Improve Bus Service Research Articles

Алгоритм прогнозирования моментов времени прибытия городских пассажирских автобусов на основе Марковских цепей

Developing public transport is an effective way to solve traffic congestion and improve travel efficiency. Improving bus service quality can attract passengers to travel by public transport. In the past, as the bus arrival time is unknown, and the buses often arrive inaccurate, passengers feel anxious and the quality of public transport service declined. Even though some bus stations equipped with electronic bus stop boards, the predicted bus arrival time is often inaccurate. Therefore, in order to convenient for people travel by public transit, this paper puts forward the method of bus travel time prediction based on the Markov chain which considers the spatial-temporal characteristics of the bus travel time. The prediction method can improve the quality of the bus service, help the travelers to make travel planning and reduce the waiting time. The algorithm is verified by the actual operation data of No.114 bus line in Harbin. The results show that the prediction error is small, and the algorithm is easy to implement.

Modelling and managing bus service regularity with influence of prevailing traffic

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a multi-modal framework for modelling and analysing different headway control strategies for improving bus service regularity. The interaction between buses and their surrounding traffic is captured in a multi-modal system through a Hamilton–Jacobi formulation of kinematic wave model. This paper further presents a set of signal-based strategies which regulate bus headway through adjusting signal timing plans. The results reveal that the capability of regulating bus headway disturbances through utilising traffic signals is important for maximising bus service regularity and coordinating the bus dynamics with surrounding traffic. This study generates new insights on managing bus reliability and multi-modal traffic in busy urban networks.

Dynamical Modeling and Predictive Control of Bus Transport Systems: A Hybrid Systems Approach

Bus operations, due to their unstable nature, are inefficient when left uncontrolled with respect to retaining headways. Irregularities such as bus bunching lead to loss of time and decrease bus service quality. Development of bus transport system management schemes to avoid bus bunching and improve performance are of high importance, and has thus been the focus of many works in the public transport systems literature. Motivated by the importance of developing bus control strategies for improving performance, and specifically by the lack of a detailed but computationally efficient mathematical model describing bus transport system dynamics in the literature (which can facilitate model-based control design), we propose a mixed logical dynamical model of a single loop bus transport system, which involves both continuous (e.g., bus positions) and binary (e.g., the state of a bus regarding whether it is holding at a certain stop or not) states. Furthermore, we develop a hybrid model predictive control scheme with actuation via bus speeds, which can regularize headways and improve bus service quality. Performance of the predictive controller is evaluated via simulation experiments using the proposed model, where the passenger demands and maximum bus speeds are extracted from data collected from the bus network of the city of Fribourg. Results indicate the potential of the proposed controller in avoiding bus bunching and decreasing passenger travel times.

MODELLING WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR IMPROVED PUBLIC TRANSPORT SERVICES: THE CHALLENGES OF NON-RESPONSE TO STATED PREFERENCE HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS

The paper focuses on the modelling attempt of willingness to pay for an improved bus service in selected cities and towns of Malaysia. Using responses from onboard intercept surveys, 1,130 samples of bus passengers have been analysed so as to arrive at a simplified model of how passengers trade off their money with possible upgrading of bus services elements. The willingness to pay among these bus riders was very low, despite the high expectation of improvements aspired by them. For service providers, fares are a function of travel time, travel distance and other operating costs. For passengers, the utility function is explained by costs, time, distance and various latent parameters. This paper highlights the significant results of chi-square analysis at various confidence levels. However, modelling the exact utility function of preferences for staggered increased in fares could not be carried out successfully at 95 percent confidence level, due to the relatively small number of respondents stating their and/or undecided response towillingness to pay for the additional fare rate. The issue of non-response to hypothetical survey questions is also raised, explaining the difficulties in modelling this choice behaviour.

MODELLING WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR IMPROVED PUBLIC TRANSPORT SERVICES: THE CHALLENGES OF NON-RESPONSE TO STATED PREFERENCE HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS

The paper focuses on the modelling attempt of willingness to pay for an improved bus service in selected cities and towns of Malaysia. Using responses from onboard intercept surveys, 1,130 samples of bus passengers have been analysed so as to arrive at a simplified model of how passengers trade off their money with possible upgrading of bus services elements. The willingness to pay among these bus riders was very low, despite the high expectation of improvements aspired by them. For service providers, fares are a function of travel time, travel distance and other operating costs. For passengers, the utility function is explained by costs, time, distance and various latent parameters. This paper highlights the significant results of chi-square analysis at various confidence levels. However, modelling the exact utility function of preferences for staggered increased in fares could not be carried out successfully at 95 percent confidence level, due to the relatively small number of respondents stating their and/or undecided response towillingness to pay for the additional fare rate. The issue of non-response to hypothetical survey questions is also raised, explaining the difficulties in modelling this choice behaviour.

