Operational Innovations for Efficiency and Accessibility of On-demand Mobility in Rural Areas

Unlike the fixed-route transit service, microtransit can thrive in rural and suburban areas with low demand density, because its operation is tailored to individual travel plans. Therefore, microtransit has great potential in improving mobility and accessibility for the transportation-disadvantaged individuals in rural areas. Although many researchers have investigated how microtransit vehicle schedules and routes can be optimized, it is widely assumed that travel requests submitted by individual riders are accommodated independently, without exploring any coordination among riders. The proposed project aims to relax this assumption and test the hypothesis that a microtransit operator can significantly improve the operational efficiency (measured by the vehicle occupancy) by merely adjusting the requested pickup time windows through a process named rider schedule coordination. The following research tasks are proposed under this project: conducting a comprehensive review of individual decision-making coordination in microtransit, formulating and solving a mathematical program for schedule coordination, and deriving insights from extensive numerical studies and case studies. This project, once completed, can improve the microtransit accessibility for residents in underserved communities and reduce the service delivery cost for the operator, both of which are well aligned with the center’s themes.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $73,866.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348321

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Florida A&M University, Tallahassee

  404 Foote/Hilyer
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32307
• Project Managers:

  Moses, Ren

• Performing Organizations:

  Florida A&M University, Tallahassee

  404 Foote/Hilyer
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32307
• Principal Investigators:

  Sun, Yanshuo

  Moses, Ren

• Start Date: 20240601
• Expected Completion Date: 20250531
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Demand responsive transportation; Passenger transportation; Ridesourcing; Rural areas; Underserved communities
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01945637
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Rural Equitable and Accessible Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348321
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Feb 12 2025 5:36PM