A Simulation Study of the Vehicle Repositioning Policy with the Minimum and Maximum Service Levels in a Demand Responsive Transit System

Public transportation faces challenges due to the depopulation in rural areas and the increase in unprofitable routes caused by population polarization. Demand responsive transit has emerged to provide flexible public transit services tailored to various demand patterns. In this study, we present the vehicle repositioning policy based on the minimum and maximum service levels. The proposed policy is to adjust the service levels of each station for a prompt reaction to transit requests. To consider system complexity and dynamics, we develop a discrete-event simulation model and comparatively investigate the impact of the vehicle repositioning policy on operational performance. The simulation experiments empirically demonstrate that the suitable setting of the minimum and maximum service levels significantly improves operational efficiency compared to conventional vehicle repositioning policies.