Bus Stop Research Articles

Quantifying the Impact of Alternative Bus Stop Platforms on Vehicle Emissions and Individual Pollution Exposure at Bus Stops.

Due to stop-and-go events, bus stops are often treated as “hot spots” for air pollution. The design of bus stops should be optimized to reduce emissions and exposure for transit commuters. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of bus stop platform types on vehicle emissions and individual pollution exposure. Second-by-second emissions data were first collected from one bus using a portable emission measurement system (PEMS). Microscopic traffic simulation was then used to estimate overall traffic emissions under six scenarios with different bus stop settings. Numerical simulation of pollutant dispersion was also conducted to calculate individual pollution exposure at bus stops. The results of PEMS tests showed no significant differences between bus emissions generated near two different types of stops. However, the effect of platform types on overall traffic emissions was revealed using traffic simulation. The results demonstrated that bus bays reduced the emissions of other heavy-duty vehicles. However, bus bays were not always effective during rush hours. The study also highlighted the importance of the location of bus stops, the number of bus lines, and the length of the platform, in addition to dynamic characteristics of traffic flows in the design of bus stop platforms. Bus stop platforms also affected individuals’ exposure due to the changes in the pollutant flow field. The passenger’s exposure at one bus stop was influenced by both the platform type and standing location. Results suggested that in a condition with a wind direction perpendicular to the bus stop shelter, the total exposure level to CO was lower at the bus bay stop if a passenger stood at the upstream of the station platform. However, the exposure was less at the downstream of the curbside bus stop.

Assessing the impact of the built environment on healthy aging: A gender-oriented Hong Kong study

The built environment is widely perceived as crucial in promoting the public health of older adults. Consequently, recent years have seen substantial efforts to explore linear relationships of the built environment on functional ability, a widely adopted indicator for public health of older adults. However, relevant studies highlighting the non-linear relationships and gender differences of older adults are lacking, posing potential challenges to governments for policymaking of building a sustainable and age-friendly society. Thus, this study aims to investigate non-linear relationships between the built environment (distance to transit, design, destination accessibility, density, and diversity) and functional ability of older adults by employing an ecological model of aging for a sample size of 1112 participants aged 60 and above in a typical aging Chinese society of Hong Kong with a specific emphasis on gender differences. Results reveal that non-linear relationships between the built environment and functional ability of older adults generally exist in both gender groups. However, gender differences are also distinctively found regarding the effects of the built environment on the functional ability of older adults. Males' functional ability has been improved with services (≤ 30), road lengths (≥ 6 km), bus stop (≤ 50), population density (≤ 23,000 person/km2), diverse land-use entropy index (≥ 0.4), shorter distances to the nearest hospital (≤ 1.2 km), and a closer MTR station (≤ 500 m). In comparison, females' functional ability has been improved with specific ranges of road lengths (≤ 4 or ≥ 6 km), services (≤ 30), greenery exposure (0.05 to 0.2 or ≥ 0.25), and distances to the nearest MTR (≤ 800 m). This study provides a valuable reference for various governments to implement targeted gender-based urban planning to facilitate healthy aging.

Proposal of a method for routing school buses in a small-sized county

The School Bus Routing Problem (SBRP) is widely discussed in the operations research literature and can be solved by several exact methods and heuristics. This problem seeks to designate the most efficient routes for a fleet of school buses, minimizing the total distance covered and considering variables such as bus stop locations, number of passengers, and the assigned destination for each of them. This study aims at solving a real case SBRP of a small-sized county located in the state of Paraná. The proposed method is based on the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) and Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) combined with a heuristic correction that guarantees sequence constraints, in which the student has to be collected before visiting their destination school. It was possible to obtain two routes of 30.76 km and 17.42 km respectively and both with the total vehicles’ capacity of 24 students, which corresponds to the reduction of about 10% in the daily distance covered by two buses.

