Studying the regularities in public transport vehicle dwell time required for passenger boarding and deboarding

Abstract

The review of the literature devoted to the research of public transport vehicle (PTV) dwell time required for passenger boarding-deboarding at a stop confirms the importance of taking this time into account when modelling passenger transportation. The data about the dwell time were collected in different time periods for different PTVs in various cities and countries. Thus, there is no general model allowing to define the distribution parameters of dwell time variable and answer the question on the regularities in time values. So, the research of the PTV dwell time at the public transport stops in Kharkiv remains actual. Goal. The search of the regularities in transport system performance indicators including PTV dwell time at a stop will allow to apply relevant mathematical methods for the development of the forecast models which are valuable in the field of organization of passenger transportation and servicing. Methodology. The developed methodology to collect data about PTV dwell time at the stops will allow receiving high-quality survey data. The designed survey sheets enable a surveyor to record all needed information and prepare it for processing. The collected data will allow to define the distribution of the PTV dwell time at a stop. Results. The conducted PTV dwell time survey allowed to collect the sufficient amount of data to estimate the distribution of this variable. During the research, it was determined that the empirical dwell time distribution can be well described with the theoretical gamma distribution. The latter distribution appeared to be applicable for all surveyed PTVs. Originality. The defined distribution of the PTV dwell time at a stop for passenger boarding-deboarding allows receiving the results of passenger flows modelling which are more precise compared to the modelling with no dwell time consideration. The use of the dwell time regularities in the procedure of passenger flows assignment results in the increased precision of flow volumes estimation by up to 14.9 % – from 2.28 % to 1.94 %. Practical value. The received results support the fact that the research of PTV dwell time at a stop is actual, and the solution of the task of dwell time distribution estimation will make it possible to improve passenger flows modelling in public transport route systems.