Patent ID: 7003398

Claim:
A method comprising: (a) receiving a desired time-of-arrival; (b) selecting one of a plurality of entries of a timetable based on: (i) the current time, (ii) said desired time-of-arrival, and (iii) a non-negative penalty function; wherein each of said entries comprises: (i) a scheduled time-of-departure, and (ii) a value that indicates a scheduled time-of-arrival; and wherein said penalty function is: (i) monotonically increasing in travel time, wherein said travel time equals the difference between an actual time-of-arrival and an actual time-of-departure, (ii) monotonically increasing in Δ=(said actual time-of-arrival minus said desired time-of-arrival) over at least one interval (Δ 1 , Δ 2 ) of Δ wherein Δ 2 >Δ 1 ≧0, and (iii) monotonically decreasing in Δ over at least one interval (Δ 3 , Δ 4 ) of Δ wherein Δ 3 >Δ 4 ≦0 and (c) determining a desired departure time based upon the selected one entry.