Abstract
The aging population has led to an increase in the variety and volume of transportation demands by people facing travel difficulties. Hence, transportation organisations need to provide flexible and sustainable paratransit services to meet these increasing demands. In this study, we investigate the design of flexible vehicle scheduling systems in order for a community organisation to serve more people and achieve higher operational efficiency. We analyse and propose a system design based on user requirements for different types of paratransit types. Further, we identify an integrated service option and process flow for dial-a-ride passengers to ride on a vehicle with schedule route passengers. Because this option involves a complex decision, we formulate the problem as a two-stage decision model. To verify the effectiveness of our proposed design, we perform numerical simulations and conduct a case study by collaborating with a transportation organisation. We found that the proposed system would enable the organisation to serve more people with fewer vehicles but without an increase in the travelling time. These results demonstrate the importance of a flexible vehicle scheduling system for accessible transportation organisations to sustain their service operations.
Highlights
The aging population has led to an increase in the number of people with travel difficulty; this increasing demand has resulted in considerable pressure on many paratransit service organisations to sustain their services in many countries
Paratransit services cannot be substituted by public transportation services, as most public transportation operations are equipped with sufficient wheelchair lifts
The increasing demand for paratransit services will drive the development of a flexible vehicle scheduling system for accessible transportation organization, so that more people can be served with fewer vehicles
Summary
The aging population has led to an increase in the number of people with travel difficulty; this increasing demand has resulted in considerable pressure on many paratransit service organisations to sustain their services in many countries. Without sufficient ancillary transport facilities and support from the public, people with such travel difficulties can often feel isolated from their communities and face barriers when participating in various physical activities; this can affect their emotional wellbeing and overall quality of life [1]. To facilitate their integration into the community, it is necessary to provide sustainable paratransit services as a mean to enhance mobility for people with travel difficulties [2]. The lack of substitutive services as well as the increasing demand of paratransit services raise social concerns to identify means to serve people with disabilities and travel inconvenience
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