A Simulation Optimization Approach to Campus Bus Routing with Diversion

In this paper, a simulation optimization method for campus bus routing, which allows the vehicle divert from its current destination, is given. Vehicle routing that can divert a vehicle away from its fixed route in response to a new customer request is beneficial to campus bus routing for its efficiency in quick response and saving cost especially when the density of customer requests is low. A simulation model was constructed to generate dynamic vehicle routes responded to stochastic requests with the objective to minimize the cost and reduce the passengers' inconvenience. Finally, numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the validity of the proposed model.