The impact of real-time information on bus ridership in New York City

In the past few years, numerous mobile applications have made it possible for public transit passengers to find routes and/or learn about the expected arrival time of their transit vehicles. Though these services are widely used, their impact on overall transit ridership remains unclear. The objective of this research is to assess the effect of real-time information provided via web-enabled and mobile devices on public transit ridership. An empirical evaluation is conducted for New York City, which is the setting of a natural experiment in which a real-time bus tracking system was gradually launched on a borough-by-borough basis beginning in 2011. Panel regression techniques are used to evaluate bus ridership over a three year period, while controlling for changes in transit service, fares, local socioeconomic conditions, weather, and other factors. A fixed effects model of average weekday unlinked bus trips per month reveals an increase of approximately 118 trips per route per weekday (median increase of 1.7% of weekday route-level ridership) attributable to providing real-time information. Further refinement of the fixed effects model suggests that this ridership increase may only be occurring on larger routes; specifically, the largest quartile of routes defined by revenue miles of service realized approximately 340 additional trips per route per weekday (median increase of 2.3% per route). Although the increase in weekday route-level ridership may appear modest, on aggregate these increases exert a substantial positive effect on farebox revenue. The implications of this research are critical to decision-makers at the country’s transit operators who face pressure to increase ridership under limited budgets, particularly as they seek to prioritize investments in infrastructure, service offerings, and new technologies.     

Plan-based flexible bus bridging operation strategy

Bus bridging has been widely used to connect stations affected by metro disruptions such that stranded passengers could resume their journeys. Previous studies generally assumed that a bus operates exclusively on one bridging route with given frequency, which limits the service flexibility and reduce the operational efficiency. We propose a strategy to instruct buses to operate on predefined bridging routes once they are dispatched from depots. Buses are allowed to flexibly serve different bridging routes. Each bus operates based on a bridging plan that lists the stations to serve in sequence instead of route frequencies. A two-stage model is developed to optimize the bridging plans and their assignments to buses with the objectives that balance the operational priorities between minimizing bus bridging time and reducing passenger delay. A Weight Shortest Processing Time first (WSPT) rule based heuristic algorithm is developed to solve the proposed model. The developed model is further incorporated in a rolling horizon framework to handle dynamic passenger arrivals during the disruption period. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is demonstrated in comparison with alternative strategies in real-world case studies.     

What drives the drivers? Predicting turnover intentions in the Belgian bus and coach industry

The bus industry is characterized by demanding jobs and high turnover rates. In this study we gather essential insights that can help companies and industry-level policy makers increase the attractiveness of the profession and design effective retention policies. We compare the factors that induce Belgian drivers to leave their current organization with those inducing them to leave the industry. Key factors increasing the likelihood to consider quitting the company are a negative work-life balance, a lack of social support and a temporary contract. Dominant factors to consider quitting the bus driver profession are a lack of fulfillment, a demanding job environment and a negative work-life balance.     

Scheduling lane conversions for bus use on city-wide scales and in time-varying congested traffic

The paper explores what can occur when select street lanes throughout a city are periodically reserved for buses. Simulations of an idealized city were performed to that end. The city’s time-varying travel demand was studied parametrically. In all cases, queues formed throughout the city during a rush, and dissipated during the off-peak period that followed. Bus lanes were activated all at once across the city, and were eventually deactivated in like fashion. Activation and deactivation schedules varied parametrically as well. Schedules that roughly balanced the trip-time savings to bus riders against the added delays to car travelers were thus identified.Findings reveal why activating conversions near the start of a rush can degrade travel, both by car and by bus. Balance was struck by instead activating lane conversions nearer the end of the rush, when vehicle accumulation in the city was at or near its maximum. Most of the time savings to bus riders accrued after the conversions had been left in place for only 30 min. Leaving them for longer durations often brought modest additional savings to bus travelers. Yet, the added delays to cars often grew large as a result.These findings held even when buses garnered high ridership shares. This was the case when lane conversions gradually induced new bus trips among residents who formerly did not travel. It was also true when high ridership was a pre-existing feature of the city. Activating conversions a bit earlier in a rush was found to make sense only if commuters shifted from cars to buses in very large numbers. Findings also unveiled how to fine-tune activation and deactivation schedules to suit a city’s congestion level. Guidelines for scheduling conversions in real settings are furnished. So is discussion on how these schedules might be adapted to daily variations in city-wide traffic states. Roles for technology are discussed as well.     

EQ1170KA客车底盘焊接接头疲劳裂纹扩展速率的研究

本文研究了EQ1170KA客车底盘焊接接头疲劳裂纹扩展速率的规律,结果表明:焊接接头不同部位的疲劳裂纹扩展速率各不相同,焊接残余应力和金相组织对疲劳裂纹扩展速率都有一定的影响。     

常规潜艇改装为潜水油船的技术途径

本文提出了一种将退役常规潜艇改装为潜水油船的总体技术方案，计算了该潜水油船方案的装载量、排水量、浮态及稳性、航速及续航力、人员编制等技术指标，并探讨了总布置、补给方式等技术措施。     

基于CAN总线的舰船发电机节点模块电路板设计

CAN总线是现场总线的一种，它凭借卓越的特性、极高的可靠信与独特的设计，特别适合工业过程监控设备的互联。把CAN总线应用于船舶自动化已经成为控制领域的一种趋势。本文就是探讨如何把CAN总线更好的应用于船舶电站的自动化控制。     

北京奥运公交智能调度系统

本文介绍了北京奥运公交智能调度系统的建设背景,分析了系统建设需求,研究了系统的建设目标和原则、总体建设框架,对各个应用子系统、建设内容进行了初步设计,最后预测分析了系统建成后的社会效益和经济效益。     

公交车在站停靠时间建模研究

本文在实际调查统计的基础上,研究公交车在站停靠的流程及其影响因素,对公交车在站停靠时间建立数学模型,并对其科学性和实用性进行检验。     

动态分段技术在公交查询系统中的应用

针对空间二维坐标下存储城市公交系统数据存在的问题,文中提出了采用动态分段技术建立公交系统数据库的方法．并在该数据库的基础上实现了换乘次数最少的乘车方案。基于ArcGIS Engine组件和．Net开发平台．实现了基于动态分段技术的公交查询系统,表明动态分段技术在公交查询系统中的适用性。