Method and Arrangement for Arranging Practical Aspects of a Demand Responsive Transport System

• US 20080270204A1
• Filed: 05/02/2005
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ecolane Finland Oy (National Express Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: Ecolane Finland Oy (National Express Group PLC)
• Inventors: Poykko, Sami, Ruutu, Ville, Salmenkaita, Jukka-Pekka
• Application Number:
  US11/913,346
• Publication Number:
  US 20080270204A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

Records are produced describing how a passenger uses a transport system in relation to other passengers. A transport server (1001) receives (203, 401) an identifier of a requested drop-off point and determines (204, 205, 403, 407) an identifier of a requested pick-up point. It also determines (405, 413, 803) a list of stopping point identifiers, which list includes the identifiers of the requested pick-up and drop-off points and constitutes an itinerary for a transport vehicle. A list of those passengers is determined (804) that have requested transport in the same vehicle. For each passenger on the list of passengers, there is determined (801, 804, 901, 904) which passenger-specific group of legs between stopping points belong to the transport requested by that passenger, and calculated (802, 805, 806, 807, 808, 902, 904, 905, 906, 907) a record that represents the relation between the passenger-specific group of legs and those other groups of legs that are specific to other passengers.

Claims

1. A method for producing and maintaining a record describing how a passenger uses a transport system in relation to how other passengers use the transport system, characterised in that it comprises the steps of:

receiving (203, 401) from a terminal device (101) of a passenger an identifier of a requested drop-off point,

determining (204, 205, 403, 407) an identifier of a requested pick-up point from which said passenger wants to be transported to said drop-off point,

determining (405, 413, 803) a list of stopping point identifiers, which list includes the identifiers of said requested pick-up and drop-off points and constitutes an itinerary for a transport vehicle,

determining (804) a list of passengers that have requested transport between stopping points the identifiers of which appear on said list of stopping point identifiers, and

for each passenger on said list of passengers, determining (801, 804, 901, 904) which passenger-specific group of legs between stopping points belong to the transport requested by that passenger and calculating (802, 805, 806, 807, 808, 902, 904, 905, 906, 907) a record that represents the relation between the passenger-specific group of legs and those other groups of legs that are specific to other passengers on said list of passengers.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterised in that the step of calculating

(802, 805, 806, 807, 808, 902, 904, 905, 906, 907) a record involves calculating a relation between a passenger-specific group of legs and those other groups of legs that are specific to other passengers on said list of passengers, and also us-ing information about occupancy of passengers on each leg, and dimensions of legs between stopping points.

3. A method according to claim 2, characterised in that the step of calculating (802, 805, 806, 807, 808, 902, 904, 905, 906, 907) a record involves calculating a Pi value according to the formula

4. A method according to claim 1, characterised in that the step of calculating (802, 805, 806, 807, 808, 902, 904, 905, 906, 907) a record involves calculating a relation between the lengths of a passenger-specific direct route and a group of direct routes specific to other passengers, where direct route means a shortest route between requested pick-up and drop-off points, and also using dimensions of legs between stopping points.

5. A method according to claim 4, characterised in that the step of calculating (802, 805, 806, 807, 808, 902, 904, 905, 906, 907) a record involves calculating a Pi value according to the formula

6. A method according to claim 3, characterised in that the step of calculating (802, 805, 806, 807, 808, 902, 904, 905, 906, 907) a record involves additionally scaling a calculated Pi value with a factor

7. A method according to claim 1, characterised in that at least one of the steps of determining (405, 413, 803) a list of stopping point identifiers and deter-mining (804) a list of passengers involves applying a window (704), which limits consideration to only those stopping points that fulfil at least one of the following criteria:

they appear on said itinerary (701) at or between the pick-up (702) and drop-off (703) points requested by that passenger for which a record is currently to be calculated

they appear on said itinerary at most p legs earlier (706) than the pick-up point (702) requested by that passenger for which a record is currently to be calculated, where p is a system parameter

they appear on said itinerary at most f legs later (705) than the drop-off point (703) requested by that passenger for which a record is currently to be calculated, where f is a system parameter.

