Program Participant

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Name:Jecinta Kamau
TitleCompany:Ph.D. Student, Kyushu University
Country:Japan
Bio:A technology enthusiast interested in Informatics and Information technologies for under-served societies. Jecinta was born and raised in Kenya where she developed keen interested in technologies for the last mile and ICT4D initiatives. Her research interests are in sustainable community mobility sharing to improve access to social services. Currently, she is a Ph.D. candidate in Intelligent Information Systems Engineering at Kyushu University in Fukuoka Japan. She is also concerned with social sustainability from a healthcare perspective and is a member of the Graduate Education and Research Training Program in Decision Science for a Sustainable Society, a leading program at Kyushu University. She holds an M.Sc.Eng. in Information Systems from Kyushu University, Japan and a BSc. in Business Information Technology from Strathmore University, Kenya.
 
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Proceedings

Abstract:ABSTRACT
Low population areas and low income people often face unreliable public transport charac- terized by long waiting times. Meanwhile, a private vehicle in the same area, on average, will remain inactive for long periods of time. Recent research in shared mobility systems addresses this situation. Specifically, Demand Responsive Transport, DRT, a transport al- ternative between a bus and taxi, and which has many specification variations, has pioneered provision of an alternative transport solution geared to reach under-served minorities. So- lutions to DRT trip scheduling and costing mechanisms usually include constraints specific to the variation of DRT specifications. We aim to maximize use of a vehicle and we propose a design of a DRT-based Demand Re- sponsive Mobility as a Service, DRMaaS, model that provides centralized management and ICT support in in delivering multiple services in a vehicle. Our design adds time constraints of vehicle schedule to the DRT problem. We also consider cost sharing mechanism. We focus on reducing waiting time and propose a trip scheduling and cost sharing algorithm. We base our approach on a DRT heuristic algorithm. We also consider time windows. We propose a new cost sharing mechanism, based on traditional distance costing techniques but considering, seat capacity, an approach unique to the specifications of our design. A simulation experiment validating the algorithm showed a decreased waiting time, at 2 minutes, from previous research, 14.4 minutes. We developed a web and android applica- tion, running the algorithm, to test the solution in a pilot study in Dhaka, Bangladesh for 4 months. Actual waiting time was estimated at 3 minutes, an improvement from previous DRT heuristic algorithms.
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