Agent-based simulation of a car-sharing system with hydrogen-powered vehicles

Today, many cities provide a public transportation system capable of addressing the mobility needs of their citizens, reducing the dependency on private vehicles. Still, there are use cases where transport by private vehicle is more convenient, e.g., excursions to remote areas or the transportation of large goods. In recent years, car-sharing has evolved as an alternative to a privately owned vehicle, whereby people can rent a vehicle on the street for short durations compared to the traditional station-based car rental options. BeeZero offered a car-sharing service in Munich (Germany) with a fleet of 50 hydrogen-powered vehicles. The business area was split up into several zones, distributed across the city area. The service focused on round-trip rentals, as each vehicle needed to be returned to the same zone where the rental began. This paper presents the development and implementation of an agent-based simulation model of the BeeZero car-sharing service. The model is validated with historical booking data and enables an analysis of the required walking distances to reach a vacant vehicle. By using data of a general travel survey, the potential and limits of the BeeZero car-sharing service are evaluated using the simulation model for the city of Munich.