Performance and Design of Mobility Allowance Shuttle Transit Services: Bounds on the Maximum Longitudinal Velocity

There is a need for a transit system that provides flexible service at a cost-efficient price. This article describe the mobility allowance shuttle transit (MAST) system, a concept the merges the flexibility of demand responsive transit (DRT) with the low-cost operability of fixed-route bus systems. The authors develop bounds on the maximum longitudinal velocity to evaluate the performance and help the design of MAST services. A MAST system allows buses to deviate from the fixed path so that customers within the service area may be picked up or dropped off at their desired locations. However, the main purpose of these services is still to transport customers along a primary direction. The velocity along this direction should remain above a minimum threshold value to maintain the service attractive to customers. The authors use continuous approximations to compute lower and upper bounds for realistic operating conditions. Their analysis shows that a two-vehicle system, with selected widths of the service area of 0.5 miles and 1 mile, is able to serve, respectively, a demand of at least 10 and 7 customers per longitudinal mile of the service area while maintaining a reasonable forward progression velocity of about 10 miles/hour. The relationships obtained by these calculations can be helpful in the design of MAST systems to set the main parameters of the service, such as slack time and headway.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1767714
• Authors:
  • Quadrifoglio, Luca
  • Hall, Randolph W
  • Dessouky, Maged M
• Publication Date: 2006-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 351-363
• Serial:
  • Transportation Science
  • Volume: 40
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
  • ISSN: 0041-1655
  • Serial URL: http://transci.journal.informs.org/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Demand responsive transportation; Passenger service; Public transit; Shuttle service; Transit vehicle operations
• Uncontrolled Terms: Continuous approximations; Mobility allowance shuttle transit; Service design
• Subject Areas: Finance; Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01037327
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 28 2006 11:31AM