Seamless door-to-door ridesharing aims to change private car use

Funded by EPSRC and led by Rym M'Hallah, professor of systems engineering at King’s College London, the three-year project will develop a door-to-door ride share service through the development of novel algorithms that optimise routing and scheduling integrated with dynamic pricing.

“This project aims to make DRTS more attractive, flexible, accessible, available - in rural areas - and inclusive,” said Prof M’Hallah. “It will reduce congestion, accident risks, emissions, and pollution-related health issues. It will improve life quality by connecting people at a reasonable fare.”

DRTS aims to overcome the limitations of services such as Dial-a-Ride, which relies on large subsidies from local councils and the Department for Transport, lack route planning flexibility and cannot manage high demand.

To this end, the project will develop a scheduling and routing optimisation algorithm for a fleet of green vehicles that can provide instant accept/reject decisions on journey requests from riders. To do this, the algorithm will anticipate potential future demand and be continuously globally optimising schedules across the fleet in the background.