Towards an Agent-based Model for Demand-Responsive Transport Serving Thin Flows

Low volume traveler flows cause problems for public transportation (PT) providers. The Smart-PT project aims to find out how such flows can be combined to increase the service provider viability. The capability to conceive multi-modal trips is fundamental in that context and is modeled by the Trip Sequence Composer (TSC) concept. A TSC is an essential component of the traveler's brain, of the customer support operated by collective transport providers, of trip advisers in websites etc. We present a simulation model design to evaluate the effect of cooperating TSCs on the viability of demand responsive collective transport providers. While obeying specific regulations, specialized services targeting mobility impaired people can also serve regular requests in order to save fleet and personnel costs. All stakeholders are assumed to optimize their private objectives and none of them has global perfect knowledge. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.