Real-world Meeting Points for Shared Demand-Responsive Transportation Systems

TL;DR

This paper proposes a three-step workflow for implementing meeting points in shared demand-responsive transportation, demonstrating that it reduces operator resources despite slightly increased passenger travel times.

Contribution

It introduces a novel three-step method for integrating meeting points into SDRT systems and evaluates its impact through realistic simulations.

Findings

Reduced operator resources needed for service

Increased passenger travel time due to walking and waiting

Effective clustering and routing for meeting points

Abstract

While conventional shared demand-responsive transportation (SDRT) systems mostly operate on a door-to-door policy, the usage of meeting points for the pick-up and drop-off of user groups can offer several advantages, like fewer stops and less total travelled mileage. Moreover, it offers the possibility to select only feasible and well-defined locations where a safe (de-)boarding is possible. This paper presents a three-step workflow for solving the SDRT problem with meeting points (SDRT-MP). Firstly, the customers are clustered into similar groups, then meeting (and divergence) points are determined for each cluster. Finally, a parallel neighbourhood search algorithm is applied to create the vehicle routes. Further, a simulation with realistic pick-up and drop-off locations based on map data is performed in order to demonstrate the impact of using meeting points for SDRT systems in contrast to the door-to-door service. Although the average passenger travel time is higher due to enhanced walking and waiting times, the experiment highlights a reduction of operator resources required to serve all customers.