Design of Mass Customized Paratransit Services

In the decades characterized by ageing population, many community transportation organizations face challenges to serve various needs of people sustainably because of limited social welfare expenditure. This research aims to design mass customized services that provide multiple types of paratransit service through better system design and optimization of vehicle resources. In this paper, we focus on integrating scheduler route (SR) service with dial-a-ride (DAR) service, along with the option of a shared ride program. In the first part, we study how different types of paratransit services can be represented systematically under the same family structure. The identified commonality of processes among different service types will lead to the optimization of vehicle scheduling. Then, in the second part, we will develop a mechanism for scheduling vehicles to serve different types of passengers. Illustrated in a numerical example, 20% more passengers could be served by the integrated model of two service types.