IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jomega/v95y2020ics0305048318305127.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

School bus routing problem: Contemporary trends and research directions

Author

Listed:
  • Ellegood, William A.
  • Solomon, Stanislaus
  • North, Jeremy
  • Campbell, James F.

Abstract

The school bus routing problem (SBRP) is a challenging operations research problem that has been studied by researchers for almost 50 years. SBRP publications address one or more operational sub-problems, including: bus stop selection, bus route generation, bus route scheduling, school bell time adjustment, and strategic transportation policy issues. This paper reviews 64 new SBRP research publications and analyzes them by sub-problem type, problem characteristics and solution approach. The impact of key SBRP characteristics (number of schools, mixed load, fleet mix, service environment, objective and constraints) are discussed and the different solution approaches to the SBRP are summarized by sub-problem type and methodology. We found in recent years, SBRP researchers are examining more complex real-world problem settings, adopting both evolutionary-based and trajectory-based metaheuristic solution approaches, and considering ridership and travel time uncertainty. This review documents recent trends in SBRP research and highlights research gaps and promising opportunities for future SBRP research.

Suggested Citation

  • Ellegood, William A. & Solomon, Stanislaus & North, Jeremy & Campbell, James F., 2020. "School bus routing problem: Contemporary trends and research directions," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:95:y:2020:i:c:s0305048318305127
    DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2019.03.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305048318305127
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.omega.2019.03.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. G. Clarke & J. W. Wright, 1964. "Scheduling of Vehicles from a Central Depot to a Number of Delivery Points," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 568-581, August.
    2. Shichao Sun & Zhengyu Duan & Qi Xu, 2018. "School bus routing problem in the stochastic and time-dependent transportation network," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, August.
    3. Kim, Byung-In & Kim, Seongbae & Park, Junhyuk, 2012. "A school bus scheduling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 218(2), pages 577-585.
    4. Park, Junhyuk & Tae, Hyunchul & Kim, Byung-In, 2012. "A post-improvement procedure for the mixed load school bus routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 217(1), pages 204-213.
    5. Andreas Stenger & Daniele Vigo & Steffen Enz & Michael Schwind, 2013. "An Adaptive Variable Neighborhood Search Algorithm for a Vehicle Routing Problem Arising in Small Package Shipping," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 64-80, February.
    6. Sam R. Thangiah & Adel Fergany & Bryan Wilson & Anthony Pitluga & William Mennell, 2008. "School Bus Routing in Rural School Districts," Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, in: Mark Hickman & Pitu Mirchandani & Stefan Voß (ed.), Computer-aided Systems in Public Transport, pages 209-232, Springer.
    7. Newton, Rita M. & Thomas, Warren H., 1969. "Design of school bus routes by computer," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 75-85, June.
    8. Park, Junhyuk & Kim, Byung-In, 2010. "The school bus routing problem: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(2), pages 311-319, April.
    9. Michael W. Levin & Stephen D. Boyles, 2016. "Practice Summary: Improving Bus Routing for KIPP Charter Schools," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 46(2), pages 196-199, April.
    10. L Y O Li & Z Fu, 2002. "The school bus routing problem: a case study," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 53(5), pages 552-558, May.
    11. Zhang, Jun & Wang, Xuping & Huang, Kai, 2018. "On-line scheduling of order picking and delivery with multiple zones and limited vehicle capacity," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 104-115.
    12. Chapleau, Luc & Ferland, Jacques-A. & Rousseau, Jean-Marc, 1985. "Clustering for routing in densely populated areas," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 48-57, April.
    13. Lawrence D. Bodin & Lon Berman, 1979. "Routing and Scheduling of School Buses by Computer," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(2), pages 113-129, May.
    14. Shafahi, Ali & Wang, Zhongxiang & Haghani, Ali, 2018. "SpeedRoute: Fast, efficient solutions for school bus routing problems," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 117(PA), pages 473-493.
    15. Ellegood, William A. & Campbell, James F. & North, Jeremy, 2015. "Continuous approximation models for mixed load school bus routing," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 182-198.
    16. Xue, Li & Luo, Zhixing & Lim, Andrew, 2016. "Exact approaches for the pickup and delivery problem with loading cost," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 59(PB), pages 131-145.
    17. Hargroves, Bradely T. & Demetsky, Michel J., 1981. "A computer assisted school bus routing strategy: A case study," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 341-345.
