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2-Vehicle zone optimal design for feeder transit services

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Abstract

Feeder transit services perform the crucial first/last mile access to transit by connecting people within a residential area to a major transit network. In this paper, we address the optimal zone design problem faced by planners for feeder transit services with high demands and long length of service area, where a two-vehicle operation is assumed to be adopted in each zone. By balancing customer service quality and operating cost, we develop an analytical model of the system by assuming continuous approximations. Closed-form expressions and numerical procedures are employed to derive the optimal number of zones to aid decision makers in determining the best design as a function of the main parameters. Analytical expressions and results are then validated by simulation analysis.

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Abbreviations

λ :

average demand in the whole residential area (customer/hour)

α :

fraction of customers traveling from the residential area to the city; 1−α is the fraction of customers traveling from the city to the residential area

L :

length of the residential service area (mile)

W :

width of the residential service area (mile)

d :

distance between FRT bus stations within a zone (mile)

a k :

customer cost of walking between a FRT bus station and a house within a zone ($/customer/hour)

a w :

customer cost of waiting at terminals or bus stations ($/customer/hour)

\(a_{w}^{h}\) :

customer cost of waiting at houses ($/customer/hour)

a v :

customer cost of traveling in an on-demand vehicle ($/customer/hour)

a b :

customer cost of traveling in a fixed route bus in the zones ($/customer/hour)

a B :

customer cost of traveling in a major transit vehicle between the city and terminals ($/customer/hour)

F v :

total cost of an on-demand vehicle ($/vehicle/hour)

F b :

total cost of a fixed route bus ($/bus/hour)

v wk :

average speed of customer walking (mile/hour)

v b :

average speed of an on-demand vehicle or a fixed route bus (mile/hour)

v B :

average speed of a major transit vehicle (mile/hour)

s :

dwelling time of a fixed route bus or an on-demand vehicle (hour)

S :

dwelling time of a major transit vehicle at terminals (hour)

E(T wk ):

expected walking time in a zone for pick-up or drop-off customers

\(E( T_{wt}^{p} )\) :

expected waiting time for pick-up customers in a zone

\(E( T_{rd}^{p} )\) :

expected ride time for pick-up customers in a zone

\(E( T_{rd - B}^{p} )\) :

expected ride time for pick-up customers in a major transit vehicle

\(E( T_{wt}^{d} )\) :

expected waiting time for drop-off customers at a terminal

\(E( T_{rd}^{d} )\) :

expected ride time for drop-off customers in a zone

\(E( T_{rd - B}^{d} )\) :

expected ride time for drop-off customers in a major transit vehicle.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oregon Department of Transportation, 555 13th St NE, Suite 2, Salem, OR, 97301-6867, USA

    Xiugang Li

  2. Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-3136, USA

    Luca Quadrifoglio

Authors
  1. Xiugang Li
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  2. Luca Quadrifoglio
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Correspondence to Luca Quadrifoglio.

Additional information

The work in this paper was originally presented at the 11th International Conference on Advanced Systems for Public Transport (CASPT09).

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Li, X., Quadrifoglio, L. 2-Vehicle zone optimal design for feeder transit services. Public Transp 3, 89–104 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12469-011-0040-2

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