Research Of Multi-Vehicle Mobility Allowance Shuttle Transit Service Scheduling Problem

In recent years, the demands of urban residents on the quality of public transportation services rendered such trends as differentiation, integration, refinement and so on. Public transport-based urban passenger transportation development strategy will turn into building the city's comprehensive public transport system with an appropriate level of service. Para-transit, as an important integral part of public transport system, has become increasingly widespread concern. Discussed in this paper, the Mobility Allowance Shuttle Transit service (MAST for short) is an innovative form of Para-transit. It merges the flexibility of Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) systems with the low cost operability of fixed-route systems, which could meet the passengers'needs of picking up and dropping off at different locations, and greatly improve the "door-to-door" service levels of public transport system through the scientific path (region) selection and a reasonable schedule. Current research in the field of the MAST system is based on a single-vehicle system as the main subjects. But for Para-transit system, the single-vehicle systems of the service capacity is limited, and can only cover a limited service area. Moreover, there are serious problems of the scheduling algorithms which affect the MAST service levels. Therefore, it is necessary to carry on such research as multi-vehicle MAST system design and scheduling.The core content of this paper is the multi-vehicle MAST system scheduling problem. First of all, we summed up the background where the MAST system is produced, and the concepts and operating principles. We also reviewed the operation principles and operation manner of MAST service. Secondly, on the basis of summing up the scheduling model of single-vehicle MAST system, we developed the scheduling model of multi-vehicle MAST system by using mixed integer programming model approach through reasonable assumptions. Thirdly, we modified the heuristic insertion algorithm of the multi-vehicle MAST systems for its own characteristics. Finally, in order to achieve the balance between service levels and operational costs, we calculated the greatest car distribution amounts for multi-vehicle MAST system to optimize the system configuration. As there is no actual operation of MAST for collecting data, we conducted a simulation using MATLAB software. Simulation results show that multi-vehicle level of service MAST system has obvious advantages.Multi-vehicle MAST services can not only provides a new travel options for urban residents, but also helps to improve the service level of the whole urban public transport system. Research on MAST service will lay a foundation of Para-transit as well as the integrated public transport system.