Ride-sharing is a mode of transportation that increases the car and infrastructure utilization by grouping individuals of similar routes into joint trips. The approach serves as a pragmatic solution to the global overuse of resources, environmental threat, and congestion problems in metropolitan areas. Students specifically qualify as early adopters of ride-sharing systems due to their financial situation and participation in the sharing economy. We contribute to the research field of ride-sharing by developing a solution for this target group. Firstly, this thesis reviews the history as well as the state- of-the-art of ride-sharing. Secondly, it draws conclusions from empirical data retrieved from commuters to the Garching campus of Technical University of Munich. Thirdly, the matching of passengers with drivers is discussed and formalized as an integer linear program. The design and development of a Software as a Service ride-sharing platform is finally presented and evaluated based on the survey data. The thesis proves the applicability of ride-sharing to our research environment and provides a future strategy for the enhancement of the developed software. The developed solution is accessible at https://ridebee.de/.

The traffic situation in metropolitan areas around the world highlights the need for action. The economic damage of congestion in Germany is estimated to be e100 billion annually, which is approximately 3% of the gross domestic product (Köhler-Rama et al., 2018). Urbanization is a global mega trend and aggravates this problem (Burkert, 2015). Political measures such as the ban of diesel-powered vehicles in cities with a high fine dust concentration accentuate the need for a pragmatic solution (Morfeld et al., 2014).

The concept of ride-sharing already showed success in projects in the United States of America (USA). Hence, it qualifies as an appropriate solution to the given problem due to its easy realization and high potential elsewhere. Cars in Germany carry 1.4 passengers on an average trip and 1.2 on the commute to work (Umweltbundesamt, 2016). The increasing environmental awareness and rising sharing economy, increasing gas prices as well as the distribution of smartphones are main drivers that can leverage the concept of ride-sharing to address the acute mobility challenge. Doubling the occupancy of vehicles from one to two would already half the amount of vehicles on the road. Digitally matching individuals and supporting them in the process of traveling will most probably facilitate the share of vehicles on a daily basis.

Ride-sharing was the subject of many studies undertaken in the past. This field of research overlaps with the three scientific sectors: transportation systems, operations research, and Information Technology (IT). Transportation systems find the best use of the given infrastructure. Operations research can be defined as an approach of solving the optimum assignment of trips and identification of routes within a road network. IT is the technological facilitator that dynamically solves the assignment problem and integrates the solution into the real world.