PARATRANSIT PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT THROUGH SERVICE SIMULATION PHASE TWO REPORT: MODEL DEVELOPMENT

A number of demographic, socioeconomic, technical and institutional trends have increased public attention paid to paratransit services. This has spurred a great deal of interest in determining how to effectively and efficiently serve this growing market. This research effort was undertaken to develop a simulation capability to be used to evaluate various paratransit service delivery and characteristics and policies. The genesis of the research stems from an earlier effort to identify literature addressing the theoretical maximum productivity of paratransit operations in a given demographic environment. Virtually no operations research or simulation work that addressed this topic was found in the literature or known to experts that were contacted. It became obvious that no systematic evaluation of paratransit productivity issues had ever been carried out using an urban simulation model or optimization approach. Thus, this research effort was undertaken to develop such a capability through a multi-step process involving an urban land use and transportation network, a paratransit trip generation model, and a service delivery model consisting of a vehicle dispatching algorithm. The overall framework was modeled after the simulation efforts common in the 1970s that used network simulation models to test various urban forms and fixed route transit delivery scenarios to evaluate energy efficiency and productivity.

• Corporate Authors:

  Florida Department of Transportation

  Office of Research, P.O. Box 1029
  Gainesville, FL  United States  32602

  University of South Florida, Tampa

  Center for Urban Transportation Research, 4202 East Fowler Avenue
  Tampa, FL  United States  33620-5375
• Authors:
  • Stasiak, R T
  • Turner, P A
  • Pendyala, R
  • Polzin, S E
• Publication Date: 1998-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 164 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Demographics; Land use; Level of service; Networks; Operations; Optimization; Paratransit services; Simulation; Socioeconomic factors; Transportation; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Energy efficiency; Transportation networks
• Old TRIS Terms: Operational effectiveness
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Economics; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00754412
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: WPI # 0510761
• Contract Numbers: B-9876
• Files: TRIS, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Oct 7 1998 12:00AM