A decision support system for the bimodal dial-a-ride problem

A bimodal dial-a-ride problem (BDARP) considered in this paper is a dial-a-ride problem that involves two transportation modes: paratransit vehicles and fixed route buses. Riders in such a system might be transferred between different transportation modes during the service process. The motivation of this research is that by efficiently coordinating paratransit vehicles with fixed route buses we can improve the accessibility and efficiency of a dial-a-ride system. In this paper, we design a decision support system (DSS) which automatically constructs efficient paratransit vehicle routes and schedules for the BDARP. This DSS has been tested using actual data from the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) in Ann Arbor, MI. The results show that this DSS produces an average increase of 10% in the number of requests that can be accommodated and an average decrease of 10% in the number of paratransit vehicles required, as compared to the manual results where no fixed route buses are involved