ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a social network approach for future transportation systems. Publicly-owned vehicles can be shared by many people thus minimizing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) and the total number of trips made. The chapter aims to create a service-oriented transportation system that targets significant reductions in energy consumption, pollution impact, and traffic congestion and provides solutions with affordable costs from the perspective of both individuals and transportation agencies. It demonstrates a prototype for a social-network-enabled transportation system as a platform for vehicle users, municipalities, transportation authorities and industries, and internet inventors to develop products and services and to explore monetization. A social-network-enabled cyberspace is created virtually which would allow people to interact, generate schedules, and make reservations. With the introduction of cyberspace and physical space, the social-network-enabled component mainly lies in cyberspace to manage all m-nodes and s-nodes as well as edges, activities, a-link, and f-links, while the transportation component mainly exists in physical space to manage p-entities and l-entities.
