A Method for the Optimized Placement of Bus Stops Based on Voronoi Diagrams

Abstract

In this paper a new method for placing bus stops is presented. The method is suitable for permanently installed new bus stops and temporarily chosen collection points for call busses as well. Moreover, our implementation of the Voronoi algorithm chooses new locations for bus stops in such a way that more bus stops are set in densely populated areas and less in less populated areas. To achieve this goal, a corresponding weighting is applied to each possible placement point, based on the number of inhabitants around this point and the points of interest, such as medical centers and department stores around this point. Using the area of Roding, a small town in Bavaria, for a case study, we show that our method is especially suitable for for rural areas, where there are few multi-family houses or apartment blocks and the area is not densely populated.