A Methodology for Vehicle Routing Optimization of Flex-Route Transit with Time Windows

The flex-route transit service (FTS) is one of the most common types of flexible transit services, which generally drives along a base route in general and also provides door-to-door service for passengers by deviation. In order to make FTS more reasonable and practicable, considering the relationship of passenger satisfaction and tolerable service time windows, this paper builds a multi-objective optimal model to optimize vehicle routing of FTS. The objective is to minimize vehicle travel time as well as maximizing passenger satisfaction. By considering passenger service time, passenger numbers, and location of dynamic stations between two checkpoints, design an insertion heuristic, and generate optimal vehicle routing. Finally, simulation experiments are used to validate the presented model. The results of this paper show that our approach ensures vehicles travel along an optimal route, reducing operational delay, and improving service quality.