Testing demand responsive shared transport services via agent-based simulations

Demand Responsive Shared Transport DRST services take advantage of Information and Communication Technologies ICT, to provide on demand transport services booking in real time a ride on a shared vehicle. In this paper, an agent-based model ABM is presented to test different the feasibility of different service configurations in a real context. First results show the impact of route choice strategy on the system performance

Usage Analysis of Milwaukee County\u27s Paratransit System: the Case of Potawatomi Casino and Veteran Affairs Medical Center Destinations

In order to protect the rights of seniors and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), the United States government, through Congress, enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. The Act ensures that there is equity for persons with disabilities in all aspects of public services including employment, education, transportation, accommodation, commercial facilities and businesses and communication (Federal Register, 2010). In this study, we focus on the problem of transportation of PWDs, specifically in Milwaukee County in Southeast Wisconsin. The study was initiated as a collaborative effort between UWM’s Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering team, UWM’s Director of the Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, Milwaukee County Office of Persons with Disabilities team and the MCTS-Paratransit Department Team. MCTS wanted to explore effect that increased ADA bus ridership would have on the paratransit system performance such as bus utilization by PWDs, PWD average waiting time as well as the average time in system. Since the MCTS network is large, the team determined to pilot the study on the most used routes by PWDs in Milwaukee County that serve the two most visited destinations, namely, the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino and Milwaukee Veterans Affairs Medical Center. We formulated three study objectives to achieve this broad goal. First, we sought to understand the current status of ridership for R14 which serves the Casino, and R23 and RBlue both of which serve the V.A. Medical Center. We used both observational data to determine destination accessibility. In this study, destination accessibility is defined as the ease with which PWDs can access the location from the bus stop. Therefore, we made travel observations to both destinations in the winter, thereby considering the worst case scenario in the winter season. In addition, ridership by bus was compared to the ADA paratransit system, which is offered through MCTS’s Transit Plus Program. Observations results indicated that while the V.A. medical center was accessible, the Casino was not accessible to PWDs. Lack of accessibility was determined to be predominantly due to poor bus stop design as well as the distance from the bus stop to the Casino entrance. In addition, ridership results indicated that paratransit ridership outweigh ADA ridership on the fixed bus route service by a ratio of 3 to 1. Ridership to the V.A. on the fixed bus route system is twice the bus ridership to the Casino. Though the reasons to access these two destinations are distinctively different—medical care versus entertainment, we observed that the unfriendly environment in the Casino bus stop might the largest contributor to the low ridership on route R14. The study results also found that while fixed bus route ridership significantly changes by seasons, this effect was not significant for ridership on the ADA paratransit service. The second objective sought to simulate the current fixed bus ADA usage. This was done to create a baseline on which potential changes to the system could be incorporated and their effects determined. In the third objective we make a potential alteration to the system, where a few potential riders who use the ADA paratransit through Transit Plus are switched to use the fixed bus route. In this study, PWDs who use the ADA paratransit are deemed potential for fixed bus route if they geographically reside less than 0.5 miles away from the route bus stop. Therefore, two simulation models, I and II were developed and implemented. The first model simulated the current annual ridership of R14 to the casino. Due to study time constraints, only ridership to the Casino was simulated. The results of Model I indicated that the annual average ridership was about 7 per day. The 95% confidence interval of the passenger waiting time was [10.22, 13.09] minutes, which was evidently in the summer. Winter average waiting time confidence interval turned out to be [8.96, 12.96]. On the other hand, since all buses can only accommodate at most two PWDs on wheel chair or scooter, we were interested to know if this constraint increased the waiting time for PWDs using these mobility devices. The results showed that the 95% confidence interval of the average waiting time for PWDs using wheel chairs was at most (summer) [10.58, 13.22]. Simulation model II, an extension of model I incorporated potential PDW riders who currently use ADA paratransit into the fixed bus route in model I. The simulation process involved a combination of three software—Batch Geo, ArcGIS as well as ProModel. The results indicated very little effect of additional riders on the waiting time. For instance, the 95% confidence interval of the average waiting time for non-wheelchair users was [9.88, 14.15] minutes, while the interval waiting time for wheelchair riders was [9.44, 13.20]. In the other hand, the 95% confidence interval for the average time in system for all passengers (with or without a wheel chair) was estimated as 29.87 to 38.34 minutes. Finally, the bus utilization by PWDs in this study was measured as the percentage of the number of bus runs in the simulation carrying at least one PWD to the total bus runs. The average utilization was found to be 6.5%. This percentage is an indicator of that MCST has potential to increase fixed bus route ridership by persons with disabilities, especially if challenging issues such as low bus frequency, less geographical coverage of the bus network (to cover areas where most Casino ADA visitors reside), public transport awareness, bus driver training and most of all, increased accessibility of the Casino destination

On green routing and scheduling problem

The vehicle routing and scheduling problem has been studied with much interest within the last four decades. In this paper, some of the existing literature dealing with routing and scheduling problems with environmental issues is reviewed, and a description is provided of the problems that have been investigated and how they are treated using combinatorial optimization tools

