Traffic Modeling and College-Bus Routing Using Entropy Maximization

Abstract

A method is presented by which traffic flow estimation between known origins and destinations can be evaluated based on a modified entropy model, and by which bus-routing optimization can be performed. The traffic flow analysis is performed by use of an entropy-based formulation of the vehicular movements of students within the domain under examination, while the perceived level of disorder caused by the numerous vehicle-student-trips in the domain under examination is subsequently used for the formulation of a policy and a bus-routing scheme in order to minimize the original entropy in the system. The entropy metric used in the scheduling optimization is related to the probability of student-trips by origin and destination, and an application of the method is illustrated via a case study of an urban university (with facilities in multiple locations) initiating bus service for its students.