OVERVIEW OF EXPERIMENTAL BUS PRIORITY SYSTEMS

The bus priority strategies tested in eight different cities (Washington, D. C.; Leicester, England; Derby, England; Kent, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; Miami, Florida; Bern, Switzerland; Alkmaar, Netherlands) used a variety of signal control techniques to award priority to buses at traffic control intersections. The report results range from seven seconds reduction in average bus delay at one intersection in Leicester, to 24 seconds reduction at an intersection in Bern. More importantly, the range of travel time through an intersection in Derby was reduced by more than one half. Such reduction in range of travel time has a significant impact on reducing run time variation along a bus route. In Washington, 34 intersections were equipped with bus detectors which fed bus arrival information to the central Urban Traffic Control System/Bus Priority System computers. The U.S. and European approaches to BPS demonstrations differ. U.S. demonstrations range in size from three to 34 intersections and emphasize hardware and software development. In contrast, demonstrations outside of the U.S. typically include one intersection and stress studies of how the mean travel time and the range of travel time through the intersection have improved with priority as compared to buses operating without priority.

• Corporate Authors:

  Mitre Corporation

  Westgate Research Park
  McLean, VA  United States  22101

  Urban Mass Transportation Administration

  400 7th Street, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Lovett, C D
• Publication Date: 1975-3

Media Info

• Pagination: 69 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus priority; Buses; Demonstration projects; Instruments for measuring time; Intersections; Signal devices; Signalization; Traffic control; Traffic delays; Traffic engineering; Traffic signals; Travel time; Urban areas; Urban transportation; Vehicle detectors
• Geographic Terms: Florida; Kentucky; Netherlands; Ohio; Switzerland; United Kingdom; Washington (District of Columbia)
• Old TRIS Terms: Time measurement
• Subject Areas: Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Operations and Traffic Management; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00093628
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: MTR-6873-Rev-1 Final Rpt., UMTA-VA-06-0027-75-1
• Contract Numbers: DOT-UT-0027
• Files: NTIS, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Feb 4 1981 12:00AM