Real-time short turning strategy based on passenger choice behavior

This article proposed a real-time short turning strategy based on passenger choice behavior to improve transit service for the stops with larger passenger demand in peak periods. A bi-level model is introduced to integrate the real-time control strategy and passenger choice. The upper-level model is an optimal model with the objective of maximizing the reduced waiting time of passengers with the strategy. The lower-level model is an allocation model to calculate passenger demand accurately. The optimization variables include which buses provide short turning services and the start and end stations of each bus. An algorithm is implemented to solve the problem and the effectiveness of the presented strategy is tested with the data of a transit route in Dalian city of China. The results indicate that the real-time short turning strategy based on passenger choice behavior can yield benefits in term of the reduction of passenger waiting time and even the vehicle capacity up.