Joint travel problem in space-time multi-state supernetworks

Joint travel problem (JTP) is an extension of the classic shortest path problem and relevant to shared mobility. A pioneering endeavor via supernetwork framework has been put forward to model two-person JTP. However, it was only addressed in the static context and with the assumption of zero waiting disutility, which resulted in no or weak synchronization among the travelers. This paper proposes a space–time multi-state supernetwork framework to address JTP for conducting one joint activity in the time-dependent context. Space–time synchronization and various choice facets related to joint travel are captured systematically. Two-person JTP is first discussed in a uni-modal transport network, and further extended to incorporate multi-modal and multi-person respectively. Stage-wise recursive formulations are proposed to find the optimal joint paths. It is found that JTP is a variant of Steiner tree problem by reduction and the number of meeting/departing points has no impact on the run-time complexity in space–time multi-state supernetworks