A Methodology for Choosing between Route Deviation and Point Deviation Policies for Flexible Transit Services

Flexible transit services, which bring together the characteristics of fixed-route transit and demand-responsive transit, have been proven to be cost-efficient in low-density residential areas. In this paper, a methodology is proposed to assist planners in making better decisions when choosing betwe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yue Zheng, Wenquan Li, Feng Qiu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-01-01
Series:Journal of Advanced Transportation
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/6292410
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Summary:Flexible transit services, which bring together the characteristics of fixed-route transit and demand-responsive transit, have been proven to be cost-efficient in low-density residential areas. In this paper, a methodology is proposed to assist planners in making better decisions when choosing between route deviation policy and point deviation policy, which are two promising types of flexible transit services. A user cost function is developed to measure the service quality of the transit systems, and analytical models are constructed to compare the system performance under both expected and unexpected demand levels. Based on the experiments for various scenarios over a real-life transit example, the critical demands, which represent the switching point between the two competing service policies, have been derived. Our findings show that point deviation policy is more efficient at low-demand levels, while route deviation policy is a better choice at low-to-moderate demand levels. At unexpectedly high demand levels, route deviation policy is better able to accommodate rejected passengers than point deviation policy.
ISSN:0197-6729
2042-3195