A cuckoo search based approach to design sustainable transit network

ABSTRACT

Transit Network Design and Frequency Setting Problem (TNDFSP) is considered as a multi-objective optimization problem in which the routes of the transit network are determined while the operational constraints are taken into consideration. In this study, an optimization approach based on cuckoo search (CS) algorithm was proposed to solve this problem. Apart from the development of the optimization algorithm, the model incorporated sustainable design objectives and minimized the weighted sum of operator, user and external costs. Operator cost included the number of buses required to operate in the network and the facilities required to operate electric buses. The user costs consisted of waiting and in-vehicle travel time along with the number of transfers. Moreover, the pollutants emitted by conventional buses were considered as the external (environmental) cost. The results were compared on the basis of Mandl’s network. . Overall, the CS-based approach performed significantly in finding the optimal routes for the public transportation network.

KEYWORDS:

• Cuckoo search-based approach
• metaheuristic approach
• service frequency
• sustainable public transportation
• transit network design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.