    18. Alinaghian, Mahdi & Shokouhi, Nadia, 2018. "Multi-depot multi-compartment vehicle routing problem, solved by a hybrid adaptive large neighborhood search," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 85-99.
    19. Fátima M. Souza Lima & Davi S. D. Pereira & Samuel V. Conceição & Ricardo S. Camargo, 2017. "A multi-objective capacitated rural school bus routing problem with heterogeneous fleet and mixed loads," 4OR, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 359-386, December.
    20. M. Spada & M. Bierlaire & Th. M. Liebling, 2005. "Decision-Aiding Methodology for the School Bus Routing and Scheduling Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(4), pages 477-490, November.
    21. Hernan Caceres & Rajan Batta & Qing He, 2017. "School Bus Routing with Stochastic Demand and Duration Constraints," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 1349-1364, November.
    22. Fügenschuh, Armin, 2009. "Solving a school bus scheduling problem with integer programming," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 193(3), pages 867-884, March.
    23. J Pacheco & R Martí, 2006. "Tabu search for a multi-objective routing problem," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(1), pages 29-37, January.
    24. Ezquerro Eguizábal, Sara & Moura Berodia, José Luis & Ibeas Portilla, Ángel & Benavente Ponce, Juan, 2018. "Optimization model for school transportation design based on economic and social efficiency," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 93-101.
    25. Schittekat, Patrick & Kinable, Joris & Sörensen, Kenneth & Sevaux, Marc & Spieksma, Frits & Springael, Johan, 2013. "A metaheuristic for the school bus routing problem with bus stop selection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(2), pages 518-528.
    26. Chuck Holland & Jack Levis & Ranganath Nuggehalli & Bob Santilli & Jeff Winters, 2017. "UPS Optimizes Delivery Routes," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 8-23, February.
    27. Tang, Shao-Long & Yan, Hong, 2010. "Pre-distribution vs. post-distribution for cross-docking with transshipments," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 192-202, June.
    28. S. Lin & B. W. Kernighan, 1973. "An Effective Heuristic Algorithm for the Traveling-Salesman Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 498-516, April.
    29. Michael Galdi & Paporn Thebpanya, 2016. "Optimizing School Bus Stop Placement in Howard County, Maryland: A GIS-Based Heuristic Approach," International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research (IJAGR), IGI Global, vol. 7(1), pages 30-44, January.
    30. Gavish, B. & Shlifer, E., 1979. "An approach for solving a class of transportation scheduling problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 122-134, March.
    31. R. D. Angel & W. L. Caudle & R. Noonan & A. Whinston, 1972. "Computer-Assisted School Bus Scheduling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(6), pages 279-288, February.
    32. Joaquín Pacheco & Rafael Caballero & Manuel Laguna & Julián Molina, 2013. "Bi-Objective Bus Routing: An Application to School Buses in Rural Areas," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 397-411, August.
    33. Bowerman, Robert & Hall, Brent & Calamai, Paul, 1995. "A multi-objective optimization approach to urban school bus routing: Formulation and solution method," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 107-123, March.
    34. R. Baldacci & M. Dell'Amico & J. Salazar González, 2007. "The Capacitated m -Ring-Star Problem," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 1147-1162, December.
    35. A Corberán & E Fernández & M Laguna & R Martí, 2002. "Heuristic solutions to the problem of routing school buses with multiple objectives," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 53(4), pages 427-435, April.
    36. Xiaopan Chen & Yunfeng Kong & Lanxue Dang & Yane Hou & Xinyue Ye, 2015. "Exact and Metaheuristic Approaches for a Bi-Objective School Bus Scheduling Problem," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-20, July.
    37. Robert A. Russell & Reece B. Morrel, 1986. "Routing Special-Education School Buses," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 16(5), pages 56-64, October.
    38. C Alabas-Uslu, 2008. "A self-tuning heuristic for a multi-objective vehicle routing problem," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(7), pages 988-996, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Herminia I. Calvete & Carmen Galé & José A. Iranzo & Paolo Toth, 2020. "A Partial Allocation Local Search Matheuristic for Solving the School Bus Routing Problem with Bus Stop Selection," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-20, July.
    2. Arslan, Okan, 2021. "The location-or-routing problem," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 1-21.
    3. Herminia I. Calvete & Carmen Galé & José A. Iranzo, 2022. "Approaching the Pareto Front in a Biobjective Bus Route Design Problem Dealing with Routing Cost and Individuals’ Walking Distance by Using a Novel Evolutionary Algorithm," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Ellegood, William A. & Riley, Jason M. & Berg, M. Douglas, 2024. "The many costs of operating school buses in America," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    5. Feng, Rui & Zhang, Jin & Wu, Yuelong & Wu, Ruibo & Yao, Baozhen, 2023. "School accessibility evaluation under mixed-load school bus routing problem strategies," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 75-86.
