Linear optimization approaches for urban transportation systems

Today, the rapid-increasing population is an important problem for urban transportation. One of the acceptable solutions of this issue is developing public transportation systems. Ultimate goal of a public transportation system is answering public demands while maximizing profit and minimizing costs and time. Within the scope of this thesis, four models have been proposed to improve the number of trips in urban bus transportation in Trabzon city to provide a better and safer service for passengers during the Covid-19 period. Hence, four bus lines starting from Beşirli stop in Trabzon province were examined. The models were created by the Linear Goal Programming method by using the number of passengers, voyage times, total number of vehicles and capacities of the lines. Results of the models were evaluated by comparing them with the actual values. The data used in this study is collected between March 2021 and April 2021 period at which Covid-19 epidemic reaches peak levels. Since passengers are using these lines at morning hours (i.e. 07:00-09:00), passenger load of these lines were obtained by manual counting of passengers in one month period. According to the results of the models, there has been a serious decrease in the number of trips. Hence it is shown that mathematical approaches could help to reduce costs in public transportation even at emergency periods like Covid-19 epidemic.