Service Reliability and Hidden Waiting Time: Insights from Automatic Vehicle Location Data

Traditional transit service quality measures separate waiting time from service reliability and thereby underestimate the real cost of waiting and fail to evaluate the effect of unreliability on passengers. This study’s analysis of passenger behavior shows that, for short headway service, the cost of waiting involves not only the mean time spent waiting on the platform but also potential waiting time, that is, the additional time that passengers have to budget for waiting. Budgeted waiting time is based on an extreme of the waiting time distribution such as its 95th percentile value, which is extremely sensitive to service reliability. Methods for determining the distribution of passenger waiting time from automatic vehicle location (AVL) data are derived. For long headway service, actual and budgeted waiting times are shown to be related to high and low extremes of the schedule deviation distribution, which can likewise be determined from AVL data. Two other components of long headway waiting, schedule inconvenience and synchronization cost, are also analyzed. Waiting cost functions and waiting time measures that account for both headway and service reliability are developed and are harmonized in a framework that provides a smooth transition from short to long headway waiting. Examples show how service reliability can be measured as a waiting cost and how service reliability improvements can reduce waiting cost as much as a large reduction in headway can.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.3141/1955-10
• 
• Summary URL:
  • http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Service+Reliability+and+Hidden+Waiting+Time%3a+Insights+from+Automatic+Vehicle+Location+Data&author=P.+Furth&author=T.+Muller&publication_year=2006
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309099641
• Authors:
  • Furth, Peter G
  • Muller, Theo H J
• Publication Date: 2006

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 79-87
• Monograph Title: Transit: Intermodal Transfer Facilities and Ferry Transportation; Commuter Rail; Light Rail and Major Activity Center Circulation Systems; Capacity and Quality of Service
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 1955
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automatic vehicle location; Headways; Passengers; Public transit; Quality of service; Waiting time
• Uncontrolled Terms: On time reliability; Schedule reliability; Service reliability; Transit service
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01026220
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309099641
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jun 29 2006 7:41AM