Abstract: A travel time estimation system receives trip requests including pair of addresses and a desired time of travel. A processor is programmed to convert the addresses into grid points (Encoded Addresses—EAs) in an array of regularly spaced grid points in a Cartesian Coordinate system. The processor reads a record associated with the EA's to determine a covering grid point (Unique Encoded Address—UEA) associated with each EA, where the associated UEA is located no more than a predetermined maximum distance away from the EA. The processor accesses a second record associated with the pair of UEAs that references a location in a memory that stores estimated travel times between the UEAs at one or more requested trip times. The stored travel time between the UEAs at a time that closest matches the desired time of travel is returned by the processor as the estimated travel time between the addresses provided to the travel time estimation system.

Abstract: A system and method for assigning trip requests to schedules for a fleet of one or more available vehicles in a manner that allows for the comparison of the various possible schedules against a number of global factors. Trip requests are combined into packets and one or more packets that can serve as a root packet or a first packet to be serviced by a partial shift are determined. Schedules are determined for each of the one or more possible root packets. The schedules are ranked according to one or more global factors to select a schedule for the partial shift. By generating combinations of packets that can be assigned to partial shifts, the problem of combinatorial explosion is reduced such that alternative schedules can be compared against one or more quality metrics for the schedule.

Abstract: The technology disclosed relates to a method for demand-response scheduling that resolves the most undesirable issues intrinsic to the paradigm of the prior art, namely constructing schedules by “Trip by Trip Insertion” onto service vehicles called routes. These issues are classified into Customer Service, On-time Performance, and Efficiency categories. The first step of the 2-step process is to globally build packets to patterns in a library that provide good Customer Service, On-time Performance protection, and Positive Ridesharing Efficiency. The packets are “Mini-Manifests” that meet all constraints, and once formed, are locked from modification by any subsequent scheduling action. The second step is to globally build routes by chaining packets together, controlled by configurable heuristic strategy. The routes that are built directly resolve the undesirable issues.

Abstract: The technology disclosed relates to a method for demand-response scheduling that resolves the most undesirable issues intrinsic to the paradigm of the prior art, namely constructing schedules by “Trip by Trip Insertion” onto service vehicles called routes. These issues are classified into Customer Service, On-time Performance, and Efficiency categories. The first step of the 2-step process is to globally build packets to patterns in a library that provide good Customer Service, On-time Performance protection, and Positive Ridesharing Efficiency. The packets are “Mini-Manifests” that meet all constraints, and once formed, are locked from modification by any subsequent scheduling action. The second step is to globally build routes by chaining packets together, controlled by configurable heuristic strategy. The routes that are built directly resolve the undesirable issues.

Abstract: A system for representing predicted travel times between pick-up and drop-off addresses for which routes are to be scheduled. In some embodiments, a computer system defines a disk representing a geographic area surrounding each address having a radius that is selected such that a travel time between any two locations in the area of the disk is within a predetermined time limit. If the travel time from an address to a man-made or natural obstacle that limits travel in the area of the disk is within the predetermined time limit then the radius of the disk is reduced to the distance to the obstacle. A memory stores predicted travel times between addresses encompassed by the geographic areas of different disks.