Influence of Unscheduled Random Public Bus Stops on Transit Travel Time

Abstract

Transit Travel time can affect to a large extent the service reliability, operating cost, and system efficiency. This research paper aims to study the negative impact of the unscheduled random public bus stops on travel time for a particular bus route in Cairo, Egypt. These unscheduled stops became a usual behavior for Cairo Public buses, which affects more than four and a half million daily users of this transportation service inside Cairo. In this study, a comprehensive research plan was designed to collect the data concerning the bus behavior along a selected bus route, using GPS data logger. The data collection included time, location, speed, unscheduled stops, and scheduled stops. The collected data was then used to develop a trip time model. The developed model revealed the delay time due to the unscheduled bus stops and the scheduled bus stops. The analysis of the data also showed that passengers rely much more on the unscheduled random bus stops than the scheduled bus stops. The study concluded that minimizing the unscheduled bus stops will decrease the trip time, and so improve the service reliability to a large degree. 