On the Necessity and Effects of Considering Correlated Stochastic Speeds in Shortest Path Problems Under Sustainable Environments

Dongqing Zhang and Zhaoxia Guo
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Dongqing Zhang: Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
Zhaoxia Guo: Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: This research addresses how the stochasticity and correlation of travel speeds affect the shortest path solutions in sustainable environments. We consider a shortest path problem with the objective function of minimizing a linear combination of the mean and standard deviation of carbon emissions. By adjusting the proportion of the standard deviation in the objective function, the effects of speed stochasticity and correlation are studied under different preferences of the decision-makers on the fluctuations of carbon emissions. Based on 102-day real speed data from the Los Angeles freeway network, this research conducts extensive numerical experiments on 200 randomly chosen origin-destination pairs. Experimental results demonstrate the necessity of considering speed stochasticity and correlation, especially when the standard deviation of carbon emissions takes a large proportion in the objective function. As the weight of the standard deviation in the objective function increases from 0 to 1.5, the reduction of emission objective values increases from 0.03% to 0.13% by considering speed stochasticity, and increases from 0.02% to 0.20% by considering speed correlation. Taking the city Los Angeles with about 2361 taxis and about 525,945 passenger orders in January 2017 as an example, 0.03% and 0.02% reductions respond to about 3156 kg and 2630 kg carbon emission, respectively.

Keywords: sustainability; shortest path problem; correlated stochastic speeds; carbon emission objectives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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