A Microscopic Simulation Study of Automated Headway Control of Buses Traveling on the Exclusive Bus Lane on the Lincoln Tunnel Corridor

This paper studies the feasibility of automating the exclusive bus lane (XBL) of the Lincoln tunnel corridor. Automating the exclusive bus lane will have benefits including, reduction in travel times and increase in capacity of the bus lane. This way, construction of new lanes, which involves very large amounts of capital investment, could be avoided. Three different bus controllers that adjust the speed of the bus based on its speed and the spacing with respect to the bus ahead were implemented. Then, the performance of each of the bus controller was examined and the results were compared with the simulation model that represents the existing case. A simulation model for the corridor was developed in Paramics traffic simulation software. Travel time savings were observed for the automated conditions, when it was compared with the existing scenario. In addition, the behavior of the bus controllers under emergency conditions, when one of the traveling buses comes to a halt due to an accident is investigated. It was found that the following buses were able to avoid a crash by coming to a stop quickly. Finally, a cost-benefit analysis was conducted for the automated scenario and it was determined that automation of the bus lane was beneficial.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Ozbay, Kaan
  • Indrakanti, Teja
  • Yanmaz-Tuzel, Ozlem
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2010-1-10 to 2010-1-14
• Date: 2010

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 89th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus lanes; Headways; Highway operations; Incident detection; Stopping distances; Traffic simulation; Travel time; Vehicle spacing
• Identifier Terms: Lincoln Tunnel
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01152300
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 10-3495
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 16 2010 6:12AM