Abstract Transit management agencies often pre-allocate a multi-berth stop’s berths to specific bus lines so that passengers can find the right place to wait for their buses. Developing optimal berth allocation plans that minimize the total bus delay is essential for mitigating bus queues at busy multi-berth stops. However, this problem is challenging due to the huge solution space, the high degree of stochasticity in bus queues, and the resulting extremely high computational cost. In this paper, we first propose a simple heuristic method inspired by queueing theory. It is based on the idea that evenly distributing the total traffic intensity (defined as the total bus arrival rate times the mean dwell time) among all the berths would produce a lower bus delay. Numerical results demonstrate that this simple method generated very good berth allocation plans (with optimality gaps < 6 % for no-overtaking and free-overtaking stops) in seconds! It does not rely on time-consuming simulation surrogate models or numerous input data such as the stochastic bus arrival processes and dwell time distributions of each bus line. To further improve the simple heuristic’s performance (especially for limited-overtaking stops), we develop a cluster-based nested partition algorithm that can find a near-optimal plan (e.g., with an optimality gap of < 3 % ) in a much shorter time than a previous algorithm. The algorithm employs the simple heuristic plan as the initial solution. Our methods can be applied to stops with various berth numbers, different proximities to nearby traffic signals, and under diverse bus queueing rules.

    Highlights Devised smart heuristics to optimize line-to-berth allocation, reducing bus delays. Proposed a simple heuristic evenly distributing bus traffic intensity among berths. The simple heuristic offers near-optimal allocation and can be derived in seconds. A cluster-based nested partition algorithm further improves the simple heuristic. Our methods suit stops with varied berth numbers, signal proximities and queue rules.


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    Title :

    Efficient heuristic methods for berth allocation at multi-line, multi-berth curbside bus stops


    Contributors:
    Shen, Minyu (author) / Gu, Weihua (author) / Hu, Sangen (author) / Xiao, Feng (author)


    Publication date :

    2023-07-25




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English






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