Optimised flexible transport mode without advanced reservations by a DES approach

A Flexible Transport Service for Passengers

This research presents a multi-agent based metropolitan demand responsive transport (DRT) system intelligent control model, which adopts a practical multi-agents planning approach for urban DRT services control that satisfies the main constraints: minimize total slack time, travel time, waiting time, client's special requests, and using minimum number of vehicle. In this paper, we propose an agent based multi-layer distributed hybrid planning model for the real-time problem. By computational experiments, we examine an effectiveness of the proposed method for the large real-time metropolitan transport system.

A decentralised management of an autonomous demand responsive transport mode is considered, where more than one passengers may be associated to a vehicle. No advanced seat reservation is required by clients appearing in the network in a continuous Poisson stream aiming at an immediate departure. A potential waiting time is associated with customers, in case no vehicle is available by their arrival, as well a tolerated trip detour threshold. Meanwhile, vehicles travel on the network transporting passengers while searching for prospective clients. Two different schemes, employing fully autonomous and manually driven cars are considered. A comparative study is presented, quantifying the performance of each structure. Moreover, the efficacy of each vehicle scheme is compared with a similar one employing a greater number of vehicles in service where each vehicle has an increased passenger capacity. Client-vehicle interaction forms an asynchronous, dynamical, spatio-temporal system the evolution of which is represented through an event-driven approach. Client metrics such as client initial waiting time, abandonment rate, trip detours etc. are measured as well vehicle indicators providing information on the vehicle productivity.

Riders on the storm: Exploring weather and seasonality effects on commute mode choice in Chicago

Flexible transport services include a wide range of demand responsive transport systems that provide non-conventional passenger and freight transportation services. Several alternative business models varying according to the local market conditions, the socio-economic, legal, and institutional framework may be developed for the provision of Flexible Transport Systems (FTS). The objective of this paper is twofold: first to present an integrated methodological framework for developing and assessing alternative FTS business models and second to demonstrate its applicability to a case study regarding the prioritization of alternative FTS business models for the provision of flexible passenger transport services in Helsinki.

A behavioral economic perspective on demand responsive transportation