Comparison and selection of feeder transit between flex-route transit and fixed-route transit

Due to the fluctuating travel demand in the suburban area operators are unable to provide high-quality feeder transit by the fixed-route transit. To solve this problem, the idea of using flex-route transit instead of fixed-route transit as feeder transit is presented to provide the higher travel convenience in suburban area. First, to ensure the service level, the rejection rate and the ratio of travel time to direct time are used to constrain the flex-route transit. Then, the average travel time of passengers is used to represent the service quality of public transportation, and the comparison model between two transits as feeder transit is established. Finally, community in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province is selected as a case study. The results show that, for Chunhua community, flex-route feeder transit can better serve residents' travel, as long as the expectation of service quality improvement is not too high, the travel demand is smaller than 30 passengers/h and the headway is smaller than 30 min.