Feeder transit services: Choosing between fixed and demand responsive policy

The Demand Responsive Connector (DRC) connects a residential area to a major transit network through a transfer point and is one of the most often adopted types of flexible transit services. In this paper, analytical and simulation models are developed to assist planners in the decision making process when having to choose between a demand responsive and a fixed-route operating policy and whether and when to switch from one to the other during the day. The best policy is chosen to maximize the service quality, defined as a weighed sum of customer walking time, waiting time and ride time. Based on the results of one-vehicle operations for various scenarios, we have generated critical customer demands, which represent switching points between the competing service policies. Our findings show that the critical demands are in the range from 10 to 50 customers/mile²/h and that a demand responsive policy is more preferred during afternoon peak hours.