An agent-based fleet management model for first- and last-mile services

With the growth of cars and car-sharing applications, commuters in many cities, particularly developing countries, are shifting away from public transport. These shifts have affected two key stakeholders: transit operators and first- and last-mile (FLM) services. Although most cities continue to inv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transportation (Dordrecht) 2024-06, Vol.51 (3), p.987-1013
Main Authors: Bhatnagar, Saumya, Rambha, Tarun, Ramadurai, Gitakrishnan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Automobiles
Car sharing
Cities
Developing countries
Economic Geography
Economics
Economics and Finance
Engineering Economics
Fleet management
Innovation/Technology Management
LDCs
Logistics
Marketing
Mobility
Operators
Organization
Partnerships
Passengers
Public transportation
Regional/Spatial Science
Simulation
Simulation models
Subway stations
Vehicle routing
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Summary:With the growth of cars and car-sharing applications, commuters in many cities, particularly developing countries, are shifting away from public transport. These shifts have affected two key stakeholders: transit operators and first- and last-mile (FLM) services. Although most cities continue to invest heavily in bus and metro projects to make public transit attractive, ridership in these systems has often failed to reach targeted levels. FLM service providers also experience lower demand and revenues in the wake of shifts to other means of transport. Effective FLM options are required to prevent this phenomenon and make public transport attractive for commuters. One possible solution is to forge partnerships between public transport and FLM providers that offer competitive joint mobility options. Such solutions require prudent allocation of supply and optimised strategies for FLM operations and ride-sharing. To this end, we build an agent- and event-based simulation model which captures interactions between passengers and FLM services using statecharts, vehicle routing models, and other trip matching rules. An optimisation model for allocating FLM vehicles at different transit stations is proposed to reduce unserved requests. Using real-world metro transit demand data from Bengaluru, India, the effectiveness of our approach in improving FLM connectivity and quantifying the benefits of sharing trips is demonstrated.
ISSN:0049-4488
1572-9435
DOI:10.1007/s11116-022-10363-z