Carpooling scheme selection for taxi carpooling passengers: a multi-objective model and optimisation algorithm

Abstract

Carpooling has been long deemed a promising approach to better utilizing existing transportation infrastructure, the carpooling system can alleviate the problems of traffic congestion and environmental pollution effectively in big cities. However, algorithmic and technical barriers inhibit the development of taxi carpooling, and it is still not the preferred mode of commute. In order to improve carpooling efficiency in urban, a taxi carpooling scheme based on multi-objective model and optimisation algorithm is presented. In this paper, urban traffic road network nodes were constructed from the perspective of passenger carpooling. A multi-objective taxi carpooling scheme selection model was built based on an analysis of the main influences of carpooling schemes on passengers. This model aimed to minimise get-on-and-get-off distance, carpooling waiting time and arriving at the destination. Furthermore, a two-phase algorithm was used to solve this model. A rapid searching algorithm for feasible routes was established, and the weight vector was assigned by introducing information entropy to obtain satisfying routes. The algorithm is applied to the urban road, the Simulation experimental result indicates that the optimisation method presented in this study is effective in taxi carpooling passengers.

Keywords

• traffic engineering
• taxi carpooling
• multi-objective optimisation
• information entropy