Service capacity design problems for mobility allowance shuttle transit systems

Transit agencies are currently seeking ways to improve service flexibility in a cost efficient manner. Mobility Allowance Shuttle Transit is a transportation concept that merges the flexibility of Demand Responsive Transit systems with the low cost operability of fixed-route bus systems. In this paper, we study the service capacity design problem for such a system. We analyze the relationship between service cycle time, and the length and width of the service area under a desired service level constraint. The analysis can be used as a guide for designing service area parameters. Given that a shuttle travels in a rectilinear pattern and utilizes a non-backtracking nearest-insertion algorithm, we derive closed-form approximate solutions for the service capacity design problem. We show that setting the length of the service area to half the travel speed of the shuttle multiplied by the cycle time is an effective approximation.