Design of Passenger Transport Modes between Cities with Environmental Sustainability

The coordination of passenger transport modes between cities is related to the efficiency and environmental sustainability of modern transportation system. This paper studies the configuration of passenger transport modes between cities of metropolitan areas with the aim of improving the environmental friendliness of transportation system and helping the related investment decision-making for governments and suppliers. Based on the influence factors of transport mode design in metropolitan areas and the thought of transportation sustainability, a multi-objective decision-making model is set up. The objectives are the balance between transport supply and demand, the maximization of travelers' comprehensive utility, and the minimization of energy consumption. The constraints are total capacity control, travel time request, financial limits, and environmental pollution control. All the objectives and constraints are quantified, and the parameter calibration methods and the solution algorithm are given. A case of Changchun metropolitan area is presented to verify the operability and practicability. The application results show that the designed configuration model can assist city pairs of metropolitan areas in finding out the reasonable structure of transport modes. It can realize the coordination of passenger transport system in metropolitan areas with high efficiency and resource utilization.