Bus Priority Using pre-signals

The need to provide efficient public transport services in urban areas has led to the implementation of bus priority measures in many congested cities. Much interest has recently centred on priority at signal controlled junctions, including the concept of pre-signals, where traffic signals are installed at or near the end of a with-flow bus lane to provide buses with priority access to the downstream junction. Although a number of pre-signals have now been installed in the U.K., particularly in London, there has been very little published research into their design, operation and optimisation. This paper addresses these points through the development of analytical procedures which allow pre-implementation evaluation of specific categories of pre-signals. The paper initially sets out three categories of pre-signal, which have different operating characteristics, different requirements for signalling and different impacts on capacity and delay. Key issues concerning signalling arrangements for these categories are then discussed, together with a summary of the analytical approach adopted and the assumptions required. Equations are developed to allow appropriate signal timings to be calculated for pre-signalised intersections. Further equations are then developed to enable delays to priority and non-priority traffic, with and without pre-signals, to be estimated with delay being taken here as the key performance criterion. The paper concludes with three application examples illustrating how the equations are applied and the impacts of pre-signals in different situations.The analyses confirm the potential benefits of pre-signals, where these signals apply to non-priority traffic only. Where buses are also subject to a pre-signal, it is shown that disbenefits to buses can often occur, unless bus detectors are used to gain priority signalling.     

An improved headway-based holding strategy for bus transit

Abstract

This paper presents an improved headway-based holding strategy integrating bus transit travel and dwelling time prediction. A support vector machine-based (SVM) model is developed to predict the baseline travel and dwell times of buses based on recent data. In order to reduce prediction errors, an adaptive algorithm is used together with real-time bus operational information and estimated baseline times from SVM models. The objective of the improved holding strategy is to minimize the total waiting times of passengers at the current stop and at successive stops. Considering the time-varying features of bus running, a ‘forgetting factor’ is introduced to weight the most recent data and reduce the disturbance from unexpected incidents. Finally, the improved holding strategy proposed in this study is illustrated using the microscopic simulation model Paramics and some conclusions are drawn.     

Changes in multi-mode bus transit efficiency, 1988–1992

This paper examines the claim that US bus transit productivity has declined in recent years. It does so with reference to a piecewise-linear best-practice (DEA) production frontier, computed for multi-modal bus transit between 1988 and 1992. Efficiency is measured both by a Russell (static) and Malmquist (dynamic) measure of productivity change. The principal finding is that, overall, bus transit efficiency has improved slightly over the period.