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Potential Urban Air Mobility Travel Time Savings: An Exploratory Analysis of Munich, Paris, and San Francisco

Author

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  • Raoul Rothfeld

    (Technical University of Munich, Chair of Transportation Systems Engineering, 80333 Munich, Germany
    Current address: Arcisstraße 21, 80333 München, Germany.)

  • Mengying Fu

    (Bauhaus Luftfahrt e.V., Economics and Transportation, 82024 Taufkirchen, Germany)

  • Miloš Balać

    (ETH Zürich, Institute for Transport Planning and Systems, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland)

  • Constantinos Antoniou

    (Technical University of Munich, Chair of Transportation Systems Engineering, 80333 Munich, Germany)

Abstract

The advent of electrified, distributed propulsion in vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft promises aerial passenger transport within, into, or out of urban areas. Urban air mobility (UAM), i.e., the on-demand concept that utilizes eVTOL aircraft, might substantially reduce travel times when compared to ground-based transportation. Trips of three, pre-existent, and calibrated agent-based transport scenarios (Munich Metropolitan Region, Île-de-France, and San Francisco Bay Area) have been routed using the UAM-extension for the multi-agent transport simulation (MATSim) to calculate congested trip travel times for each trip’s original mode—i.e., car or public transport (PT)—and UAM. The resulting travel times are compared and allow the deduction of potential UAM trip shares under varying UAM properties, such as the number of stations, total process time, and cruise flight speed. Under base-case conditions, the share of motorized trips for which UAM would reduce the travel times ranges between 3% and 13% across the three scenarios. Process times and number of stations heavily influence these potential shares, where the vast majority of UAM trips would be below 50 km in range. Compared to car usage, UAM’s (base case) travel times are estimated to be competitive beyond the range of a 50-minute car ride and are less than half as much influenced by congestion.

Suggested Citation

  • Raoul Rothfeld & Mengying Fu & Miloš Balać & Constantinos Antoniou, 2021. "Potential Urban Air Mobility Travel Time Savings: An Exploratory Analysis of Munich, Paris, and San Francisco," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:2217-:d:501789
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. Coppola, Pierluigi & De Fabiis, Francesco & Silvestri, Fulvio, 2024. "Urban Air Mobility (UAM): Airport shuttles or city-taxis?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 24-34.
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    6. Boddupalli, Sreekar-Shashank & Garrow, Laurie A. & German, Brian J. & Newman, Jeffrey P., 2024. "Mode choice modeling for an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi commuting service," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    7. Husemann, Michael & Kirste, Ansgar & Stumpf, Eike, 2024. "Analysis of cost-efficient urban air mobility systems: Optimization of operational and configurational fleet decisions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 317(3), pages 678-695.
    8. Ariza-Montes, Antonio & Quan, Wei & Radic, Aleksandar & Koo, Bonhak & Kim, Jinkyung Jenny & Chua, Bee-Lia & Han, Heesup, 2023. "Understanding the behavioral intention to use urban air autonomous vehicles," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    9. Mingkai Wang & Saulo O. D. Luiz & Shuguang Zhang & Antonio M. N. Lima, 2023. "Electric Flight in Extreme and Uncertain Urban Environments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-22, August.
    10. Brunelli, Matteo & Ditta, Chiara Caterina & Postorino, Maria Nadia, 2023. "New infrastructures for Urban Air Mobility systems: A systematic review on vertiport location and capacity," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).

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