| This dissertation defines and studies a class of dynamic problems called the "Mass Transport Vehicle Routing Problem" (MTVRP) which is to efficiently route n vehicles in real time in a fast varying environment to pickup and deliver m passengers, where both n and m are large. The problem is very relevant to future transportation options involving large scale real-time routing of shared-ride fleet transit vehicles. Traditionally, dynamic routing solutions were found using static approximations for smaller-scale problems or using local heuristics for the larger-scale ones. Generally heuristics used for these types of problems do not consider global optimality.; The main contribution of this research is the development of a hierarchical methodology to solve MTVRP in three stages which seeks global optimality. The first stage simplifies the network through an aggregated representation, which retains the main characteristics of the actual network and represents the transportation network realistically. The second stage solves a simplified static problem, called "Mass Transport Network Design Problem" (MTNDP). The output of stage 2 is a set of frequencies and paths used as an initial solution to the last stage of the process, called Local Mass Transport Vehicle Routing Problem (LMTVRP), where a local routing is performed.; The thesis presents the proposed methodology, gives insights on each of the proposed stages, develops a general framework to use the proposed methodology to solve any VRP and presents an application through microsimulation for the city of Barcelona in Spain. |
