Multiple Depots

[r-barnes]

@nickolasclarke said:

@r-barnes had a few minutes to move filtering to the parser (and control for all types of non-bus routes), and re-run with some different values based on the email convo. I saw a need for only ~1200 buses with this configuration.

I also sat down and read through the bulk of the documentation for salabim. Aside: some of the most clearly written examples I've seen, really easy to follow and remarkably simple). I now have a better grasp on the mechanics. It seems that currently while we are only using a "centralized" charger, that that charger effectively has an unlimited number places to charge, and is only constrained on total energy available correct? Any bus that is out of power and is returned to the depot begins charging, correct?

If so, my thoughts on next before we can hop on a call with the LBL team:

• add a queue for the depot for a limited number of spots to facilitate charging.
• next add multiple depots and give each their own queue. No need to give their own energy resource.
• do some sort of analysis to find common termini (probably sort for frequency of stop_ids?) to determine how many depots to create?

I'm not quite sure how to tackle the spatial placement of these depots in the sim. Currently the buses dont any sense of space in the sim, In our current arrangement, what are your thoughts on how to approach adding this?

[r-barnes]

@nickolasclarke: I wouldn't waste time worrying about queues too much at the moment unless you feel as though including them at this point is essential to shaping the code moving forward. They're a fine-detailing that will add some realism without (probably) impacting the results significantly.

I agree. The depots probably shouldn't need their own energy resource.

At the moment transit costs from the depot to bus stops are estimated and fixed. Pull in actually street grids from OpenStreetMap and using RoutingKit/OpenTripPlanner is a logical step for fixing this. But, since I've used a conservative under-estimates of the actual costs, this won't change what the model is telling us.

Therefore, adding additional depots or thinking about in-route planning is probably a good next step.

The bus table passed to sim.py has latitudes and longitudes for the beginning and ends of routes, so the buses know where they are.

Again, pinning down a set of questions to try to answer will help inform what we do.