What’s a Bus? Defining Buses and Trains in the Age of Automation
Automation of road transport will radically change the balance between public and private transportation. Many researchers have described possible changes caused by autonomous cars, but the development and implementation of autonomous buses will also cause major evolution in the public transportation sector. For example, automation will reduce bus operating costs by roughly 50%, making buses more competitive compared to rail. Quantification of these impacts depends not only on economic considerations, but also on the physical limits of both types of systems.Quantifying the economic impacts raises the question of how buses and trains are defined in the light of upcoming automation. Even now the boundary between buses and trains is sometimes very narrow. The differences between these systems can be expected to become even less clear with automation. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to develop a generic definition of buses and trains, leaving out existing concepts as much as possible. This definition shall help frame the debate on public transport automation.The research analyzed various special situations and vehicles to develop this generic definition. The analysis shows that the wheel material is not a criterion for distinguishing between buses and trains. Furthermore, buses can have mechanical guidance and trains do not necessarily run on a dedicated right-of-way. The decisive element is rather the vehicle’s compatibility, or non-compatibility with ordinary road traffic. Using this definition, several existing “hybrid” systems are classified.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP040 Standing Committee on Automated Transit Systems.
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Corporate Authors:
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Authors:
- Sinner, Marc
- Weidmann, Ulrich
- Nash, Andrew
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2017-1-8 to 2017-1-12
- Date: 2017
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 20p
- Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Automation; Definitions; Hybrid vehicles; Railroad trains; Transit buses
- Uncontrolled Terms: Compatibility
- Subject Areas: Public Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01626097
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 17-01323
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Feb 15 2017 5:03PM