Optimal Micro-Transit Zoning via Clique Generation and Integer Programming

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hu, Hins, Goswami, Rhea, Jiang, Hongyi, Samaranayake, Samitha
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866911154006130688
author Hu, Hins
Goswami, Rhea
Jiang, Hongyi
Samaranayake, Samitha
author_facet Hu, Hins
Goswami, Rhea
Jiang, Hongyi
Samaranayake, Samitha
contents Micro-transit services offer a promising solution to enhance urban mobility and access, particularly by complementing existing public transit. However, effectively designing these services requires determining optimal service zones for these on-demand shuttles, a complex challenge often constrained by operating budgets and transit agency priorities. This paper presents a novel two-phase algorithmic framework for designing optimal micro-transit service zones based on the objective of maximizing served demand. A key innovation is our adaptation of the shareability graph concept from its traditional use in dynamic trip assignment to the distinct challenge of static spatial zoning. We redefine shareability by considering geographical proximity within a specified diameter constraint, rather than trip characteristics. In Phase 1, the framework employs a highly scalable algorithm to generate a comprehensive set of candidate zones. In Phase 2, it formulates the selection of a specified number of zones as a Weighted Maximum Coverage Problem, which can be efficiently solved by an integer programming solver. Evaluations on real-world data from Chattanooga, TN, and synthetic datasets show that our framework outperforms a baseline algorithm, serving 27.03% more demand in practice and up to 49.5% more demand in synthetic settings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_11445
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimal Micro-Transit Zoning via Clique Generation and Integer Programming
Hu, Hins
Goswami, Rhea
Jiang, Hongyi
Samaranayake, Samitha
Optimization and Control
Data Structures and Algorithms
Micro-transit services offer a promising solution to enhance urban mobility and access, particularly by complementing existing public transit. However, effectively designing these services requires determining optimal service zones for these on-demand shuttles, a complex challenge often constrained by operating budgets and transit agency priorities. This paper presents a novel two-phase algorithmic framework for designing optimal micro-transit service zones based on the objective of maximizing served demand. A key innovation is our adaptation of the shareability graph concept from its traditional use in dynamic trip assignment to the distinct challenge of static spatial zoning. We redefine shareability by considering geographical proximity within a specified diameter constraint, rather than trip characteristics. In Phase 1, the framework employs a highly scalable algorithm to generate a comprehensive set of candidate zones. In Phase 2, it formulates the selection of a specified number of zones as a Weighted Maximum Coverage Problem, which can be efficiently solved by an integer programming solver. Evaluations on real-world data from Chattanooga, TN, and synthetic datasets show that our framework outperforms a baseline algorithm, serving 27.03% more demand in practice and up to 49.5% more demand in synthetic settings.
title Optimal Micro-Transit Zoning via Clique Generation and Integer Programming
topic Optimization and Control
Data Structures and Algorithms
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.11445