Advanced modeling approach for computing multicriteria shortest paths in multimodal transportation networks

Nowadays, the human mobility always happens in a multimodal transportation network. However, the transport system has become more complex. Therefore, building Advanced Travelers Information Systems (ATIS) that provide passengers with pre-trip information on navigating through the network has become a certain need. Since passengers do not only seek a short-time travel but they endeavor to optimize several criteria such as comfort and effort, an efficient routing system should incorporate a multiobjective analysis for both routes and transport modes. We aim in this paper at proposing a new formulation for representing a multimodal network. Based on this formulation, we develop a routing algorithm to compute the entire set of nondominated solutions to go from one place to another. As transport modes, we use railway, Bus, Tram, Metro, Pedestrian, Road and Bike. As optimization criteria, we use travel time, number of changes and walking time. Experimental results have been assessed by solving real life itinerary problems defined on the transport network of the city of Paris and its suburbs. Results indicate that the proposed approach is efficient enough to be integrated within a real world journey-planning system.