Optimal site layout of highway transportation transit hubs based on matrix determinant method

Transit hubs are the transfer stations for the freight transportation between the inside and outside of a region and among the cities. By seamlessly connecting highway transportation and promoting the construction of highway transportation transit hubs, it could promote the development of the economy of surrounding areas and the logistics industry. Affecting by construction cost, node freight flow scale, transportation cost, and other factors, the highway transportation transit hubs have several uncertainties. With cost as the uncertainty factor, based on the matrix determinant mathematical model, this paper establishes an optimal site layout model with achieving minimal highway network structure total cost as the target. The research results show that the selection of highway transportation transit hubs should comprehensively consider the whole highway distribution network, and the solution of the highway transportation transit hub model consists of the node-type solution and the O-D(Origin-Destination)-type solution. The transit hub site layout model established by using the minimum and maximum error values obtained by the matrix determinant algorithm is robust. When the discount coefficient is 100%, the total cost of the freight transportation network is the largest, that is, when the freight is transported among cities, it is necessary to make full use of the transshipment advantage of the transit hubs and utilize the scale effect of transportation to reduce transportation costs. The study of this paper provides a theoretical basis for the site layout of highway transportation transit hubs.