SCDA: School Compatibility Decomposition Algorithm for Solving the Multi-School Bus Routing and Scheduling Problem

TL;DR

This paper introduces SCDA, a novel decomposition algorithm for efficiently solving the multi-school bus routing and scheduling problem by leveraging trip compatibility, leading to significant savings in bus numbers and computation time.

Contribution

The paper presents a new integrated model and a decomposition algorithm that preserves trip compatibility, improving solution efficiency and reducing bus usage compared to previous methods.

Findings

Achieves solutions with the same number of buses as the integrated model in 0.6% of the original time

Saves up to 26% of buses compared to existing research

Reduces computational time significantly while maintaining solution quality

Abstract

Safely serving the school transportation demand with the minimum number of buses is one of the highest financial goals of school transportation directors. To achieve that objective, a good and efficient way to solve the routing and scheduling problem is required. Due to the growth of the computing power, the spotlight has been shed on solving the combined problem of the school bus routing and scheduling problem. We show that an integrated multi-school bus routing and scheduling can be formulated with the help of trip compatibility. A novel decomposition algorithm is proposed to solve the integrated model. The merit of this integrated model and the decomposition method is that with the consideration of the trip compatibility, the interrelationship between the routing and scheduling sub-problems will not be lost in the process of decomposition. Results show the proposed decomposed problem could provide the solutions using the same number of buses as the integrated model in much shorter time (as little as 0.6%) and that the proposed method can save up to 26% number of buses from existing research.