Ridepooling: demand-driven flexible public transport

Ridepooling focuses on the intelligent bundling of trip requests. Ridepooling vehicles, which are driven by professional drivers, operate without any schedules or routes in certain service areas and can be flexibly booked via an app. Ride requests are bundled based on a software which then informs the drivers about the "virtual" stops. One such ridepooling service is fips by Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH (rnv), which receives funding from the state. With its electrically powered ridepooling fleet, rnv supplements its public transport service in the suburbs and outskirts of Mannheim.

The goal of the accompanying scientific research, which includes not only "fips" but also other ridepooling services, is to gather useful information for the design of demand-oriented mobility systems in Baden-Württemberg. The study’s focus is on the effects that the new service has on the mobility behavior of the population and on whether there are any synergy effects with regard to existing local transportation services. In addition, it will be determined to what extent ridepooling can help to satisfy the mobility demands in different spatial structures more efficiently and flexibly.