School bus routes generator in urban surroundings

Abstract

In this paper, a comprehensive study of the school bus routing problem in an urban surroundings is presented. It complements and extends over previous school bus routing studies. The problem is defined as a multi-stage process where the stops are generated, where the students are assigned to these and where the bus routes are generated. Several suited versions of vehicle routing techniques are analysed and compared. Branch exchange procedures to improve the solutions are also studied. Our numerical experimentation indicates that each problem should be solved several times with different routing techniques, followed by branch exchange procedures, to ensure reliable solutions.