The number of bus stops is a key factor for transit accessibility and system efficiency. Adding more stops along a route will increase coverage of potential riders

but slow down travel speeds

and then decrease system efficiency. The purpose of this study is to identify redundant stops and improve the quality of public transit services. We successfully integrate the tabu search algorithm (TS) and a GIS spatial optimization model called spatial interaction coverage (SIC) model to address this problem. This method can easily identify redundant stops without reducing the interaction between the demand areas and the transit facilities. In addition

a stop coverage ratio index (SCRI) is introduced as one of the indicators to access the attraction of the transit facilities. The proposed method has been tested in a bus route of Dongguan

China. The comparison experiment indicates that TS has better performance than SA especially in the computing time for bus stop selection. We believe that this method can be used as a planning tool to help traffic planners to improve public transit efficiency.