Work

A tactical planning framework to integrate paratransit with formal public transport systems

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Despite the crucial role of informal paratransit services in mobility systems, their planning and integration with formal public transport systems have received limited attention. We present a novel framework to integrate public transport and paratransit at the tactical planning level. We formulate this integration as a two-step Transit Network Frequency Setting Problem (TNFSP). The first step of TNFSP involves a headway-based network-wide multi-modal transit assignment, followed by an integrated frequency optimisation in the second step. The proposed approach is applied to the network of Visakhapatnam, a medium-sized Indian city with 9 % and 18 % share of paratransit and formal transit. After validating the base model using real-world data, we perform scenario-based analysis to derive the optimal fleet size, network configuration, and frequency of both systems to minimise externalities. Integrated planning and frequency optimization can lead to 50–60 % reduction in travel time and emissions compared to current approach of separately planned systems.

Source: Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment

DOI: 10.1016/j.trd.2024.104438

Authors: Ravi Gadepalli, Prateek Bansal, Geetam Tiwari, Nomesh Bolia

Institutions: Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, National University of Singapore

Language: English

Topic: Transportation Planning and Optimization

Subfield: Transportation

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,100