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The core of efficient on-demand ride-pooling lies in solving the Ride-Pool Matching Problem (RMP), which involves assigning multiple customer requests to single vehicles under various service constraints (e.g., pickup windows, detour allowances, and vehicle occupancy). A significant missed opportunity in most current RMP approaches is the assumption that passengers must be picked up and dropped off exactly at their requested locations. Allowing passengers to walk even short distances to meet vehicles could unlock substantial improvements in ride-pooling operations.
Building upon the limitations of existing Ride-Pool Matching Problem (RMP) solutions that neglect passenger walkability, this paper introduces a novel matching method that strategically incorporates flexible pickup and drop-off locations. Our approach simultaneously determines the optimal assignment of vehicles to requests (one vehicle to potentially multiple requests and each request to at most one vehicle), identifies advantageous meeting points for passengers, and plans efficient vehicle routes. This comprehensive optimization respects all service constraints and considers the long-term implications of routing decisions. To achieve this integrated solution, we first employ a tree-based approach to enumerate all feasible pairings between passengers and vehicles. Subsequently, we calculate an optimal route for each of these feasible matches. Finally, we evaluate the quality of all possible assignments and select the most advantageous matching for implementation.
In our experimental evaluation on city-scale taxi datasets, we demonstrate that our method improves the number of served requests by up to 13\% and reduces the average vehicle travel distance by up to 21\%. By serving more passengers with less driving distance, our approach achieves greater efficiency in a more sustainable manner — using fewer resources to deliver better service and creating a win-win outcome for all stakeholders, including customers, drivers, the aggregator, and the environment.
