01519818

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2418-05

The time that buses spend waiting for passengers to board can be a significant portion of a bus route’s overall running time. A key determinant of boarding time is the number of doors through which passengers are permitted to board. Transit agencies that allow boarding through all doors, instead of just through the front door, typically enjoy decreased boarding times and decreased running times. This study focused on the feasibility of an all-door boarding policy for La Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the public transit agency of Montreal, Canada. The potential benefits of such a policy were assessed through three main steps. First, a selection methodology was developed to determine which of STM’s bus routes would benefit most from various all-door boarding strategies. Second, a multivariate regression analysis was implemented with STM’s archived automatic vehicle location and automatic passenger counter data to estimate the dwell and running-time savings that would result under various implementation scenarios. Third, a sensitivity analysis was developed to demonstrate the savings associated with implementing the policy. The findings showed that all-door boardings could yield substantial savings in running time, with morning peak savings as much as 15.8% on the best routes. In many cases, the running-time savings were enough to remove a bus from a route while still maintaining existing frequencies. The findings from this research may be beneficial for transit planners and operators since the presented methodologies show substantial savings from all-door boarding and can be adopted by other transit agencies.

01557108

14-2316

English

pp 39–48

2014

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309295635

Print

Figures (1) ; References (24) ; Tables (7)

Boarding; Bus routes; Bus transit operations; Doors (Vehicles); Dwell time; Regression analysis; Route choice; Running time; Sensitivity analysis

Societe de transport de Montreal

Montreal (Canada)

Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 27 2014 2:49PM

• Buses with High Level of Service in Nantes, France: Characteristics and Results of the BusWay Compared with Light Rail Transit
• Combinatorial Optimization for the Guangzhou, China, Bus Rapid Transit System: Multiple Bus Substops and Docking Bays
• Evaluation of Presignals at Oversaturated Signalized Intersections
• Examining the Characteristics of Intercity Bus Passengers in Michigan
• Factors Contributing to Bus Lane Obstruction and Usage in New York City: Does Design Matter?
• Flex Scheduling for Bus Arrival Time Prediction
• Jobs-Housing Balance of Bus Commuters in Beijing: Exploration with Large-Scale Synthesized Smart Card Data
• Modeling Bus Dwell Time with Decision Tree–Based Methods
• Operational Comparison of Transit Signal Priority Strategies
• Optimal Connected Urban Bus Network of Priority Lanes
• Quantifying the Effects of Modal Conflicts on Transit Reliability
• Regulating Intercity Bus Stops in New York City
• Transit Signal Priority with Connected Vehicle Technology
• User Behavior in Multiroute Bus Corridors: Analysis by a Web-Based Survey