How to make an on-demand bus network viable

STUDENT PROJECT - For her EPFL Master's project in civil engineering, Gaelle Abi Younes examined why on-demand buses have met with only limited success. She used technical and financial models to show how they could become a genuine alternative to cars in outlying areas. Thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones, we now have a wide range of on-demand services to choose from for traveling short distances: bike-sharing programs, ridesharing, Uber, Lyft and more. But these services are generally centered in urban areas and less available in outlying areas or along main railway lines. The only option for serving people in these areas - and giving them an alternative to personal cars - is to establish a system of on-demand buses. Such systems, few in number, are what Gaelle Abi Younes decided to focus on for her Master's project. "I wanted to study a topic that was modern and innovative and that could make a real impact," she says.
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