Article ID: | iaor20108328 |
Volume: | 209 |
Issue: | 2 |
Start Page Number: | 141 |
End Page Number: | 155 |
Publication Date: | Mar 2011 |
Journal: | European Journal of Operational Research |
Authors: | Szeto W Y, Wu Yongzhong |
Keywords: | transportation: road |
A bus network design problem for Tin Shui Wai, a suburban residential area in Hong Kong, is investigated, which considers the bus services from the origins inside this suburban area to the destinations in the urban areas. The problem aims to improve the existing bus services by reducing the number of transfers and the total travel time of the users. This has been achieved by the proposed integrated solution method which can solve the route design and frequency setting problems simultaneously. In the proposed solution method, a genetic algorithm, which tackles the route design problem, is hybridized with a neighborhood search heuristic, which tackles the frequency setting problem. A new solution representation scheme and specific genetic operators are developed so that the genetic algorithm can search all possible route structures, rather than selecting routes from the predefined set. To avoid premature convergence, a diversity control mechanism is incorporated in the solution method based on a new definition of hamming distance. To illustrate the robustness and quality of solutions obtained, computational experiments are performed based on 1000 perturbed demand matrices. The