Have They Bunched Yet? An Exploratory Study of the Impacts of Bus Bunching on Dwell and Running Times

If transit agencies wish to retain and attract riders, they need to provide reliable and efficient services. Transit agencies tend to run high-frequency bus routes during peak hours, and in many cases, different routes can also overlap along major corridors. In some instances, consecutive buses can arrive at a shared stop simultaneously or while another bus has been standing at the stop. This phenomenon, known as bus bunching, can delay buses and passengers, and is inefficient. In this study, the authors attempt to understand how bus bunching from the same or different routes can impact bus operations, specifically dwell and running times. This research uses stop-level records obtained from automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger counter (APC) systems from TriMet, Portland, OR. Using linear modeling, we find that bus bunching increases both dwell and running times. Specifically, when different routes are scheduled to arrive at a bus stop within a short time frame, dwell times increase more than if buses bunched from the same route. In contrast, bunching from the same route prolongs running times more compared to bunching with buses from different routes. The authors findings suggest that bus schedulers and operators consider adding more time between consecutive buses from different routes at shared stops to minimize the negative impacts that they observed from bus bunching.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP050 Standing Committee on Bus Transit Systems. Alternate title: Have They Bunched Yet? Exploratory Study of Impacts of Bus Bunching on Dwell and Running Time.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Verbich, David
  • Diab, Ehab
  • El-Geneidy, Ahmed
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
• Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bunching; Bus transit operations; Dwell time; Routes and routing; Running time
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Public Transportation; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01589082
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-1965
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 1 2016 9:26AM