The on-demand transit concept developed to provide a solution for those individual who live or work in urban areas under served or not served at all by transit. The first conceptual diagrams were first published in the Vision for a New American Dream book in 1993. It generated from the basic five minute walk circle, utilized as the basic DNA of planning, superimposed on under served urban areas. The question was, “if the typical ideal neighborhood is confined within a five minute walking distance and people will walk five minutes to a center, what happens if they want to go to another neighborhood or to an adjacent city center or to a line haul transit station beyond a five minute walk?” Beyond the five minute walk, they will automatically default to a car. If a car is not available, then a fixed line bus is the logical alternative which many times is unreliable and beyond walking distance. Can an alternative be provided that is as convenient, on demand, inexpensive and less polluting? The on-demand transit was the resulting system. We currently exist in a very auto-dependent culture, which relies on a constant flow of cheap energy; more traffic lanes and an ever demanding supple of parking. The on-demand transit provides a convenient, affordable, comfortable alternative to the car for local and sub-regional trips less than 25 minutes. It is a cross between a cab and a jitney with an optimum known wait. A fleet of small buses or vans, when called, travels from numbered pedestrian oriented walking distances circles, between two and five minutes. Major employers and major retail commercial centers have their own stop directly at their entrance. The system employs on-board computer GPS and wireless technology linked to a central computer-call center. The client simply has to call into the system’s main number and informs it as to the rider’s current location (circle) and which location circle he or she wished to travel. The computer then locates the closest bus with available space, and informs the caller as to the time the bus will arrive at the requested point. This is a complex algorithm that calculate the pick up and drop off of all passengers currently on the bus, the time to the callers location and their destination and then informs them as to how many minutes it will take to get to the pick up point, and how much time to their destination, along with the cost.
This on-demand system of transit can be available 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Once established, it is expected to generate significant revenues. The images, powerpoint and the movie provides a greater description of the system.
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