Formulating a New Express Minibus Service Design Problem as a Clustering Problem

This paper presents the formulation of a new optimization problem designated as the Express Minibus problem, which intends to form small groups of clients with compatible boarding/exiting points in time and space for a new type of urban mobility service. This new transport option intends to provide almost direct services between disperse demand poles, as a competitive alternative to the private car, in places where high capacity and efficient public transport options are scarce, combining the major strengths of both public transport and private vehicles. Conventional public transport systems can present efficient space and energy consumption, while private vehicles have high levels of flexibility, are fast and always available. The proposed algorithm aims at assessing the potential demand of this new service by developing a clustering algorithm, in which the formed groups of clients for each minibus route should present the following characteristics: small number of boarding and exiting points, where in each point there is only boarding or alighting; boarding points should be close to each other, as well as the exiting points; there must be a reasonable distance between the last boarding point and the first exiting point; the average load factor must be high; and for all clients the overall detour time relative to the direct service should be small. The paper presents the rationale and structure of the clustering algorithm, followed with an application for the Lisbon Metropolitan Area during the morning peak, which could be adapted to the afternoon peak with some slight modifications.

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