01551181

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2533-07

Urban transit services face a number of challenges from space constraints, congestion, and delays, among other issues. Implementing bus priority at traffic signals or providing exclusive operating space for buses can increase the attractiveness of taking the bus and thereby encourage ridership. The City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was looking to pilot such interventions to demonstrate benefits of bus ridership, but needed a prioritized list of route segments with the largest levels of excess travel time to do so. Three metrics were used to evaluate delay: vehicle delay, overall passenger delay, and system reliability. These three metrics were combined into a single composite rating system for each segment and used to identify route segments along which buses experienced the most delay. The City of Cambridge analyzed high-ridership bus routes with automatic passenger counter data to identify segments along the route where buses experienced substantial delay. The next step for this project is to conduct an on-site field visit of targeted segments to develop potential bus prioritization proposals for each. This paper outlines the method developed to calculate bus delay by segment and presents results for one route analyzed.

01590197

15-1517

English

pp 60–67

2015

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309369381

Print

Figures (6) ; Maps; References (7) ; Tables (1)

Bus priority; Bus routes; Delays; Metrics (Quantitative assessment); Planning methods; Traffic signal priority; Travel time

Cambridge (Massachusetts)

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

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 30 2014 12:34PM

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