A Two-Phase, Joint-Commuting Model for Primary and Secondary Schools Considering Parking Sharing

In light of the traffic congestion and traffic environment problems around schools that are caused by students commuting by car, this paper explores an efficient and feasible student commuting travel plan. Based on the ideas of “public–private cooperation” and “parking sharing”, combined with the characteristics of the family travel chain during the commuting period, a joint-commuting model of “private car and school bus” is creatively proposed. On the basis of considering the travel cost of parents and the operating cost of school bus, a two-phase commuting travel model for primary and secondary schools is proposed, and an algorithm is designed. The validity of the model is verified by an example and sensitivity analysis. The results show that the total time cost can be reduced by 23.33% when the private-car commuting mode is converted to the joint-commuting model. Among the results, we found that the driving time of a private car in the school commuting phase can be reduced by 23.36%, the dwell time can be reduced by 92.29%, and the driving time in the work and home phase can be reduced by 7.44%. Compared with the school-bus commuting mode, the school-bus time cost of joint commuting can be reduced by 54.88%. In addition, by analyzing the impact of various factors on the objective function and vehicle emissions, it can be seen that staggered commuting to school, regulating regional traffic volume, increasing parking spaces, and improving the utilization of parking spaces can effectively reduce the operating time cost of vehicles and exhaust emissions. The joint-commuting model proposed in this paper considers the balance between service level and resource consumption. While meeting the door-to-door travel needs of students, it can effectively reduce the travel costs of parents and school-bus operation costs, and it can alleviate traffic congestion around schools and reduce the impact on the environment.