Capability of Intermittent Bus Lane Utilization for Regular Vehicles

Intermittent bus lanes (IBLs) can improve road capacity by allowing other regular vehicles to drive in the idle space of a dedicated bus lane. However, excessive vehicles in the IBL will cause additional bus delays. To avoid such problems, this study proposes a method to determine the capability of IBL permitted for regular vehicles first, and then use it as the total amount restriction of lane-borrowing vehicles to implement a bus lane control strategy that will improve road capacity and avoid additional bus delays. A model for calculating the capability of IBL is also provided. Vehicles between two buses are designated as potentially lane-borrowing vehicles that could follow the buses to leave the road section. The evolution process of these vehicles in the unit is analyzed using kinematic wave theory to obtain the formed traffic queue length. Using the rear bus trajectory to set the length limit on the traffic queue, the estimated total amount of lane-borrowing vehicles is corrected to establish the final capability of the IBL. The applicability of the method was evaluated from three perspectives: bus departure interval, road traffic saturation, and near-side bus stop. The simulation results showed that the proposed method can guarantee no additional bus delay compared to the situation of a dedicated bus lane. It can also improve road capacity more than traditional IBL under any degree of saturation and bus departure interval. Compared with traditional IBL, the average travel time of regular vehicles is shorter, except when the degree of saturation is high and the bus departure interval is large.

Assessing the Potential of Implementing a Solar-Based Distributed Energy System for a University Using the Campus Bus Stops

Large educational facilities hold great potential for the implementation of solar-based distributed energy systems. The aim of this paper is to present a prototype and an assessment of a solar-based bus shelter photovoltaic system intended to be implemented at a campus scale that serves as an energy-distributed system. The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a campus with an area of 7.3 km2 and bus stops’ roof area availability of around 1100 m2 was selected as a case study. The proposed system, apart from considering on-site generation, also considers an increase in end-use services such as the installation of television screens for information, charging docks, surveillance cameras, internet service, and lighting. For the assessment, a load facility survey and an estimation of the baseline energy use was conducted based on two demand use conditions, corresponding to 12 and 24 h for different archetypical stations. It was found that the baseline annual energy consumption for all the bus stops represents from 55–111 MWh. In this paper, an initial prototype of a solar-based bus shelter PV system is presented, and an assessment is carried out to understand its potential application at a large scale. The analysis shows that energy use in the retrofitted stations would rise to 167 MWh/year; however, apart from covering on-site demand, the system has the capacity to generate an additional 175 MWh, feeding nearby university buildings. It is calculated that the system could save around 130 t CO2e annually. The economic analysis shows that the project has a discounted payback (DPB) of almost 9 years and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 5.9%; however, in scenarios where renewable generation and carbon incentives are applied, this improves the project’s DPB to 6 years and the IRR to 13%.

Traffic Micro-Simulation-Based Evaluation of Bus Priority With Queue Jump Lane on an Urban Corridor With Heterogeneous Traffic Operations

Queue jump lane (QJL) is a space-optimal facility-based priority measure for faster and smoother movements of buses in urban areas. This study presents an approach to identify the optimal configurations of QJL, bus advance area, and pre-signal for signalized intersections along an urban corridor in India with heterogeneous traffic operations. As this needs to be carried out before field implementation, the traffic impacts of different scenarios were evaluated utilizing a validated VISSIM traffic micro-simulation model. A validated EnViVer emission modeler was used to estimate the vehicular exhaust emissions. The QJL-based priority measures were found to be more effective than a dedicated bus lane along the corridor during the peak hour, which justifies their applicability in cities with restricted road spaces and high traffic demands. To identify the suitable combination of bus priority along the corridor, three additional scenarios were evaluated: bus-optimal, car-optimal, and passenger-optimal. While the passenger-optimal scenario yielded the best impact on travel time performances, the car-optimal scenario was more effective in total emissions performance at the expense of reduced travel time impacts. The conflict between traffic and emissions performances emphasizes the need for investigation of long-term mode and route choice indicators with implementation of bus priority to identify the future mode shares and subsequent impacts. The study was further extended to identify optimal bus stop operations for the baseline and priority scenarios based on multiple combinations of near-side and far-side stops.

