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.