Method for Estimating Patronage of Demand Responsive Transportation Systems

This study has developed a method for estimating patronage of demand responsive transportation (DRT) systems. This procedure requires as inputs a description of the intended service area, current work trip patterns, characteristics of the served population, and the major design choices, such as the vehicle fleet size, changes in fleet size over the day, types of vehicles being used (buses or taxis), and the fare level. Using these data, the model predicts patronage and service levels for each user-specified interval during the day. The modern system has been developed as a software package which includes a set of disaggregate demand models, a set of analytic supply models, and an equilibration procedure. In addition, a simple sketch planning procedure has been developed which can be used for quick, preliminary analysis of DRT sites. /GMRL/