An express mode of urban bus systems

Abstract

This study proposes an express mode of urban bus systems. The new mode features conventional buses serving as a feeder to the express bus system that connects two distant spots with intense demand (e.g. transport hubs). Operated as ground transit service with very few stops, the express bus is designated to run on urban expressways to guarantee a high cruising speed. Scattered around the globe are mostly bus rapid transit (BRT) or express buses that skip stops on conventional transit lines, yet these operational strategies cannot avoid high delays at, for instance, signalized intersections and bus stops. Herein lies a simplified transit corridor model developed to analyze people's travel cost (total travel time) for the express/conventional mode of bus systems. The travel cost in the express mode is proved to be much smaller than the conventional mode in most cases. Furthermore, we study a Hotelling game in this corridor and prove the existence and uniqueness of Nash Equilibrium. Our result shows that it is impractical to achieve the Hotelling Nash Equilibrium (HNE) in conventional bus systems, but not in the proposed express system that would, shown by our model, incentivize the development of commercial centers near express bus terminals. Therefore, we conclude that the express mode could save travel cost and concentrate urban commerce.