Improving Sharing Rates of a Dial-a-Ride Problem implemented for an Austrian Mobility Provider

Abstract

The Dial-a-Ride Problem (DARP) aims to find a set of minimal cost tours for passenger vehicles in order to satisfy a set of transport requests. Each request requires to pick up one or more passengers at a defined pick-up point and then drop off the passengers at the desired destination. In this work, we consider a DARP that has been implemented for an Austrian mobility provider. The company focuses on rural regions that suffer from insufficient public transportation and offers a sustainable form of mobility. The provider is especially interested in improving the sharing rates of the mobility service. Therefore, we propose a Large Neighborhood Search for solving the respective DARP. In a computational study, we compare different configurations of the service and identify the most promising configurations regarding sharing rates, passenger convenience and, hence, the overall efficiency of the service.