Bus Route Network Planning in the Arctic Circle
In cities with harsh climates, optimization of transportation networks is especially important and comes with great benefit: better quality of life and lower operating costs. With constant freezing temperatures bringing icy roads, Russian cities beyond the Arctic Circle have staggering transportation demands as their populations continue to grow. In this article, Popova, Gorev, and Solodkij analyze the Russian municipality Norilsk (182,000 people) and show how they planned a new bus route network for its citizens.
To plan an optimal bus route network, a handful of goals are defined: reducing the total time spent in transit, reducing the number and density of routes, and reducing the number of route transfers. Of course, the main goal is to decrease the average travel time for each passenger overall; we can relate this back to the concept of welfare maximization. If passengers value the routes with the least travel time the highest, then a good perfect matching strategy would be to choose routes that, when their values are summed together, give the maximum total value (least total travel time).
Based on these goals and using existing data of passenger traffic flows, a new bus route network for Norilsk was mapped.
In a comparison of the new route network and the old one, Popova et al. found that the number of routes decreased by 48%, while the total length and density of the route network both decreased by 12%. By using networks, significant improvements can be made in every passenger’s life.
Source: Popova, et al. “Bus route network planning in cities beyond the Arctic Circle”, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235214652100702X