Comparing public bus transport service attributes in Delhi and Mumbai: Policy implications for improving bus services in Delhi

Delhi and Mumbai are large cities with a population of more than 15 million each. Both cities have large bus systems. However, the share of bus users is much higher in Mumbai as compared to Delhi. There is a need to enhance the share of bus users in Delhi to reduce the growing traffic externalities in the city. The objective of this work is to compare the existing bus services of Delhi and Mumbai, and identify feasible strategies to improve the bus system in Delhi. A total of 1347 and 1045 bus passengers were surveyed in Delhi and Mumbai respectively to compare the existing bus systems of both cities. Further, 14 transportation experts in Delhi were surveyed to identify feasible improvement strategies in Delhi. Multinomial Logit (MNL) model and Sign test were used to analyze the perception of bus users. The analyses reveal that overcrowding is a major concern in both the cities. But, unlike Mumbai, Delhi buses are perceived as less punctual and more time consuming by non-captive11Non-captive bus users are the bus commuters that have formal employment (in-service) and income more than INR 50,000 per month. users. As a result, share of non-captive users that travel by buses in Mumbai is higher as compared to Delhi. In terms of interventions, improved comfort, punctuality, and safety are considered relatively easier to achieve in Delhi as compared to reduction in travel time by experts. It is concluded that strategies to improve comfort, punctuality, travel time, and safety should be prioritized for bus services in Delhi.

The attitudes of tourists towards a bus service: implications for policy from a Maltese case study

Abstract When tourists visit a country, they often use the available public transport service. Their knowledge of this service, may be limited when compared with that of the citizens of the host country. This paper uses Malta as a case study, an island state that serves as a spatial laboratory, to understand the attitudes of tourists towards the main mode of public transport in Malta – the bus service. The research was carried out following a series of major changes to the bus system over a relatively short time-frame of three years, including a reform of the bus service. This reform involved change, amongst other factors, to the operator, network, fleet, and infrastructure. Seventeen semi-structured in-depth interviews with tourists were recorded and then analysed using thematic analysis. This paper provides insight for the need to understand better the influence of tourists’ attitudes towards a bus service in the host country. Results show that bus service quality characteristics requiring improvement may have negative repercussions on other factors that influence tourists’ attitudes (for instance, crowding on buses contributes to increased waiting times). Moreover, suggestions for policy makers and transport planners could improve bus service operations that are attractive to both the citizens, and tourists, particularly in locations that are economically dependent on the tourism industry.

Priority Areas of Intervention for Improving Urban Bus Services: Experience in Kolkata, India

Priority areas of intervention for the improvement of urban bus services were investigated and identified in the city of Kolkata, India. A paper-based survey was conducted to collect responses from choice riders (who own a car and predominantly travel by car or taxi) and captive riders (who do not own a car and predominantly travel by bus). The choice riders and captive riders identified air-conditioned (AC) and non-air-conditioned bus services, respectively, as two areas for intervention. Revised importance–performance analysis and fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm were used to analyze responses. Trip attributes were classified under three satisfaction factors (basic, performance, and excitement), and various management schemes were identified for AC and non-AC bus services. The areas of intervention were identified by analyzing the factor structures of travelers and the management schemes for the bus services derived from the perceptions of the travelers. Results indicated that choice riders and captive riders had distinct travel requirements and that their priority areas of intervention for improving AC and non-AC services also were different. With the requirements of choice riders and captive riders, these results offer direction for improving bus service in Kolkata. The methodology also could be used to formulate policies and measures for service improvement in other contexts.

Improving Bus Service Levels and social equity through bus frequency modelling

Bus lines play an essential role in providing urban public transport service. Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics determine the specific transport service needs of districts that, in most cases, are not served by the existing bus routes. Small changes in the frequency of a bus route can have a direct effect on the territorial distribution of a city's public transport service. Adjusting the frequencies of a bus fleet can help planners improve the service level and adapt the fleet's spatial distribution. A bus frequency optimization methodology is proposed to improve harmonization between service level and social equity in public transport. The method relies on a simple spreadsheet that integrates geographic data about bus routes and socioeconomic information about city districts. Simulation and optimization procedures are coordinated to appropriately adjust the routes to the geographic space. The proposed method is tested in a real case study that demonstrates its usefulness in analysing the service level and equity of a transport system and improving a city's public transport planning.

Investigating the Intention of Rural Residents to Use Transit in Cixi, China

AbstractTransit is a very important traveling mode for rural residents in developing China. The intention of rural and suburban residents to choose a transit mode is affected by various types of factors. Based on the revealed data, this paper focuses on analyzing the transit mode choice intention of rural residents in China. A structure equation model is applied to examine the critical factors affecting the intension of rural residents to use transit in the city of Cixi, China. The internal relationships among those factors are also discussed. Results indicate that residents’ income, automobile ownership, and satisfaction with the convenience and reliability of rural bus service are noticeable affecting factors. This study provides valuable insights to improving bus services in rural areas of China.