The Feasibility of Citywide Public DRT: Door-to-door Bus Service in Tacoma

This paper examines the feasibility of operating Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) as the primary mode of mass transit in Tacoma, WA. With the promise of door-to-door service anywhere within a region, DRT has the potential to attract new discretionary mass transit riders while serving demand more efficiently than fixed-route systems. We present an algorithm for generating realistic datasets of riders based on employment and demographic data at the census tract level, which are fed through a simulated dynamic DRT system in Tacoma (TacDRT). The TacDRT service is considered feasible if it can serve the same volume of demand that the extant local fixed-route system serves while remaining cost-comparable. Although the simulation results suggest that TacDRT is not feasible, other findings indicate that a) the cost or operating DRT significantly decreases as the system scales up, and b) the geographical distribution of demand significantly affects the efficiency of DRT

Serious Games: A playful approach to reduce usage barriers of innovative public transport systems

These days, automation, digitalization and mobile application are driving forces in the development of innovations in public transportation. Interactive digital approaches like serious games are a promising way to introduce new mobility services to the public in a contemporary manner. The trend towards a flexibilization of life- and workstyles entails a growing demand for individualized and more flexible forms of personal mobility. People no longer want to adapt their need for mobility to fixed schedules of public transport. The emergence of new mobility services that are based on reservation and payment via mobile devices, for example Car2Go (carsharing), CallaBike (bikesharing), Uber (ride sharing) or BlaBlaCar (carpooling), proves the need for demand driven mobility services. A growing flexibility can be expected to be accompanied by an increase in the inherent complexity of mobility services. This results in an increasing relevance of users’ information requirements that have to be incorporated in mobility services to enable planning and projection of routes and arrivals. An insufficient provision of information about how to use the mobility service or the absence of a transparent and understandable information environment could create usage barriers that cause a refusal of the mobility service. New mobility systems need to be systematically introduced to the prospective users. To improve users’ conceptual understanding of a new demand responsive transport system a serious game is developed by the authors. A serious game is characterized by an explicit educational purpose. The objective behind the serious game is to provide information about the operating concept of a demand responsive bus in a playful way. The underlying concept of the mobility service is introduced to the player as well as possible use cases and system constraints. To enhance knowledge about the new bus system players are put in the position of a public traffic planner. Players have the mission to plan and operate a bus system that satisfies customer needs on the one hand and meets the goal of an efficient and environmental friendly operation on the other hand. It is hypothesized that the serious game improves the conceptual understanding of the mobility service, reduces usage barriers and increases the intention to use the new bus system

RURAL DEMAND RESPONSIVE TRANSPORT An overview of the Italian scenario and analysis of Antola-Tigullio inner area case study

Over time, a car-centred mobility system has contributed to the negative externalities that can be observed today in both urban and rural areas: congestion of transport infrastructures, air and noise pollution, reduced urban space for pedestrians and cyclists, lack of parks, etc. All this has led policy makers to find solutions to shift citizens from cars to public transport and other sustainable modes (walking and cycling). While in urban areas traditional public transport is often an already widespread and effective service that only needs to be transformed to build user confidence, in rural and mountainous areas, where low transport demand and long distances make it economically unviable, it needs to be integrated or completely replaced by innovative forms of mobility. One of the most valid solutions in this regard is on-demand transport technology, which allows transport providers to reduce their costs by rationalizing the supply (e.g. higher vehicles’ load factor) and population of these areas to improve their accessibility to public transport and abandon the use of the car. Over time, research has been done extensively in academic literature on the application of this technology in urban areas, but little has been undertaken in rural contexts: this PhD thesis aims to contribute to research in this field by studying the technical characteristics of these services in the Italian scenario, in order to provide decision-makers with useful information to counter the phenomena of depopulation and economic and social isolation of these territories. First, this paper provides a comprehensive literature review aimed at understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the DRT service in general and in its application in rural areas: from the description of its historical development, the close relationship between the diffusion of this tool and the phases of technological progress emerges. The central chapters of this thesis deal with an in-depth analysis of all rural DRT cases in operation in Italy in the last decade (both temporary and permanent), carried out through a web search, an analysis of the Program Framework Agreements of the Italian regions and sector agencies’ websites, as well as with the planning of some DRT services in the inner area of Antola-Tigullio (Liguria Region): this last work, carried out after an analysis of the socio-demographic data and the travel behavior of the population, helped to identify the best routes, time slots and target user groups to experiment with the DRT service. After 5 months of experimentation, it was possible to carry out an ex-post analysis of the initial results thanks to the data provided by the local Public Transport Authority (PTA), commissioner of the study. The results of this PhD thesis, obtained from the study of the literature and the analysis both at national level and of a single case study, are multiple and provide useful indications to policy makers and transport providers for the implementation of DRT services in hard-to-reach areas with low transport demand, capable of truly satisfying the mobility needs of the inhabitants by favoring the use of public transport and slowing down the processes of depopulation and economic marginalization affecting these contexts

Towards a Unified Understanding of Data-Driven Support for Emergency Medical Service Logistics

Time-critical medical emergencies challenge emergency medical service (EMS) systems worldwide every day. In order to respond to these incidents as soon as possible, EMS logistics\u27 approaches can help locating and dispatching ambulances. Many of these approaches use estimates for the demand as well as the driving, service and turnaround times. In order to determine useful solutions and make informed decisions, reliable forecasts are necessary that take the characteristics and constraints of the planning problems at different levels into account. While many different approaches have been presented and tested in literature, a common understanding is still missing. This paper therefore proposes a taxonomy on EMS forecasting that distinguishes between medical emergencies and patient transports, demand and time intervals in the response process, as well as the three planning levels strategic, tactical and operational. In addition, an illustrative example and a research agenda are presented based on the findings for the taxonomy