Strategic Management of Limited Transportation Recourses to Support Mobility of Disadvantaged and Disabled Travelers during the COVID-19 Pandemic or Similar Situations
Description: The COVID-19 lock down has reduced public transportation service to the disadvantaged and disabled people who are in urgent need of adequate mobility to obtain essential suppliers. The aim of this proposal is to improve the life quality of people with disabilities and elderly people by addressing issues related to social exclusion, accessibility, and mobility. Demand responsive transport services are frequently offered in the context of door-to-door transportation of the elderly and persons with disabilities. The research team proposes to study an optimization methodology to analyze the minimal resource requirements of a demand responsive system in terms of vehicles, drivers required, total distance traveled, by means of a vehicle routing plan, taking into account heterogeneous users (persons with different severity and type of disabilities), heterogeneous vehicles (regular and wheelchair adapted vehicles) and multiple geographically distributed depots (locations where vehicles are stored). The general strategic planning problem of allocating and relocating resources in service zones will be formulated and solved. The proposed model could be implemented with given geographic conditions and other local information to be tailored for specific applications for local communities. It is anticipated that the outcome from this research would benefit disadvantaged and disabled travelers during COVID-19 or similar difficult situations in the future. Intellectual Merit: (1) Benefit disadvantaged and disabled travelers during COVID-19 or similar pandemic lock down; (2) Maximize travel request with limited resources available at local communities; (3) Strategic planning problem of allocating and relocating resources in service zones; (4) Develop a generic methodology that can be implemented with given geographic scenarios; and (5) Consider both route optimization and ride request uncertainty. Broader Impacts: The proposed project aims to boost the positive social impact by fulfilling uncertain travel requests from the disadvantaged and disabled people, while minimizing the utilization of assets and resources, such as fleet size, human resources, and funding. The project will formulate and solve a general strategic planning problem of allocating and relocating fleets in service zones. Though the proposed model is general and stylized, it can be easily tailored and implemented with different geographic conditions and other local information for specific applications for local communities. It is anticipated that the outcome from this research would serve and benefit the disadvantaged and disabled travelers during COVID-19 or similar difficult situations in the future.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Completed
- Funding: $103881
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Contract Numbers:
69A3551747117
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility
Clemson University
Clemson, SC United States 29634University of South Carolina, Columbia
502 Byrnes Building
Columbia, SC United States 29208 1600 Harden Street
Columbia, South Carolina United States 29204 -
Managing Organizations:
University of South Carolina, Columbia
502 Byrnes Building
Columbia, SC United States 29208 -
Project Managers:
Qian, Yu
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Performing Organizations:
University of South Carolina, Columbia
502 Byrnes Building
Columbia, SC United States 29208 1600 Harden Street
Columbia, South Carolina United States 29204 -
Principal Investigators:
Qian, Yu
Comert, Gurcan
Begashaw, Negash
- Start Date: 20200915
- Expected Completion Date: 20220916
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: COVID-19; Demand responsive transportation; Mobility; Persons with disabilities; Resource allocation; Routes and routing; Transportation disadvantaged persons
- Subject Areas: Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01838156
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility
- Contract Numbers: 69A3551747117
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Mar 6 2022 2:17PM