Real-time scheduling rules for demand responsive transit systems

The scheduling of vehicles for demand responsive transportation systems is a classic combinatorial optimization problem. With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that transit agencies provide para-transit or on demand service for the disabled, there has been renewed interest in demand responsive transit. In this paper, we review the state-of-the-art in the literature on scheduling demand responsive systems and present a new heuristic for real-time scheduling of such systems. We evaluate the heuristics using data provided by para-transit service providers in Los Angeles County