8. A method according to claim 7, characterised in that the step of determining (804) a list of passengers comprises one of the following:

only taking those passengers onto the list that have a requested pick-up point within the window (704)

only taking those passengers onto the list that have a requested drop-off point within the window (704)

only taking those passengers onto the list that have a requested pick-up point or a requested drop-off point within the window (704)

only taking those passengers onto the list that have a requested pick-up point and a requested drop-off point within the window (704).

9. A method according to claim 1, characterised in that in respect of a certain passenger it comprises:

first calculating (808) a preliminary record that represents the relation between the passenger-specific group of legs and those other groups of legs that are specific to such other passengers that were known to be on said list of passengers at the time (801) of receiving an identifier of a requested drop-off point from the terminal device of said certain passenger and

later calculating (907) a confirmed record that represents the relation between the passenger-specific group of legs and those other groups of legs that are specific to such other passengers that were known to be on said list of passengers at a time (901) when it is certain that no additional other passengers will appear that should be taken into account.

10. A method according to claim 9, characterised in that it comprises the steps of:

after having calculated (808) a preliminary record, producing (810, 821) a preliminary indication of a fare to be charged from said certain passenger and

after having calculated (907) a confirmed record, producing (909, 912) a con-firmed indication of a fare to be charged from said certain passenger.

11. A method according to claim 10, characterised in that it comprises the steps of:

calculating (911) a difference of said confirmed indication and said preliminary indication and

if said difference is larger than a certain limit, compensating (912) the difference by crediting a user account of said certain passenger.

12. A method according to claim 1, characterised in that the step of determining (204, 205, 403, 407) an identifier of a requested pick-up point involves reading (402) an indicator of the requested pick-up point from a received transport request message that also comprises an indicator of the requested drop-off point.

13. A method according to claim 12, characterised in that it further comprises the steps of:

as a response to receiving a transport request message, requesting and obtaining (403) a location indicator that reveals a current location of a passenger'"'"'s terminal device,

comparing (404) said location indicator to the indicator of the requested pick-up point, and

only if said comparison (404) shows that the current location of the passenger'"'"'s terminal device is the same as the requested pick-up point, proceeding to the step of determining (405) a list of stopping point identifiers.

14. A method according to claim 13, characterised in that if said comparison (404) shows that the current location of the passenger'"'"'s terminal device is not the same as the requested pick-up point, executing the method continues by the steps of:

a) after a certain period of time, requesting and obtaining (403) a new location indicator that reveals a new location of the passenger'"'"'s terminal device, and

b) comparing (404) said location indicator to the indicator of the requested pick-up point, and

c) repeating steps a) and b) until either said comparison (404) shows that the cur-rent location of the passenger'"'"'s terminal device is the same as the requested pick-up point, in which case executing the method proceeds to the step of determining (405) a list of stopping point identifiers, or a predetermined other ending condition is fulfilled (409), in which latter case the execution of the method is aborted (410).

15. A method according to claim 12, characterised in that it further comprises the steps of:

as a response to receiving a transport request message, requesting and obtaining (403) a location indicator that reveals a current location of a passenger'"'"'s terminal device,

comparing (404) said location indicator to the indicator of the requested pick-up point,

proceeding to the step of determining (405, 413) a list of stopping point identifiers,

if said comparison (404) shows that the current location of the passenger'"'"'s terminal device is not the same as the requested pick-up point, additionally executing the steps of;

estimating (412) a time at which the passenger'"'"'s terminal device will be at the requested pick-up point through using a calculated difference between the current location of the passenger'"'"'s terminal device and the requested pick-up point, and

announcing (413) the estimated time to a transport vehicle that is to pick up the passenger at the requested pick-up point.

16. A method according to claim 1, characterised in that the step of determining (204, 205, 403, 407) an identifier of a requested pick-up point involves requesting and obtaining (407) a location indicator that reveals a current location of a passenger'"'"'s terminal device.

17. A method according to claim 16, characterised in that the method further comprises the steps of:

selecting (408) a pick-up point to be a location that in a database of possible locations is closest to the revealed current location of the passenger'"'"'s terminal de-vice and

communicating (405, 406) an indicator of the selected pick-up point to the passenger'"'"'s terminal device and to a transport vehicle that is to pick up the passenger at the selected pick-up point.

