Demand responsive transit, the first “smart” public transportation service, was an ambitious attempt to use “breakthrough” technologies of the early 1970s—the minicomputer and 3GL computer languages—to develop a new form of public transit. However, as experience was gained with Dial-A-Ride, it became apparent that the automated features of this transit service were not cost-effective for most systems given the technologies available at the time. Consequently, the technology for delivering DRT became much less sophisticated over time. Although computerized control of DRT (Demand Responsive Transit) operations has made a comeback in recent years, this has occurred in the context of a strong trend towards advance scheduling of trips restricted to particular classes of users. This is a service concept fundamentally at odds with the original premises of DRT, which was to provide an immediate response local transportation mode for the general public Recent technological developments offer promise that DRT may be able to return to its “smart” technological roots to restore its potential as a service for the general public—albeit at a much superior level of performance and cost-eflfectiveness. Key developments include the advent of low cost, high performance computer hardware, generic relational database systems, moderately priced scheduling and dispatching software, mobile computers, inexpensive card readers and hand-held data transfer devices, off-the-shelf automatic vehicle location technology, and electronic mapping software. As emerging efforts to take advantage of these technological possibilities proceed, how DRT is organized and delivered is likely to change significantly from current practice.
USING SMART TECHNOLOGIES TO REVITALIZE DEMAND RESPONSIVE TRANSIT
Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems ; 1 , 3 ; 275-293
1994-01-01
19 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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