An evolutionary model of urban bus transport network based on B-space

In this paper, an evolutionary model of bus transport network in B-space is developed. It includes the effect of the overlapping ratio of new route on network performance and overcomes the disadvantage, i.e. lack of economic consideration, in the evolutionary bus transport network model in P-space proposed by Chen et al （2007）. The degree distribution functions are derived by using the mean-field method and the master equation method, separately. The relationship between the new stop ratio of a route, λ, and the error in exponential of degree distribution function from the mean-field method is developed as ASlope= λ/（1 -λ） ＋ ln（1-λ）. Finally, the bus transport networks of Hangzhou and Nanjing are simulated by using this model, and the results show that some characteristic index values of the simulated networks are closer to the empirical data than those from Chen＇s model.

Empirical investigation of topological and weighted properties of a bus transport network from China

Many bus transport networks （BTNs） have evolved into directed networks. A new representation model for BTNs is proposed, called directed-space P. The bus transport network of Harbin （BTN-H） is described as a directed and weighted complex network by the proposed representation model and by giving each node weights. The topological and weighted properties are revealed in detail. In-degree and out-degree distributions, in-weight and out-weight distributions are presented as an exponential law, respectively. There is a strong relation between in-weight and in-degree （also between out-weight and out-degree）, which can be fitted by a power function. Degree-degree and weight-weight correlations are investigated to reveal that BTN-H has a disassortative behavior as the nodes have relatively high degree （or weight）. The disparity distributions of out-degree and in-degree follow an approximate power-law. Besides, the node degree shows a near linear increase with the number of routes that connect to the corresponding station. These properties revealed in this paper can help public transport planners to analyze the status quo of the BTN in nature.

Optimization of Correspondence Times in Bus Network Zones, Modeling and Resolution by the Multi-agent Approach

Urban transportation,especially bus transportation,is an important sign of development in every city in the world.The average waiting time for passengers at correspondence stations of buses is one of the most important measures of effectiveness of bus transportation.To the best of our knowledge,the studies in the literature are about maximizing the number of synchronizations in those correspondence stations whose objective is to minimize the waiting time in the network.The classical definition of synchronization used in the literature related to a time window.In this work,we introduce a new definition of synchronization of two buses in network zones.Within this context,we present a mathematical formulation of the synchronization bus timetabling problem as a multi-objective program,where we use the new meaning for synchronization of two buses in the network zones.Since the problem is NP-hard,we adapt a multi-agent approach to solve it.Numerical experiments show that after adapting the multi-agent approach using our proposed definition,we obtain high-quality solutions compared to the classical definition.

Timetable optimization for single bus line based on hybrid vehicle size model

This study proposes a flexible timetable optimization method based on hybrid vehicle size model to tackle the bus demand fluctuations in transit operation. Three different models for hybrid vehicle, large vehicle and small vehicle are built in this study, respectively. With the operation data of Shanghai Transit Route 55 at peak and off-peak hours, a heuristic algorithm was proposed to solve the problem. The results indicate that the hybrid vehicle size model excels the other two modes both in the total time and total cost. The study verifies the rationality of the strategy of hybrid vehicle size model and highlights the importance of the adaptive vehicle size in dealing with the bus demand fluctuation. The main innovation of the study is that unlike traditional timetables, the arrangement of the scheduling interval and the corresponding bus type or size are both involved in the timetable of hybrid vehicle size bus mode, which will be more effective to solve the problem of passenger demand fluctuation. Findings from this research would provide a new perspective to improve the level of regular bus service.