Inter-School Bus Scheduling Under Stochastic Travel Times

• Published in: Networks and spatial economics Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 1049 - 1074
• Main Authors: Yan, Shangyao, Hsiao, Fei-Yen, Chen, Yi-Chun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-12-2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Algorithms; Civil Engineering; Colleges & universities; Cooperation; Economics; Economics and Finance; Heuristic; Mathematical programming; Operating costs; Operations Research/Decision Theory; Optimization; Planning; Regional/Spatial Science; Schedules; Scheduling; School buses; School busing; Stochastic models; Studies; Travel; Traveling salesman problem; Urban schools; United States > US; Stochastic travel time; Scheduling; Inter-school bus; Network flow; Heuristic
• ISSN: 1566-113X; 1572-9427
• DOI: 10.1007/s11067-014-9280-4

Stochastic disturbances occurring in real world operations could have a significant influence on the planned routing and scheduling results for inter-school buses. An optimal schedule might therefore lose its optimality when applied in actual operations where stochastic disturbances occur. In this study we employ network flow techniques to construct an inter-school bus routing and scheduling model, considering the characteristics of inter-school buses for class attendance, under stochastic travel times. The model is formulated as a special multiple commodity network flow problem which is characterized as NP-hard. To efficiently solve realistically large problems a problem decomposition and variable fixing method, coupled with the use of CPLEX mathematical programming solver, is employed to develop a solution algorithm. Finally, computational tests are performed using data from an allied university system in Taiwan. The test results show that the model and the solution algorithm are good and therefore could be useful for actual operations.