Robust passenger itinerary planning using transit AVL data

Abstract

Automatic vehicle location (AVL) data can be used for a variety of operational and planning purposes at a transit agency. One possible application is for passenger itinerary planning, where the passenger seeks to go from an origin to a destination in some "optimal" way. The AVL data give actual vehicle arrival and departure times, which in turn can give more robust itineraries to passengers. A method to determine such robust itineraries is described, and an example of the bus network in Tucson, Arizona (USA) is used to illustrate the method. Advantages of this method over traditional itinerary planning methods are also outlined.