01590922

Component

Bus bunching is a well-known phenomenon for operators, users and regulators of high-frequency bus services. Bus operations are usually affected by increasing differences in the time intervals (headways) between consecutive buses. The effect of this variability is that buses tend to group into bunches of two or more, which severely affects the quality of service and the operational efficiency. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon, using massive data from high-frequency services available in Santiago (Chile). The data are obtained from the bus GPS and are processed to obtain the headways between buses. The authors define a continuous indicator of bus bunching based on the variability of the observed headways and a discrete indicator that detects bunching when the proximity of two consecutive buses is below a threshold. Using data from one week, they build bus bunching maps. The authors also develop models to explain the variation of the continuous and discrete indicators as a function of variables related to the operation (distance, frequency, fleet composition, and variability of dispatching headways), variables related to the demand structure (boarding and alighting passengers), and variables related to the infrastructure (right of way, traffic signals, and distance between bus stops).

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP050 Standing Committee on Bus Transit Systems.

01584066

16-5915

English

18p

2016

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Bunching; Bus transit; Data collection; Fares; Location; Quality of service

Santiago (Chile)

Data and Information Technology; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2016 Paper #16-5915

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 6:37PM