Solving school bus routing problem using genetic algorithm-based model

School Bus Routing Problem is an optimization problem which falls under the class of the Vehicle Routing Problem. It involves the use of a fleet of vehicles to efficiently and optimally transport students to and from their schools. To solve this problem, optimal school bus routes are found by minimizing the number of buses, the number of routes and the total distance traversed along all routes. Manual routing of school buses have led to creation of many routes, increased number of buses and several buses navigating the same route, thereby incurring more cost. One of such methods used in solving school bus routing problems is meta-heuristic method which has proven better results in terms of optimal solution and reduced time complexity. In this study, Genetic algorithm is utilized to solve the school bus routing problem because of its simplicity and ability to generate many possible solutions. The algorithm is implemented in C# programming language and tested using secondary data obtained from Ondo State Free-School Bus Shuttle Scheme, Akure, Nigeria. The result shows that of all four nodes (bus stops) used in performance evaluation, Alakure to Oke-Aro junction bus stop presents as the best route which covers a total of 69 nodes with a total distance of 34.5km. This shows that there can be less number of buses in use and reduced number of routes in which the buses are assigned.