Online Notice Board System

Digital Notice Board is most important factor in any organization or public utility for the places like bus stop, railway stations, schools, colleges, malls, etc. But sticking multiple notices every day is a irritating process. An person character is wanted to take care of these notices. This mission is about advanced cell board. The task is built around raspberry-pi. Display is obtained on LCD. A wi-fi continuously used for Data transmission. We can add or erase or differ the textual content material in accordance to our need. At transmitter, authorized PC is used for sending notices. At receiving end wi-fi fidelity is linked to raspberry pi. When a licensed consumer sends a message that is to be displayed from his system, it is familiar via way of receiver. Wireless is a popular technology known- that how to approve digital device to alternate information over a pc network, collectively with high speed wireless connections. The data is acquired from authenticated user, then it sends the archives to raspberry pi.

ANALYSIS FACILITIES PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE LANE LANES AS FACILITIES MODA TRANSPORTATION PUBLIC OF INTEGRATION IN BEKASI KOTA

<div class="WordSection1"><p>Analysis facilities pedestrian and bicycle lanes as facilities integration modes of public transport in the city of bekasi (Case Study: Bekasi Terminal and BTC Bus Stop). The city of bekasi located in west java province which has an area of areas 210,49 km2. The city central being as business and commerce , and activities services so that be an attraction for newcomers to look for a job and to shelter Terminal bekasi and bus stops btc is located in kecamatan bekasi timur , in the city of bekasi the rate of population growth in the year 2019 as much as 1.4 %. Walking is a mode of transportation. All buildings are provided for pedestrians in order to provide services to pedestrians so as to improve the smoothness, safety and comfort of pedestrians. The purpose of this study is to analyze the performance of pedestrian facilities in Bekasi Terminal and BTC bus stops. The method used is conducting direct field surveys and data processing using Microsoft Excel. The results of the author's research include the minimum width of the sidewalk in 2020 and 2025 of 1.5 - 1.6 meters and the service level of pedestrian facilities is classified as A, which means that pedestrians can walk freely, including being able to determine the direction of walking freely, at speed. relatively fast without causing interference between pedestrians. The existing condition of sidewalks in 2020, namely there are several obstacles for pedestrians such as the presence of street vendors, several motorbikes parked carelessly, buying and selling activities in markets close to Bekasi Terminal and limited integration facilities around the place. Planning that the authors do is to increase the width of the sidewalk to 3 meters, arrangement of closed drainage on the shoulder of the road, and the addition of street lighting facilities.</p></div>

Infrastructure enabled eco-approach for transit system: A simulation approach

This paper develops an infrastructure-enabled eco-approach specifically for transit systems, where a two-stage simulation approach is proposed to include the impact of bus stops, and can further quantify the effects of infrastructure-enabled eco-approach on transit operating and service. The developed system is then embedded into a well-developed simulation environment, i.e., Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO), and a series of real-world-based cases are designed to compare the proposed system with traditional method and non-control case at segment-, line-, and network-level service respectively. Results reveal that the proposed method outperforms the traditional eco approach and can significantly improve the energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emission by up to 54.33%, where the environmental benefits are more clearly seen when more transit services are involved. In particular, it has the capability of marginalizing the speed fluctuations around the bus stop.

