Optimized Scheduling Algorithm for On-Demand Transportation Services as Alternative to Personal Vehicles

Changes in the transportation systems in Japan are long overdue, as the country continues to struggle with the aging population and the subsequent lack of workers across countless industries. Although the government recently introduced the “green slow mobility project” in an effort to address such issues, the continuation of these projects is in the hands of the individual municipalities, and the very survival of the compromised communities is at stake. The project aims to provide an environmentally friendly mode of transportation that can be sustained by the members of the targeted communities, so as not to have to hire younger workers who they are already at a shortage of. The difficulty in realizing such ideas lies in the scheduling of the vehicles, as well as in keeping it cost-efficient for both the local government and the users. The system described in this paper, in collaboration with Toyonaka city of Osaka prefecture, optimizes the bus route and schedule based on the passengers’ requests while incorporating a patrolling feature. While the on-demand bus system has been tried in numerous places both within and outside the country using various algorithms, patrolling is a function newly suggested by the local government and has yet to be tested elsewhere.