A Robust Method for Bus Scheduling and Passenger Flow Coordination Considering Arterial Signal Coordination Under Connected Environment

Journal article, 2025

Urban public transportation is a complex and open system integral to urban mobility. Its operation is often disrupted by various random factors, necessitating robust scheduling solutions. This study develops a bus robust scheduling model based on mixed-integer linear programming to enhance system resilience. First, an arterial signal coordination model is proposed for mixed traffic environments, enabling autonomous public transport vehicles to traverse intersections without stopping. Second, a demand-deterministic bus scheduling model is constructed, integrating timetables, trajectories, and origin-destination transfer schemes to balance passenger waiting time fairness and efficiency. Third, to address stochastic passenger demand during actual operations, a robust bus scheduling model is developed by incorporating robust constraints. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the demand-deterministic model generates optimal scheduling schemes when passenger demand remains within bus capacity. However, when passenger demand exceeds capacity, the demand-deterministic model becomes infeasible. In such scenarios, the robust scheduling model produces feasible schemes, albeit with reduced optimization, and its robustness can be tuned by adjusting model parameters. Additionally, practical management insights are provided for real-world applications.