Abstract: Residents often have difficulty in shuttling between home and the interchange stations. To address this “last mile problem,” this study examines flexible shuttle transit route planning. Further, the passenger satisfaction was quantified by establishing a function to ensure the service quality of the shuttle transit. Given the influence of combined dispatching in case of various vehicle types on the routing optimization of shuttle transit, a collaborative optimization model was established for flexible shuttle transit routing. In accordance with the given demands and fleet size, this model aims at minimizing the business operating cost and maximizing the average passenger satisfaction using the genetic algorithm. The results denote that the optimal fitness value in case of multi-vehicle scheduling is better when compared with that observed in case of a single vehicle type, indicating the feasibility of the model in routing optimization.

Key words: flexible shuttle transit, routing optimization, business operating cost, passenger satisfaction, genetic algorithm