Seating Provision and Configuration of a 12m City Bus Considering Passenger Crowding

Abstract

Seating capacity of a limited area significantly affects passenger crowding on a 12 m city bus, which is the main type of buses for public transport in China. This study aimed to provide an optimal solution for the seating capacity to adapt the passenger flow during operational periods. The study claimed that the seating capacity was defined by an overall crowding effect considering both the standees and seated passengers, whose demands for seat supply are different. It investigated the projected area of the seated passengers on board, defined the criteria regarding whether the current trip was a peak shift, and proposed a passenger crowding index for optimizing the seating capacity during two operational periods. It not only provided a recommended table between actual seating capacity and intensity coefficient varying along the two periods, but also discussed the number of 12 m buses with different seating capacities allocated to the bus line. It demonstrated the feasibility of the passenger crowding index through a case study and compared the effects of three main seat configurations existing on the 12 m city bus. It displayed that a seat capacity preferably ranged from 21 to 43 while only one seat configuration was allowed by the public transport enterprises.