Spatiotemporal heterogeneous effects of socio-demographic and built environment on private car usage: An empirical study of Kunming, China

The increasing car usage has caused a series of social and environmental problems. Most previous studies examined the general correlations between the determinants and the usage pattern of private car by establishing global regression models. These models ignore the variation of travel behavior across temporal and spatial dimensions, which possibly leads to wrong bias and overlooks certain momentous details. Considering this research gap, this paper explores the influence of determinants on the time-of-day car usage pattern, using the multi-source data collected from the city of Kunming, China. It applies a geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model to investigate the heterogeneous relationship between on the hourly mode share of private car and the factors of individual attributes and built environment. The empirical results show that the GTWR model produces better goodness-of-fit compared with global regression model, as well as geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. It suggests that most explanatory variables are spatiotemporal non-stationary associated with hourly car share. A visualization method is applied to analyze the temporal variation of the coefficients of socio-demographic attributes and built environment variables, and to reveal the spatial distribution of the effects of determinants during peak periods. The empirical results show that both of selected the socio-demographic and built environment attributes have heterogeneous effect on the car share in time and space dimensions. For example, the proportion of college or college above presents stronger negative effect on the share of private car in the afternoon peak than in the morning peak, the negative impact of the densities of built environment (i.e., road, population, and bus stop) is more significant in underdeveloped area. Finally, insightful policy recommendations for different urban areas are presented to encourage the reduction of car usage and alleviate urban traffic problems.

Microscopic Simulation-Based Model analysis at Jaipur

Abstract: Socio-Economic development of a country includes sustainable transportation system. As simulation is safer, less expensive and faster than field implementation and testing, Microscopic simulation models have been widely used in transportation operations and management analysis. The accuracy and reliability decide the usefulness of these models in making design and traffic control. Nowin India, VISSIM which is microscopic traffic simulation software is used. However, modifications to the default behavioral parameters are essential to effectively simulate Indian heterogeneous traffic conditions. In this study, the queue length and travel time of link connected to Narayan Singh Circle and Trimurti Circle intersection is analyzed before and after transfer the bus stop at Narayan Singh Circle to the periphery of city. For this, intersections are designed in VISSIM software and traffic flow performance is validated via VISSIM. Then average vehicular delay under different traffic volumes was analyzed. The results are finally compared before and after transfer the bus stop at Narayan Singh Circle to the peripheryof city. Keywords: Non-destructive Testing, Concrete, Structural Health Monitoring, Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity,Rebound Hammer.

Study on the Proper Separation Distance from Intersection to Bus Stop for Reducing Traffic Accidents

Study on the Proper Separation Distance from Intersection to Bus Stop for Reducing Traffic Accidents

Finding the Optimal Bus-Overtaking Rules for Bus Stops with Two Tandem Berths

Overtaking rule is a key factor for the estimation of bus discharge flow and bus delay at stops. In general, there are four kinds of overtaking rules, namely no-overtaking, enter-overtaking, exit-overtaking and free-overtaking. This paper studies a two-berth tandem bus stop in a saturated state and proposes calculation models for the maximum bus discharge flow and average berth blocking time under different overtaking rules. Cellular automata simulation is applied to verify the model’s reliability. Then the influence of bus dwell time characteristics and overtaking rules are analyzed. Results show that overtaking has a positive impact on the maximum bus discharge flow and average berth blocking time to a certain extent. If only one overtaking behavior is allowed, the exit-overtaking rule is recommended. The study reveals that overtaking behavior plays an important role in bus service level and operational efficiency. Bus-overtaking rules are suggested to be changed with different bus flow states to obtain the optimal berth effectiveness.

How Does the Urban Built Environment Affect Online Car-Hailing Ridership Intensity among Different Scales?

