Continuous Dynamic Optimization: Impacts on ADA Paratransit Services

Continuous dynamic optimization (CDO), as applied to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) paratransit services, is an automated process by which a scheduling and dispatching technology continuously or frequently considers additional trips just booked, changes to booked trips, cancellations, and day-of-service events to solve problems or to take advantage of opportunities. In view of those changes, the CDO process then re-optimizes the assignment of trips to achieve the transit agency’s desired balance of service/cost efficiency and service quality.

The TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program's TCRP Synthesis 168: Continuous Dynamic Optimization: Impacts on ADA Paratransit Services documents the current use of CDO for ADA paratransit where optimization results in improving the efficiency of the route schedule and the overall productivity of the on-demand service without affecting the customer’s confirmed pickup time window.