Two-Level Planning of Customized Bus Routes Based on Uncertainty Theory

The optimization problem of customized bus routes is affected by uncertain factors in reality; therefore, this paper introduces uncertainty theory to study the above problem. A two-level planning model that takes the maximum total revenue of the bus company as the upper-level goal and the minimum total travel cost of passengers as the lower-level goal is established, using uncertainty theory to study and solve practical problems with uncertain factors. The genetic algorithm is used to solve the model, and the feasibility of the model is verified through a case study. The research results show that the application of the two-level model of customized bus route planning based on uncertain vehicle operating time established in this paper to customize bus route planning can take into account the travel needs of passengers and high-quality experiences while also bringing benefits to enterprises and achieving a win–win situation. The research in this article provides theoretical support for the optimization of customized bus routes.

Analysis of Topologic Properties and Road Structure of Tangshan Bus Traffic Network

Tangshan is a city rebuilt after the earthquake. The urban construction was replanned, which directly designed the road structure. Therefore, this paper analyzes Tangshan bus network from two aspects of topologic properties and road structure. After analyzing the data of Tangshan bus network, this paper proposes an analysis method based on complex network theory for Tangshan bus network. This paper first established Tangshan bus line Space-L network model, and obtained node degree, node strength, bearing pressure, and clustering coefficient in the model. And then established transfer Space-P network model, with topologic properties, such as node degree, average distance, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality obtained. In order to distinguish different districts precisely, the bus stops in different districts are marked with different colors in Tangshan bus model figure. Finally, spatial bus road structure is studied for Tangshan including Fengnan district. And according to the analysis results, some feasible suggestions are given. The results of this study may provide reference and guidance for researchers on Tangshan bus route planning and design

Multiperspective Bus Route Planning in a Stackelberg Game Framework

Bus route planning is a challenging task due to multiple perspective interactions among passengers, service providers, and government agencies. This paper presents a multidimensional Stackelberg-game-based framework and mathematical model to best trade off the decisions of multiple stakeholders that previous literature rarely captures, i.e., governments, service providers, and passengers, in planning a new bus route or adjusting an existing one. The proposed model features a bilevel structure with the upper level reflecting the perspective of government agencies in subsidy allocation and the lower level representing the decisions of service providers in dispatching frequency and bus fleet size design. The bilevel model is framed as a Stackelberg game where government agencies take the role of “leader” and service providers take the role of “follower” with social costs and profits set as payoffs, respectively. This Stackelberg-game-based framework can reflect the decision sequence of both participants as well as their competition or collaboration relationship in planning a bus route. The impact of such decisions on the mode and route choices of passengers is captured by a Nested Logit model. A partition-based bisection algorithm is developed to solve the proposed model. Results from a case study in Shanghai validate the effectiveness and performance of the proposed model and algorithm.