18. A method according to claim 1, characterised in that:

the method comprises also a step of determining a requested pick-up time at which said passenger wants to be picked up at said pick-up point,

in case said requested pick-up time is farther ahead in time than a certain limiting time, the method comprises a step of delaying any requesting and obtaining (403) a location indicator that reveals a current location of a passenger'"'"'s terminal device, until the requested pick-up time is closer than said limiting time.

19. A method according to claim 1, characterised in that:

the step of receiving (203, 401) from a terminal device (101) of a passenger an identifier of a requested drop-off point also involves receiving an identifier of a re-quested drop-off time, and

in case said requested drop-off time is, at the time of receiving said identifiers, farther ahead in time than a certain limiting time, the method comprises a step of delaying the determination (204, 205, 403, 407) of an identifier of a requested pick-up point until the requested drop-off time is closer than said limiting time.

20. A method according to claim 19, characterised in that said limiting time is an estimated longest possible time of travelling from any point within a coverage area of the transport system to said requested drop-off point.

21. A method for determining a fare to be paid by a passenger for the use of a transport system that is also used by other passengers, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a terminal device of a passenger an identifier of a requested drop-off point,

determining an identifier of a requested pick-up point from which said passenger wants to be transported to said drop-off point,

determining a list of stopping point identifiers, which list includes the identifiers of said requested pick-up and drop-off points and constitutes an itinerary for a trans-port vehicle,

determining a list of passengers that have requested transport between stopping points the identifiers of which appear on said list of stopping point identifiers,

for each passenger on said list of passengers, determining which passenger-specific group of legs between stopping points belong to the transport requested by that passenger and calculating a record that represents the relation between the passenger-specific group of legs and those other groups of legs that are specific to other passengers on said list of passengers and

determining a fare to be paid by a passenger by multiplying said record with a constant and adding thereto a flat rate independent of transport distance.

22. A method according to claim 21, characterised in that said steps of deter-mining a fare to be paid are applied to certain passengers that do not have a fixed-term subscription to the use of said transport system.

23. An arrangement (1001) for producing and maintaining records that describe how passengers use a transport system in relation to other passengers, characterised in that it comprises:

reception means (1002, 1009) adapted to receive identifiers of requested drop-off points from terminal devices of passengers,

pick-up point determining means (1011, 1012, 1013) adapted to determine an identifier of a requested pick-up point from which a passenger that has requested a drop-off point wants to be transported to said drop-off point,

stopping point list determining means (1007, 1013) adapted to determine a list of stopping point identifiers, which list includes the identifiers of requested pick-up and drop-off points and constitutes an itinerary for a transport vehicle,

passenger list determining means (1005, 1007, 1013) adapted to determine a list of passengers that have requested transport between stopping points the identifiers of which appear on a determined stopping point list, and

means (1013, 1014) for determining, for each passenger on a certain list of passengers, which passenger-specific group of legs between stopping points belong to the transport requested by each passenger and calculating a record that represents the relation between the passenger-specific group of legs and those other groups of legs that are specific to other passengers on said list of passengers.

24. A computer program product for producing and maintaining records that de-scribe how passengers use a transport system in relation to other passengers, characterised in that it comprises:

computer code means (1102) adapted to receive and handle identifiers of re-quested drop-off points from terminal devices of passengers,

computer code means (1102) adapted to determine an identifier of a requested pick-up point from which a passenger that has requested a drop-off point wants to be transported to said drop-off point,

computer code means (1103) adapted to determine a list of stopping point identifiers, which list includes the identifiers of requested pick-up and drop-off points and constitutes an itinerary for a transport vehicle,

computer code means (1103, 1104) adapted to determine a list of passengers that have requested transport between stopping points the identifiers of which appear on a determined stopping point list, and

computer code means (1104) for determining, for each passenger on a certain list of passengers, which passenger-specific group of legs between stopping points belong to the transport requested by each passenger and calculating a re-cord that represents the relation between the passenger-specific group of legs and those other groups of legs that are specific to other passengers on said list of passengers.