    6. Olmez, Omer Berk & Gultekin, Ceren & Balcik, Burcu & Ekici, Ali & Özener, Okan Örsan, 2022. "A variable neighborhood search based matheuristic for a waste cooking oil collection network design problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(1), pages 187-202.
    7. MONTENEGRO, Bryan David Galarza & SÖRENSEN, Kenneth & VANSTEENWEGEN, Pieter, 2020. "A demand-responsive feeder service with mandatory and optional, clustered bus-stops," Working Papers 2020006, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ansari, Azadeh & Farrokhvar, Leily & Kamali, Behrooz, 2021. "Integrated student to school assignment and school bus routing problem for special needs students," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. Park, Junhyuk & Kim, Byung-In, 2010. "The school bus routing problem: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(2), pages 311-319, April.
    3. Shafahi, Ali & Wang, Zhongxiang & Haghani, Ali, 2018. "SpeedRoute: Fast, efficient solutions for school bus routing problems," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 117(PA), pages 473-493.
    4. Hernan Caceres & Rajan Batta & Qing He, 2017. "School Bus Routing with Stochastic Demand and Duration Constraints," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(4), pages 1349-1364, November.
    5. Wang, Zhongxiang & Haghani, Ali, 2020. "Column generation-based stochastic school bell time and bus scheduling optimization," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 286(3), pages 1087-1102.
    6. Huasheng Liu & Yuqi Zhao & Jin Li & Yu Li & Xiaowen Li & Sha Yang, 2022. "A Two-Phase, Joint-Commuting Model for Primary and Secondary Schools Considering Parking Sharing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-25, May.
    7. Kuo, Yong-Hong & Leung, Janny M.Y. & Yan, Yimo, 2023. "Public transport for smart cities: Recent innovations and future challenges," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 306(3), pages 1001-1026.
    8. Fátima M. Souza Lima & Davi S. D. Pereira & Samuel V. Conceição & Ricardo S. Camargo, 2017. "A multi-objective capacitated rural school bus routing problem with heterogeneous fleet and mixed loads," 4OR, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 359-386, December.
    9. Dasdemir, Erdi & Testik, Murat Caner & Öztürk, Diclehan Tezcaner & Şakar, Ceren Tuncer & Güleryüz, Güldal & Testik, Özlem Müge, 2022. "A multi-objective open vehicle routing problem with overbooking: Exact and heuristic solution approaches for an employee transportation problem," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    10. Shichao Sun & Zhengyu Duan & Qi Xu, 2018. "School bus routing problem in the stochastic and time-dependent transportation network," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, August.
    11. Banerjee, Dipayan & Smilowitz, Karen, 2019. "Incorporating equity into the school bus scheduling problem," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 228-246.
    12. Liwei Zeng & Sunil Chopra & Karen Smilowitz, 2019. "The Covering Path Problem on a Grid," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(6), pages 1656-1672, November.
    13. Xiaopan Chen & Yunfeng Kong & Lanxue Dang & Yane Hou & Xinyue Ye, 2015. "Exact and Metaheuristic Approaches for a Bi-Objective School Bus Scheduling Problem," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-20, July.
    14. Schittekat, Patrick & Kinable, Joris & Sörensen, Kenneth & Sevaux, Marc & Spieksma, Frits & Springael, Johan, 2013. "A metaheuristic for the school bus routing problem with bus stop selection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(2), pages 518-528.
    15. Ezquerro Eguizábal, Sara & Moura Berodia, José Luis & Ibeas Portilla, Ángel & Benavente Ponce, Juan, 2018. "Optimization model for school transportation design based on economic and social efficiency," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 93-101.
    16. Ellegood, William A. & Riley, Jason M. & Berg, M. Douglas, 2024. "The many costs of operating school buses in America," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    17. Ellegood, William A. & Campbell, James F. & North, Jeremy, 2015. "Continuous approximation models for mixed load school bus routing," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 182-198.
    18. Joaquín Pacheco & Rafael Caballero & Manuel Laguna & Julián Molina, 2013. "Bi-Objective Bus Routing: An Application to School Buses in Rural Areas," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 397-411, August.
    19. Feng, Rui & Zhang, Jin & Wu, Yuelong & Wu, Ruibo & Yao, Baozhen, 2023. "School accessibility evaluation under mixed-load school bus routing problem strategies," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 75-86.
    20. Perugia, Alessandro & Moccia, Luigi & Cordeau, Jean-François & Laporte, Gilbert, 2011. "Designing a home-to-work bus service in a metropolitan area," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1710-1726.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jomega:v:95:y:2020:i:c:s0305048318305127. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/375/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.