Coordinative dispatching of shared and public transportation under passenger flow outburst

Abstract

In the passenger flow outburst area (e.g., metro emergency, dispersal of sporting events, and concerts), passengers put forward large demand for ride-sourcing services. Insufficient ride-sourcing supply of the area induces increasing matching time, and the ride-sourcing influx from outside picking up passengers leads to heavier road traffic congestion in the flow outburst area. To solve this problem, we propose a novel coordinative dispatching method of ride-sourcing and multi-modal transit, in which subsidies and buses are provided for passengers in flow outburst areas to encourage taking other public transportation to low passenger flow areas first and then taking ride-sourcing to their destinations. In this paper, there are two options for passengers: (a) wait for ride-sourcing to pick them up; (b) take other public transportation first and then take ride-sourcing. To obtain the optimal dispatching and subsidy schemes, we develop a bi-level mixed integer programming model based on network flow theory and design the corresponding iterative algorithm to solve it. Considering the high uncertainty of ride-sourcing demand in the area, we further develop a robust optimization model to obtain more reliable schemes. Case studies based on a real-problem-scale dataset are conducted. The results demonstrate that our approach can be carried out in real time, and encouraging passengers to take multi-modal transit shows great potential in reducing affected users’ delays. The robust optimization model offers a more reliable and competitive solution when demand varies widely. Our method offers a win–win–win way for passengers, ride-sourcing service providers, and public transportation systems.