Automatic bus routing and passenger geocoding with a geographic information system

This paper presents the design and applications of a decision support system developed for bus routing, route sequence mapping and passenger geocoding. The system, built on a geographic information system (GIS), is suitable for municipal transit planning and school bussing. The system consists of six operational modules: (1) the single routing module allows the user to select either street segments or bus stops from a street map to generate optimal routes; (2) the walking-distance maintenance module identifies street segments that are within a user-specified distance from a school; (3) the bus-stop optimization module identifies the optimal sites for locating bus stops based on travel demand; (4) the passenger plotting module reads a file of passenger information, geocodes their addresses, and then plots their locations on the street map; (5) the multiple routing module delineates multiple routes based on information of passengers, bus stop locations, and the bus fleet; and (6) the complex routing module generates multiple routes with multiple destinations for passengers that require special equipment. Additional modules can be programmed using the macro-language programming tool to serve user-specific purposes.