Improving bus service reliability: The Singapore experience

In February 2014, Singapore embarked on a 2-year trial of a Bus Service Reliability Framework (BSRF) to improve en-route bus regularity and reduce instances of bus bunching and prolonged waiting times. Based on London's Quality Incentive Contract, the Singapore model also imposes penalties or provides incentives to operators for increases/reductions of Excess Wait Time (EWT) beyond a certain route-specific baseline.Drawing on insights derived from research on performance-based contracts, this paper describes some key considerations surrounding this particular innovation in Singapore's overall bus regulatory framework. We also discuss an important advancement in our understanding of how bus users value reliability improvements through estimates obtained from stated preference data. At the same time, early indications from the trial have been encouraging.

Sensing of Mobile Devices Could Improve Bus Service

Sensing of Mobile Devices Could Improve Bus Service

Analysis of bus passenger comfort perception based on passenger load factor and in-vehicle time

Although bus comfort is a crucial indicator of service quality, existing studies tend to focus on passenger load and ignore in-vehicle time, which can also affect passengers’ comfort perception. Therefore, by conducting surveys, this study examines passengers’ comfort perception while accounting for both factors. Then, using the survey data, it performs a two-way analysis of variance and shows that both in-vehicle time and passenger load significantly affect passenger comfort. Then, a bus comfort model is proposed to evaluate comfort level, followed by a sensitivity analysis. The method introduced in this study has theoretical implications for bus operators attempting to improve bus service quality.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-016-1694-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Micro-simulation based evaluation of Queue Jump Lane at isolated urban intersections: an experience in Kolkata

Poor service quality is one of the major causes for declining share of buses in urban India. Improvement of bus travel time by implementing bus priority measures at intersections is well regarded as an effective instrument to improve bus service by reducing the travel time. However, only a few research works have been reported in the literature on bus priority strategies in Developing countries such as India. This paper documents an experience of using micro-simulation software VISSIM© to evaluate the impact of providing Queue Jump Lane (QJL) as a bus priority strategy for three representative four-arm isolated signalized intersections in Kolkata, India. The study shows that QJL is expected to be beneficial even in a heterogeneous traffic environment that is prevalent in Indian scenario. The effectiveness of QJL is found to be influenced by various factors such as traffic volume, vehicle composition and road geometry. The study encourages further investigations in terms of validation of results based on field implementation of QJL and identification of the domain of applicability of QJL in signalized intersections of urban India.

An Optimization Model for the Selection of Bus-Only Lanes in a City.

The planning of urban bus-only lane networks is an important measure to improve bus service and bus priority. To determine the effective arrangement of bus-only lanes, a bi-level programming model for urban bus lane layout is developed in this study that considers accessibility and budget constraints. The goal of the upper-level model is to minimize the total travel time, and the lower-level model is a capacity-constrained traffic assignment model that describes the passenger flow assignment on bus lines, in which the priority sequence of the transfer times is reflected in the passengers’ route-choice behaviors. Using the proposed bi-level programming model, optimal bus lines are selected from a set of candidate bus lines; thus, the corresponding bus lane network on which the selected bus lines run is determined. The solution method using a genetic algorithm in the bi-level programming model is developed, and two numerical examples are investigated to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed model.

Are we there yet? Trip duration and mood during travel

Are longer trips more strenuous or unpleasant than shorter ones? This paper examines this question using data from the American Time Use Survey’s well-being module, which queried individuals about the extent to which they felt happiness, pain, sadness, stress, and fatigue during three randomly selected daily activities. Over 22,000 instances of individuals traveling are observed, including their trip duration, mode, purpose, and demographic and geographic information. Each emotion, plus a constructed, composite mood variable, is regressed on trip duration. Overall, the relationship between trip duration and traveler mood is not strong, which is unsurprising given prior findings on the limited impact of activities on mood. However, there is a statistically significant and negative association between trip duration and mood, primarily because of rising stress, fatigue and sadness on long trips. This is particularly true for drivers, while negative emotions do not rise with increasing trip duration for auto passengers. This suggests strain rises as the result of operating the vehicle for long periods, not traveling in an auto per se. Long bicycle trips are more painful than shorter ones, probably due to the physical demands of the mode, and long train trips are associated with less sadness. For commutes, long trips significantly degrade the mood of both drivers and bus riders, in the latter case probably due in part to vehicle crowding and standing. The findings imply that reducing the duration of trips, for example through land use policies that reduce trip distances, or congestion reduction, would have emotional benefits. Policies to promote ridesharing instead of solo driving for long trips may increase traveler mood in the aggregate. Improving bus service or substituting rail for bus for long commute trips may also improve traveler mood.

