Intelligent transportation system architecture for a multi-station shared vehicle system

As an innovative transportation paradigm, shared vehicle systems can potentially alleviate traffic congestion, improve air quality, and make surface transportation more efficient. In a multistation configuration however, these systems place an additional burden on both users and system operators. Intelligent transportation technology can play an important role in making these systems user-friendly, easy to manage, and efficient. However, these systems will not necessarily succeed through the application of separate ITS technology bundles. There is an important need to tightly integrate the different types of technology and to develop an effective systems architecture. In this paper, the engineering design and systems architecture for a real-world, intelligent shared electric vehicle system operating on the University of California-Riverside campus are described. This architecture uses innovated techniques for trip registration, intelligent monitoring, and vehicle communication. This system has been set up as a "testbed" to improve our understanding of the operating details of a multistation shared vehicle system, evaluate user segment response, and improve the fidelity of shared vehicle simulation modeling tools.