BUS TIMETABLE DESIGN USING ROUTE SEARCH RECORD

Abstract

In the public transit navigator system, the user's search behaviors, such as the requested departure place and destination and what time to move, is recorded as log data. The inputted conditions in the public transit navigator system represent the user's real desire for their movement that is not bound by the current timetable status of public transportations. The purpose of this study is to propose a methodology for designing the timetable of the bus according to the searcher's requests using the log data of “Bus-Net”, which is a public transit navigator system introduced in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. A search by the same searcher was extracted in this study and judged whether or not the movement of each searcher allows a delay with respect to the designated time inputted in the system. Then, this study calculates the loss of time—defined as the difference between the time the searcher wants to go outside and the actual time of bus operation—and develops an algorithm to design a bus timetable to minimize the total required time, adding riding time to loss time. Additionally, using the proposed method, this study shows a timetable of when the number of buses is reduced and clarifies the influence of reducing the number of buses on the user's loss of time.