Development of Simulation Model to Improve Bus Service Reliability at High-Frequency Operation

The quality of service provided to passengers in high-frequency bus routes can be affected by variety of factors. According to this fact that high-frequency bus routes have high passenger demand and short headways (less than 10 minutes), interaction between buses would be much higher, causing decline in reliability of service. In order to represent a busy bus operation in Kuala Lumpur city centre network, a simulation model will be calibrated. The calibration and validation parameters for the key bus route will derive from data captured by the Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) system and procedures will be outlined to adapt the model to other bus routes. The study is in its initial stage to find out what factors have highest impact on reliability of high-frequency bus services in the city centre. An initial model was developed for forecasting passenger demand by using RSM. The simulation model will first be used to conduct a sensitivity analysis of the factors influencing reliability, such as passenger demand, terminal departure behaviour, and unfilled trips. Next, several operating strategies, including terminal departure and time-point holding will be modelled and evaluated for their potential to improve reliability. Model results show that which strategies and factors can significantly improve bus service reliability.

Impact of perceptions of bus service performance on mode choice preference

As transit service performance should be considered from the transit passengers’ perspectives, it is essential to determine passengers’ perceptions of service performance and to understand the role of these perceptions in travel decisions. As the bus market share has steadily declined, the aim of this study is to explore the impact of perceptions of bus service performance on mode choice preference to increase bus ridership. To achieve this research objective, an intention survey is conducted to obtain bus passengers’ attitudes. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are used to measure passengers’ perceptions and to extract the main factors from the bus service attributes. Next, structural equation modeling is used to reveal how passengers’ perceptions vary by demographics and trip characteristics. Finally, multinomial logit modeling is used to explore the impact of perception factors on mode choice preference. The results of this study show that perceptions of the reliability and comfort of bus services have a more significant impact on passengers’ mode choice preference than perceptions of availability and safety do. The implications in terms of improving bus service reliability and comfort can increase bus ridership.

Analysis of Managed Bus Lane Strategies Based on Microcosmic Traffic Simulation

In order todetermine the optimum Managed Bus Lane (MBL) strategies under different traffic conditions, it is essential tocompare the before-after traffic performanceswhen a MBL strategyis produced. Microscopictraffic simulation is often used to evaluate the effects of operation strategies on traffic performances. In addition to the commonly used bus lane strategies, the dedicated bus lane (DBL),intermittent bus lane (IBL) strategies were also studied byVISSIM in this study. Delay and time occupancy wereadopted as evaluation indexes in the evaluation. The analysis results showed that traffic condition has a great influence on the traffic performances for different managed bus lane strategies.Specifically, volumeplays a higher influence on the bus lane performance as compared tobus ratio. It is also shown that the DBL has the advantage of free buses from traffic interference but has the disadvantage of disrupting traffic. IBL strategies also can improve bus service and maintaingood car service. In addition, it is found that when both volume and bus ratio arelow, there is no need to implementany bus lane strategy;if the bus ratio is at a medium level, intermittent bus lanes-near intersection(IBL-NI) strategy is preferred; when the volume is high, intermittent bus lane-basic road segment(IBL-BRS) performsbetter. The results indicate that different MBL strategies should be consideredbased ontraffic conditions.This studycan provide some valuable information for traffic managers to address traffic congestion fromaperspective of transit priority.

Models of bus boarding and alighting dynamics

Understanding the dynamics of boarding/alighting activities and its impact on bus dwell times is crucial to improving bus service levels. However, research is limited as conventional data collection methods are both time and labour intensive. In this paper, we present the first use of smart card data to study passenger boarding/alighting behaviour and its impact on bus dwell time. Given the nature of these data, we focus on passenger activity time and do not account for the time necessary to open and close doors. We study single decker, double decker and articulated buses and identify the specific effects of floor/entrance type, number of activities and occupancy on both boarding and alighting dynamics. A linear relationship between average boarding and alighting times and their respective standard deviations is also found, whereas the variability of boarding and alighting time decreases with the number of passengers boarding and alighting. After observing the cumulative boarding/alighting processes under different occupancy conditions, we propose a new model to estimate passenger activity time, by introducing critical occupancy – a parameter incorporating the friction between boarding/alighting and on-board passengers. We conduct regression analyses with the proposed and another popular model for simultaneous boarding/alighting processes, finding that the critical occupancy plays a significant role in determining the regime of boarding and alighting processes and the overall activity time. Our results provide potential implications for practice and policy, such as identifying optimal vehicle type for a particular route and modelling transit service reliability.