Optimization of bus scheduling and bus-berth matching at curbside stops under connected vehicle environment

Abstract: It is commonly seen that buses are blocked by the ones in front serving passengers and have to queue outside a curbside bus stop although there are vacant berths at the stop. The resultant bus delays degrade the service level of urban public transportation. A potential solution is to reschedule the arrivals of the buses at the stop for full utilization of the berths with the aid of connected vehicle technologies. This study proposes a mixed-integer linear programming model to optimize the scheduling of bus arrivals and the bus-berth matching at a curbside stop under connected vehicle environment. The objective is the minimization of the bus delays weighted by the number of passengers on the buses. Bus arrival times at the stop and the assignment of berths are optimized together with bus departure times from the stop. Bus punctuality is also taken into consideration. The proposed model could be applied dynamically to cater to time-varying traffic conditions. Numerical studies validate the advantages of the proposed model over the first-come-first-service strategy and the relaxed model without bus punctuality in terms of weighted bus delays and bus punctuality. Sensitivity analyses show that: 1) the proposed model is robust to the fluctuation of bus service time; and 2) a smaller number of berths may be preferred on condition that the bus demand does not exceed the stop capacity.