Urban factors influencing the vehicle speed of public transport

Abstract

A smart and sustainable city views public transport as a policy priority. Tools to support decision-making of municipalities and bus operators are needed. Most of past studies focused on the effect of a single variable on bus travel time, being the most common studied variables the presence of bus lane and traffic signals at intersections. The analysis of the joint impact of several variables are promising, particularly using data that is commonly available to the bus operators. In this view, the present study applied a generalized linear model using bus speed as dependent variable to assess the effects of factors related to time and urban space. Data from four bus lines in the city of Porto operated by STCP (main bus operator) was considered, showing that all the analysed variables have impact on speed. The study findings confirm the relevance of bus lanes and traffic signals as spatial priority schemes. Future developments can be considering to include more variables in the model. Overall, the present study leads to relevant conclusions that can support the decisions of transit agencies and public transport operators. Additionally, the speeds obtained by the model can be used for calibrating simulation models.