreds of ride-pooling users. Without intervention, ride-pooling system may substantially contribute to virus spreading. Notwithstanding, we identify an effective control measure allowing to halt the spreading before the outbreaks (at 50 instead of 800 infections) without sacrificing the efficiency achieved by pooling. Fixed matches among co-travellers disconnect the otherwise dense contact network, encapsulating the virus in small communities and preventing the outbreaks.
城市交通需要替代可持续的出行方式，以保持我们的“后疫情时代城市”继续运转。拼车，即一辆车由不止一名乘客共享，不仅对出行平台及其乘客具有吸引力，还有助于促进城市交通系统的可持续性。然而，鉴于与 COVID-19 大流行相关的个人和公共卫生风险，拼车出行作为一种安全有效的替代方式的潜力目前尚不清楚。为了回答这个问题，我们结合了流行病学和行为可共享性模型，以检查拼车旅行者之间的传播情况，并以阿姆斯特丹为例进行了应用。研究结果乍一看是毁灭性的，只需少数最初感染的旅行者就足以将病毒传播给数百名拼车用户。如果不进行干预，拼车系统可能会大大促进病毒的传播。尽管如此，我们还是确定了一种有效的控制措施，可以在疫情爆发之前（从 800 例感染减少到 50 例）阻止病毒传播，同时不会牺牲拼车带来的效率。同车旅行者之间的固定匹配会断开原本密集的接触网络，将病毒隔离在小社区中，从而防止疫情爆发。
