Alternatives for reliable trip planning

Abstract

Increased integration of positioning and wireless technologies in transit vehicle telematics enhances the availability of real-time updates and also provides large histories of vehicle locations which can be analyzed for probable wait or travel times. However, trip-planning applications are limited by their ability to use different types of transit-related data that are available and hence are unable to offer reliable plans. Techniques in trip planning are rather limited in their use of either frequency-based or scheduled-based data. Consequentially, the plans generated are unreliable and often users of transit systems end up with negative perspectives about the transit system. In this paper, we survey advances in trip-planning techniques in multimodal transit systems. Using the example of Mumbai city transit, we highlight the relative strengths of different approaches. We explain variance of travel and waiting time in trip-planning algorithms and the need to combine this with schedule-based trip planning. We highlight challenges in the computation of reliable trip plans in the presence of constraints such as occupancy levels and time-sensitive networks.