Vertiport Selection in Hybrid Air–Ground Transportation Networks via Mathematical Programs With Equilibrium Constraints

Urban air mobility is a concept that promotes aerial modes of transport in urban areas. In these areas, the location and capacity of the vertiports—where the travelers embark and disembark the aircraft—not only affect flight delays, but can also aggravate the congestion of ground vehicles by creating extra ground travel demands. In this article, we introduce a mathematical model for selecting the location and capacity of the vertiports that minimizes traffic congestion in hybrid air–ground transportation networks. Our model is based on a mathematical program with bilinear equilibrium constraints. Furthermore, we show how to compute a global optimal solution to this mathematical program by solving a mixed-integer linear program. We demonstrate our results via the Anaheim transportation network model, which contains more than 400 nodes and 900 links.