Evaluation of Zoning Design with Transfers for Paratransit Services
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2012
Subject Area
mode - paratransit, infrastructure - interchange/transfer, place - north america
Keywords
paratransit, Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), Texas, zoning
Abstract
This paper evaluates the effects of including transfers between service zones on overall service performance in a paratransit system. Transfers were included to improve the operational efficiency of a system when maintenance of a desirable zoning structure was obligatory. This proposed innovative service design was compared with more traditional cases of no transfer zoning and no zoning. A set of instances was generated from demand data obtained from the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas, and evaluated through simulation analyses. The results demonstrated that under a zoning structure, this transfer design (in comparison with a nontransfer design) provided noticeable improvements in efficiency measures and better passenger trips per vehicle revenue hour while maintaining a minimum customer service standard; however, the overall performance of the no-zoning strategy used by the Houston, Texas, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County performed the best, on average.
Rights
Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Transportation Research Board, Washington, copyright remains with them.
Recommended Citation
Shen, C-W., & Quadrifoglio, L. (2012). Evaluation of Zoning Design with Transfers for Paratransit Services. Transportation Research Record, Vol. 2277, pp. 82-89. Published by Transportation Research Board, Washington.
