Evolutionary game and simulation study of public transport under government incentive and punishment mechanism

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 19; no. 10; p. e0311286
• Main Authors: Chen, Mingyue, Li, Chunyan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01.10.2024
• Subjects: Analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Buses; Computer and Information Sciences; Computer Simulation; Decision making; Economic incentives; Engineering and Technology; Evaluation; Evolutionary algorithms; Game Theory; Government; Government regulations; Growth; Humans; Influence; Innovations; Literature reviews; Motivation; Physical Sciences; Public transportation; Punishment; Quality of service; Regulatory agencies; Research and Analysis Methods; Ridesharing; Simulation; Simulation analysis; Simulation methods; Social Sciences; Sustainable development; Traffic congestion; Transportation; Transportation services; Transportation systems; Travel; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0311286

Public transport plays an indispensable role in the whole public transport system. This paper makes an in-depth study on how public transport can provide passengers with higher service quality while meeting the needs of passengers. In order to achieve this research goal, this paper organically incorporates the three key subjects of government supervision, public transport and passengers into the research framework. Evolutionary game theory is used to construct the corresponding research model. It has been found that the decision-making behaviours of government regulators, public transport and passengers are intricately intertwined to influence each other in the evolutionary process. It is particularly noteworthy that the incentive or punishment measures adopted by the government have a great impact on the quality of public transport services. In addition, timely supervision and inspection of government regulatory authorities by higher authorities proved to be crucial for buses to provide stable and high-quality services. This study reveals the mechanisms of interaction between different subjects in the public transport system, particularly the government-guided incentive measures and supervision mechanism to promote the overall service level. To further support the research conclusions, this paper carries on the simulation analysis, and puts forward the countermeasures and suggestions for the bus to provide high-quality service according to the simulation results. These recommendations will help guide the government, public transport and passengers to make better decisions in the synergistic development process, thereby improving the overall level of service.