STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING RELIABILITY OF BUS TRANSIT SERVICE

Four major classes of strategies for improving reliability of bus transit service are analyzed: vehicle-holding strategies, reduction of the number of stops made by each bus, signal preemption, and provision of exclusive right-of-way. The principal findings are that (a) strategies to improve service reliability can have very substantial impacts on overall service quality, including improvements in average wait and in-vehicle time as well, and (b) the best strategy to use in a particular situation depends on several factors, but service frequency is the most important. For low-frequency services (less than 10 buses per hour), schedule-based holding strategies or zone scheduling is likely to work best. For midfrequency services (10-30 buses per hour) zone scheduling or signal preemption is likely to be most effective, although headway-based holding can also work well if an appropriate control point can be found. In high-frequency situations (more than 30 buses per hour), an exclusive lane combined with signal preemption should be considered. (Author)

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1981/818/818-002.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=STRATEGIES+FOR+IMPROVING+RELIABILITY+OF+BUS+TRANSIT+SERVICE&author=M.+Turnquist&publication_year=1981
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0309032598
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper appeared in Transportation Research Record No. 818, Design of Public Transport Services. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Authors:
  • Turnquist, Mark A
• Conference:
  • 60th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia, United States
  • Date: 1981-1-12 to 1981-1-16
• Publication Date: 1981

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 7-13
• Monograph Title: Design of public transport services
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 818
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus lanes; Bus stops; Bus transit; Frequency (Electromagnetism); Headways; Improvements; Level of service; Reduction (Chemistry); Reliability; Traffic signal preemption; Traffic signals
• Old TRIS Terms: Bus transportation (Intracity); Reduction
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00345958
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309032598
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Feb 27 1982 12:00AM