Abstract
School bus routing problem is widely studied, however, social elements such as the interaction between children traveling on the same route have not been considered so far. In this way, this article has as its main objective to propose a methodology to solve the school bus routing problem, including affinity as a strategy to increase positive interrelationships between children, and with this, support in bullying situations during school trips. The methodology includes two stages, assigning children to vehicles considering affinities and defining vehicle routes. The main contribution is the consideration of affinity in the process of forming the groups of children that will be taken on the bus, evidencing a balance in the affinity of the groups. Additionally, from the methodological point of view, the integration of a modified group technology algorithm and a new assignment model are proposed that simplify the classic quadratic assignment problem. Consideration of affinity in school bus routing generates benefits from a social point of view.
Highlights
The school bus routing has its own set of elements in addition to its complexity as an extension of the problem of vehicle routing that makes it especially unique; this includes the transport of children who socially interact inside the bus and at the bus stops
Social aspects have been minimally studied in the school bus routing problem (SBRP); in this sense, this work proposes the affinity between students as a mechanism to strengthen the positive interactions of children, to encourage supportive behaviors in bullying situations, and to improve the well-being of the children along the route
In the frame of reference, bullying extends beyond school limits, including school transportation, so addressing the problem of affinity between children in the process of school bus routing constitutes a new variant to develop in this knowledge field
Summary
The school bus routing has its own set of elements in addition to its complexity as an extension of the problem of vehicle routing that makes it especially unique; this includes the transport of children who socially interact inside the bus and at the bus stops These interactions are recognized as important to the educational process of the child; they present some difficulties, for example, when some of the children are insensitive to the suffering of their classmates and bullying arises. In Colombia in 2012 (Jiménez, 2018), it was reported that 40 out of 100 students dropped out of school; apparently, the main cause was related to the abuse they received from their classmates Faced with this problem, there are different studies that analyze the efforts of intervention and prevention of bullying in schools (Goodboy et al, 2016).
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