Flow direction based route optimization in public transport

One of the most effective ways to solve traffic problems is to encourage the use of public transport. This means that public transport routes need to be well designed. Optimization is one of the most useful tools that can be used to identify public transport routes. Mathematically, the optimal route design problem involves discrete functions. Therefore, meta-heuristic optimization methods are practical tools for this problem. For multiple route optimization, the unmodified versions of meta-heuristic optimization methods may not perform very well, especially for large-scale problems. Hence, early convergence can be observed in the solution, and unrealistic route designs can be obtained. The primary purpose of this study is to obtain optimum public transport routes that will provide maximum benefit for public transport users. For the purpose, a hybrid method has been developed to determine the optimum public transportation routes and a new method named by the flow direction method to measure utility for all the passengers. In the hybrid model, the flow direction method is used together with the genetic algorithm which is a well-known meta-heuristic optimization method. The developed hybrid model was applied to the bus lines belonging to Istanbul city which is one of the metropolitan cities of our country. Route directions, routes optimized with a genetic algorithm, routes optimized with developed hybrid algorithm are evaluated and compared. As a result, it is seen that the developed hybrid method produces better results than both genetic algorithm and current routes.