Multimodal Mass Transit Simulation

This chapter describes specific details of the schedule optimization problem formulation and modeling components used in the simulation of commuters traveling from their residences to their places of employment. Commuting makes a good starting scenario, since it accounts for a large proportion of the trips handled by present-day mass transit systems. Furthermore, the commute simulation may easily be adapted into other types of scenarios for analysis such as shopping errands or stadium events.

The formulation of the schedule optimizer is most similar to the mass transport vehicle routing problem (MTVRP) introduced by Pag$\grave{e}$s. [37] It creates schedules for moving a fleet of vehicles between a network of stations in such a way to deliver as many passengers from origin to destination stations as possible.