Understanding the effect of the urban built environment on online car-hailing ridership is crucial to urban planning. However, how the effects change with the analysis scales are still noteworthy. Therefore, a multiscale exploratory study was conducted in Chengdu, China, by using the stepwise regression selection and three spatial regression models. The main findings are summarized as follows. First, as the grid size increases, the number of built environment factors that have significant effects on trip intensity decrease continuously. Second, the effects of population density and road density are always positive from the 500 m grid to the 3000 m grid. As the analysis scale increases, the effect of proximity to public transportation shifts from inhibitory to facilitation, while the positive effect of land-use mix becomes stronger. Land-use type has both positive and negative effects and shows different characteristics at different scales. Third, the effects of built environment factors on online car-hailing trip intensity show different spatial variability characteristics at different scales. The effect of population density gradually decreases from north to south. The effect of road network density shows circling and wave patterns, with the former at relatively fine scales and the latter at relatively coarse scales. The spatial variation in the effect of land-use mix can only be observed more significantly at a relatively coarse scale. The effect of bus stop density is only obvious at the relatively fine and medium scales and shows a wave-like pattern and a circle-like pattern. The effect of various land-use types shows different spatial patterns at different scales, including wave-like pattern, circle-like pattern, and multi-core-like pattern. The spatial variation in the effects of various land-use factors gradually decrease with the increase in the analysis scale.

Site-specific optimization of bus stop locations and designs over a corridor

Bus stops, interfacing passenger demand with route design and traffic dynamics, play a critical role in improving bus operation efficiency. This study proposes a two-lane based link-node cell transmission model referring to bus stop length, for the optimization of bus stop locations and designs against car and bus demand as well as bus dwell time, along a corridor with sequent links of specific length, which are connected with signalized intersections and inserted with sparse or dense stops. Thus the effect on total travel time can be exploited of the complex relationship between traffic dynamics and continuous stops. The nonlinear modeling is then converted to mixed integer linear programming, which is solvable to optimality. Numerical analyses validate that the proposed stop configuration reduces total travel time under all cases, averaged to be 20.5% and 7.1% for the corridor with short and long links, respectively. The proposed scheme combines harbor-style and curb-side stops which may be far-side, mid-block, or near-side to coordinate bus and car flow, where MLC is reduced up to 32% on some links to alleviate capacity drop especially for the corridor with short links and dense stops, and DLC is increased up to 25% to enhance road utilization especially for the corridor with long links. This research provides insights on the designs and locations of bus stops along urban streets, to alleviate the conflicts between buses and cars for efficient and attractive bus service.

Analysis of effects of prolonged travel delay on public bus operators' profit margin in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria

This study examines the effects of uncertain travel time on public bus operators' monthly returns or profit margin in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria. Importantly, the study relied on four objectives to achieve its purpose, and these are to; evaluate the demographic profile of public bus drivers; determine the daily cost of operating the buses and the percentage of bus returns spent on bus maintenance; analyze the bus running time and the associated cost attached to prolonged bus operations, and determine the number of trips made and lose daily due to prolonged journey time in metropolitan Lagos. The study relied on a survey research design and the use of primary data, which is derived from a questionnaire instrument administered at the three study locations. Further, the combination of clustered, stratified, and simple random sampling techniques was used while respondents (bus operators/drivers) were selected at different bus stop segments for questionnaire administration. The statistical correlation technique from the SPSS software was used for data relationship analysis, while descriptive tools were utilized for the presentation of the results. Furthermore, the severity of the problems encountered by bus operators shows that loss of daily revenue (52.9%) is the highest, followed by loss of bus trips (35.4%), and constant vehicle breakdown (11.7%). This poses a significant challenge to their business success as it grossly reduces their bus return and monthly profit margin. The study concluded that prolonged bus journey time has a negative socio-economic impact on the Intra-City public bus operators in metropolitan Lagos. Therefore, recommends among others: road highway expansion; provision of extended bus stop lay-bys, BRT corridor extension to other major highways, traffic agents' commitment and patriotism, and intensive enforcement of laws prohibiting bus stop obstructions by public bus drivers.

