Design and optimisation of multimodal traffic strategy for low-mobility individuals

Abstract

Recently, low-mobility individuals have drawn growing attention in the traffic organisation field. Therefore, following the previous research efforts, this study tries to design and optimise a multimodal traffic strategy for low-mobility individuals. First, the preliminary application conditions and implementation effects of different traffic strategies are analysed to determine feasible multimodal traffic strategies for low-mobility individuals based on the optimisation goal and strategic orientation. Then, an optimisation model is proposed to select the optimal strategies from feasible strategies for different travel modes, aiming to minimise the weighted sum of public transport, walking, non-vehicle-based transportation, travelling by private car and strategy implementation costs. An appropriate heuristic algorithm is developed to solve the optimisation model. Finally, the case study of Wenling is presented to verify the feasibility and practicality of the proposed multimodal traffic strategy design and optimisation for low-mobility individuals. The results show that the proposed multimodal traffic strategy has stronger positive than negative effects from the travel cost aspect. The findings presented in this work can provide a reference for other, more in-depth, studies on the multimodal traffic travel of low-mobility individuals in the future.