Method and system for adjusting a demand-response transit schedule

1. A method for adjusting a demand-response transit schedule, comprising:

reviewing by a computer processor executing computer readable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium a demand-response transit schedule during performance of said demand-response transit schedule;

detecting by said computer processor that said demand-response transit schedule may need to be adjusted by determining how said demand-response transit schedule fits received trips requests for a time period covered by said demand-response transit schedule wherein the determining comprises:

calculating by said computer processor one or more scores for said demand-response transit schedule; and

assessing by said computer processor if any of said scores exceeds one or more thresholds; and

adjusting by said computer processor said demand-response transit schedule if any of said scores exceed one or more thresholds.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more scores comprise a score for a first run of the demand-response transit schedule and said score is a weighted value of characteristics of said first run.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the one or more thresholds comprise a first bump cost and a first reschedule cost and wherein the adjusting further comprises:

bumping the first run if the score exceeds the first bump cost; and

rescheduling the first run if the score exceeds the first reschedule cost.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the one or more thresholds further comprise one or more schedule violation levels and wherein the adjusting further comprises:

rescheduling the run if the score exceeds one or more schedule violation levels and a solution is found with a second score that is lower than the one or more schedule violation levels; and

bumping the run if the second score is not lower than the one or more schedule violation levels.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said characteristics include at least one of: distance, time, passenger on-board time, back-tracking, and slack time.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein said characteristics include at least one of: arriving early for a trip, arriving late for a trip, exceeding a maximum on-board time for a passenger, hostage time, exceeding a vehicle capacity, and exceeding a seating capacity.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more scores comprise a score for the overall demand-response transit schedule.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said characteristics include at least one of: distance, time, passenger on-board time, back-tracking, slack time, the number of pull-outs.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein said characteristics include at least one of: arriving early for a trip, arriving late for a trip, exceeding a maximum on-board time for a passenger, hostage time, exceeding a vehicle capacity, exceeding a seating capacity.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the adjusting further comprises:

rescheduling or bumping runs from the demand-response transit schedule until the score does not exceed the one or more thresholds.

11. A computer system for adjusting a demand-response transit schedule, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a demand-response transit schedule and computer-executable instructions;

a processor executing said computer-executable instructions; said computer-executable instructions including instructions for reviewing a demand-response transit schedule during performance of said demand-response transit schedule, detecting that said demand-response transit schedule may need to be adjusted by determining how said demand-response transit schedule fits received trips requests hr a time period covered by said demand-response transit schedule wherein the determining comprises:

calculating one or more scores for said demand-response transit schedule; and

assessing if any of said scores exceeds one or more thresholds; and

adjusting said demand-response transit schedule if any of said scores exceed one or more thresholds.

12. The computer system of claim 11 , wherein said processor calculates a score for a said demand-response transit schedule, and determining if said score exceeds a threshold.