Effect of Variable Demand in Bus Rapid Transit Routing

One of increasing demand in transit system is building and operating BRT. Variation in demand can changes the optimal routes in transit network. A transit network optimization, including route structure and fleet optimization, can be based on minimization transit transfer and total user cost and maximizing service coverage, given information on transit demand, transit fleet size, and the street network of the transit service area. Other information like BRT fleet size, and number of BRT line are used for this paper. As a first step in planning an integrated transit network, an estimate of the reduction in total travel time, and demand increasing in BRT is needed. An optimization problem that uses Simulated Annealing and Fast Descent to optimize route structure and headway of transit network is considered. And then a flexibility analysis approach with a heuristic algorithm is considered for time reducing and demand increasing in BRT line. As a result, by solving an integrated transit network by a BRT line, average travel time is reduced for 30% of BRT route time reduction and 20% demand increasing for 3 cases as 1.58, 0.76, 2.92 percents for same fleet and for separate BRT fleet its reduction be 1.04, 1.11, and 2.21 percents.