Exploring the factors influencing the use of public transport by commuters living in networks of small cities and towns

The use of public transport is directly associated with a reduced environmental impact for satisfying daily mobility needs. Current research has focused on identifying the factors affecting the use of public transport, elements such as age, car ownership, travel distance, or parking availability having been associated with a direct impact on an individual’s transport mode choice. However, most of these studies focused on the travel behaviour of individuals living in large cities, where the population density is high, and public transport is usually more developed than in small cities and towns. The present study provides additional insights into the impact of eleven different factors on the use of public transport by employees living and working in networks of small cities and towns in Northern Europe. The study uses ordered logistic regression to analyse the data collected in 2019 through a regional travel survey conducted in Agder, Norway. The results reveal that the choice of public transport as a daily commute mode is significantly affected by car ownership, distance to work, parking availability, and ticket prices. Additionally, the results indicate that the odds of employees using public transport increase when the respondents do not have persons in care. On the other hand, factors such as low bus frequency and long walking distances to the home bus stop show a negative impact on the use of public transport. Based on these results, regional and local policy actions are proposed.

Analysis of the Relationship between the Characteristics of the Areas of Influence of Bus Stops and the Decrease in Ridership during COVID-19 Lockdowns

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the characteristics of the areas of influence of bus stops and the decrease in ridership during COVID-19 lockdowns and subsequent initial reopening processes. A novel GIS methodology was developed to determine these characteristics from a large amount of data with high spatial detail and accurately assign them to individual bus stops. After processing the data, several multiple linear regression models were developed to determine the variables related to different activities and changes in mobility during lockdown that may explain the variation in demand owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The characteristics related to population and land use were also studied. The proposed methodology can be used to improve transit planning during exceptional situations, by strengthening public transport in areas with a predictably higher transit demand, instead of uniformly decreasing the availability of public transport services, promoting sustainable mobility. The efficiency of the proposed methodology was shown by performing a case study that analysed the variation in bus demand in A Coruña, Spain. The areas with the highest sustained demand were those with low inhabitant incomes, a high population density, and significant proportions of land use dedicated to hospitals, offices, or supermarkets.

The identification of significant features towards travel mode choice and its prediction via optimised random forest classifier: An evaluation for active commuting behavior

IntroductionPhysical activity is the foundation to staying healthy, but sedentary activities have become not uncommon that ought to be mitigated immediately. The study aims to highlight the role of a transport system that encourages physical activity among users by applying an active door-to-door transport system. Users’ mode choice is studied to understand their preferences for active commuting. The use of machine learning has since been ubiquitous in a myriad of fields, including transportation studies and hence is also investigated towards its efficacy in predicting travel mode choice. MethodologyThe application of the Random Forest (RF) model to identify travel mode choice is explored using the Revealed/Stated Preferences (RP/SP) Survey data in Kuantan City during weekdays. A total of 386 respondents were involved in this survey. The efficacy of the tuned RF models towards predicting the travel mode choice is evaluated via the Classification Accuracy (CA) performance indicator. In addition, a Feature Importance study is also carried out in order to identify significant factors that contribute towards travel mode choice. ResultsThe results from the present investigation demonstrated that the default RF model has acceptable predictability for both training and test dataset of users’ mode choice, with a CA of 70.2% and 69.3%, respectively. Upon identifying the significant features and further refining the hyperparameters of the RF model heuristically, it was shown that with 145 trees, the CA improved to up to 71.6% and 70.1% for both the training and test dataset, respectively. Through the feature selection technique, the most significant features that affect users mode choice are total travel time (TT), waiting time at a public transport stop (WT), region, walking distance from the last stop to destination (WD2), and walking distance from home to the nearest bus stop (WD1). ConclusionsThe study has illustrated the efficacy of the optimised RF in predicting travel mode choice as well as identified the significant factors for the selection. The findings of the present study provide significant insight for policymakers to improve the performance of the public transportation system so that the users will benefit in terms of health and well-being from active commuting.

The Effect of 3D Printing on Lightweight Structures. Case Study: Mansoura Public Transport Bus Stop

The Effect of 3D Printing on Lightweight Structures. Case Study: Mansoura Public Transport Bus Stop