Performance Enhancement and Congestion Reduction at Busy Signalized at-Grade Intersection with Bus Rapid Transit Corridor and Mixed Traffic in India

Abstract

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has emerged as a solution to traffic problems, especially in developing countries where cost is the major criteria to opt for a transit system. However, provision of BRT in existing right-of-way reduces the capacity available for other traffic. The problem gets severe at intersections. This paper presents the effect if the busway ends at an appropriate before the stop line at busy signalized at-grade intersections, and this space of bus lanes is made available to all traffic (heterogeneous traffic) at the intersection. VISSIM, a simulation tool, has been used to model the heterogeneous traffic and public transit lines under constraints of roadway geometry, vehicle characteristics, Indian driving behavior, and traffic controls. The effect is investigated with different random seeds to obtain reasonable results for analysis. The performance evaluation is done in terms of vehicle throughput; average queue length; maximum queue length; average delay time per vehicle; average speed; emission of carbon monoxide (CO), mono-nitrogen oxides (NOx), and volatile organic compounds (VOC); fuel consumption; and energy consumption. It has been observed that availability of bus lanes to other traffic for a reasonable distance before the intersection considerably reduces the average queue length, maximum queue length, average delay time per vehicle, and emission per vehicle, while there is an increase in vehicle throughput and average speed of all the vehicles. Thus it results in reduction of congestion and performance enhancement of at-grade intersections and networks.