Development of a Demand Responsive Transport system with improvement analysis on conventional public transport: A Case Study for Schorndorf, Germany

Abstract

Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) is a passenger-oriented branch of public transport, which consists of a group of passengers sharing a vehicle with flexible pick-up and drop-off locations and times, according to the passenger preferences. This kind of systems represents a well-known solution for providing public transport services in areas of low demand. However, DRT systems are most of the time economically unfeasible, due to the difficulties on balancing costs and demand. In a very small city, DRT systems are highly valued by the passengers, but too expensive, due to the low demand. On the contrary, these systems are overload in a big city, and become thus unappealing to passengers. The purpose of this work is to develop an evaluation tool in order to correctly establish the viability of the implementation of a DRT system.