A method for optimizing the route structure and scheduling for zonal transit service is developed. It employs calculus or a quasi‐Newton algorithm to minimize a total cost function in which the zonal lengths and headways are the decision variables. Numerical solutions as well as mathematical relations providing general system design guidelines are obtained. A case study demonstrating the method shows that zonal service could reduce total cost by nearly 50%. It is also shown that many near optimal solutions allow considerable flexibility in fitting the route structure to the detailed characteristics of road networks.
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Tsao et al. (1983) studied this question.
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