Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In areas where transportation demand is weak, a possible solution to
standard public transport services is represented by DAR services [5, 6].
This is a highly flexible service where the supply of transport is modeled
according to actual transportation needs. In contrast to a standard bus serv-
ice, where times and routes are completely fixed, in the DAR system,
routes and times are recalculated on the basis of the users' requirements.
Each request is received by a coordination/control center, which, based on
the already collected and accepted demands and taking into account the
availability of vehicles and drivers, determines whether the new request
can be satisfied or not, and how to effect it.
It must be noted that all these innovative transportation systems require
solving new challenging and interesting mathematical problems. Models
for car sharing, carpooling and DAR systems have been proposed in the
scientific literature and exact algorithms and efficient heuristic techniques
have been studied.
All these innovative transportation systems require the presence of an
efficient infomobility system that provides traffic and traveler information
based on real-time data and geolocalization of the vehicles in the fleet. The
expression
intelligent transport systems
refers to the set of equipment,
methods, and procedures that allow, through data collection and acquisi-
tion, the processing of data and the dissemination of generated information
to improve the transportation and mobility of people and goods. Vehicles
equipped with specific terminals and
automatic vehicle location
or auto-
mated vehicle monitoring systems can provide up-to-date information on
their position and speed as well information on traffic congestion, delays,
and so on. This information, once properly processed, can be made avail-
able to public transportation managers and local administrators but also to
end users.
Innovative transportation systems and infomobility are enabling tech-
nologies for
smart cities
[7]. The goal is to devise a decision support sys-
tem that will integrate all the heterogeneous information sources concern-
ing traffic and that will create and maintain a market for diversified mobil-
ity services, thus offering “smart services” and provide dynamic realloca-
tion of mobility resources under special traffic conditions, thus offering
“smart alternatives.” This is a great opportunity but also a challenge for the
next decade.
References
1.
De Leone R, Di Girolamo N, Di Muro G, Marchitto E (2008) Pianificazione Program-
mazione e Gestione Innovativa per il Trasporto Pubblico locale. Aracne, Roma
2.
Teal R F (1987) Carpooling: Who, how and why, Transportation Research Part A: Gen-
eral, Volume 21, Issue 3, pp 203-214
Search WWH ::
Custom Search