Joint Optimization of Running Route and Scheduling for the Mixed Demand Responsive Feeder Transit With Time-Dependent Travel Times

As an emerging urban public transport mode, responsive feeder transit system is flexible and can offer door-to-door services between new districts at margins with low urban transit coverage and trunk bus station. In this study, a joint optimization of running route and scheduling for responsive feeder transit under mixed demand (i.e., reservation and real-time demands) of the time-dependent road network was investigated. A two-stage optimization method was designed together with considering the mixed demands. At the first stage, the initial running route and scheduling were determined according to all reservation demands. At the second stage, the running route and scheduling were continuously optimized based on the real-time demands. The real-time demand responsive strategy, which is built up by using quantitative batch treatment rather than immediate treatment and dynamic route updating strategy for global optimization, were designed by utilizing the submission order of real-time demands. A joint optimization model of running route and scheduling was constructed based on the quantitative batch decision points in the time-dependent road network together with combination of the actual road network. In this model, the minimum total system cost was used, which is composed of the vehicle running costs and passengers’ traveling time costs with constraints including vehicle capacity, passengers’ time window, and vehicle running time. A solving algorithm based on the adaptive genetic algorithm was designed by considering the characteristics of the joint optimization model.