An Empirical Exploration of Bus Travel Times and Dwell Times in a Highly Competitive Exclusive Busway

Abstract

Busway transit has reemerged as a cost-effective transportation alternative for providing urban mobility. This article examines the operational characteristics of an exclusive busway system with high passenger ridership and subject to the competitive forces of individual operators. Results of a running time model suggest that the increase in running time associated with an additional passenger movement is low but that the delay imposed by recurrent vehicle deceleration and acceleration related to frequent stops is high. Frequent vehicle stops reduce fuel efficiency, increase pollution, reduce travel time, and decrease productivity. Results of several specifications of dwell-time regression models indicate that established models tend to yield biased coefficients for boarding and alighting passenger movements. These model results also confirm that the dwell-time delay associated with an additional passenger movement is very low in Bogotá’s busway even though average dwell time per passenger tends to be high. It follows, therefore, that organizing passenger boarding and alighting operations and consolidating passenger activity points promise to be effective strategies for improving operations. More broadly, the findings indicate that under a deregulated operating environment, a regulatory framework that includes monitoring operations and enforcing designated stop locations remains important for efficient busway operations.