Mobility Electronic Market for Optimized Travel (MeMOT)

IDSS PIs: Jessika Trancik, Emilio Frazzoli
Collaborator: Moshe Ben-Akiva

The objective of this project is to design, build, and trial a new system to incentivize people to adapt their travel choices to conserve energy. It will use real and simulated personal travel data to reward people to shift their routes, departure times, modes of travel, and vehicles based on live information they receive from MeMOT. Incentives will include points awarded based on energy savings that can be redeemed both in real-time and in the future for travel-related and other benefits at local participating vendors. The researchers will develop a system model using data obtained from existing sources and new volunteers to simulate the transportation network of the greater Boston area. A network simulator will be used to model a wide set of traveler behaviors and vehicle types, and the team will adapt the simulator to dynamically measure energy use as changes occur to the transportation network and travelers’ behavior.

“Our goal is to empower travelers with information on how their travel choices impact their energy consumption, and to reward energy-saving decisions,” says Trancik. “Voluntary decisions by individuals can in this way reduce system-wide energy consumption. This is a wonderful opportunity to combine insights from vehicle technology and behavioral models to achieve real-world energy and emissions savings.”

References and Related Content:

“MIT awarded Dept. of Energy grant to create and deploy energy-saving travel information and incentives system” – MIT News, August 2015.