2013 Session: 422

• High Load Transit Line Passenger Transmission and Productiveness Efficiencies
  Abstract: Performance of urban transit systems may be quantified and assessed using transit capacity and productive capacity in planning, design and operational management activities. Bunker (4) defines important productive performance measures of an individual transit service and transit line, which are extended in this paper to quantify efficiency and operating fashion of transit services and lines. Comparison of a hypothetical bus line’s operation during a morning peak hour and daytime hour demonstrates the usefulness of productiveness efficiency and passenger transmission efficiency, passenger churn and average proportion line length traveled to the operator in understanding their services’ and lines’ productive performance, operating characteristics, and quality of service. Productiveness efficiency can flag potential pass-up activity under high load conditions, as well as ineffective resource deployment. Proportion line length traveled can directly measure operating fashion. These measures can be used to compare between lines/routes and, within a given line, various operating scenarios and time horizons to target improvements. The next research stage is investigating within-line variation using smart card passenger data and field observation of pass-ups. Insights will be used to further develop practical guidance to operators.
  Authors: Bunker, Jonathan Michael
  Authors: Bunker, Jonathan Michael
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation
  Session: 422
  Paper Number: 13-0035
• Bus Arrival Headway Reliability: Case Study in Hefei, China
  Abstract: Reliability of transit, as a key measurement in transit operation, is important since it affects the mode choice behavior of both current and prospective riders to a great extent, which imposes direct impacts to transit ridership. Therefore capturing this measurement accurately is a key requirement to successfully evaluate whether the transit system is properly operated. However the traditional method of evaluating reliability based on statistical analysis of bus arrival headway has several shortcomings. Specifically the value of reliability using traditional coefficient of variation (CV) is not between 0 and 1, which makes it difficult to explain, and the value of reliability can decrease with the increase of the transit headway. The traditional method also ignores the fact that buses can arrive at stops as a bunch which means the transit service is not reliable. This means the traditional method cannot represent the real operation condition of transit system. But all these shortcomings can be avoided by using the advanced method presented in this paper. Also this study establishes an evaluation framework to assess the reliability of the transit system from different stratification, including stops, routes and network levels. Then the bus operation data of Hefei City is analyzed as a case study. Comparison is conducted to show the improvement made by using the advanced method. Based on the new evaluation measurements, an example of adding exclusive bus lanes to existing bus route was provided to show how well these advanced method can be used to assess the transit operation and benefit the decision making process.
  Authors: Chen, Qian; Wang, Xin; Li, Wenquan; Deng, Weiping
  Authors: Chen, Qian; Wang, Xin; Li, Wenquan; Deng, Weiping
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation
  Session: 422
  Paper Number: 13-0698
• Analysis of Variability of Travel Conditions Along a Transit Line
  Abstract: Measuring and understanding service reliability from the users' point of view is a major issue in transport planning. Indicators describing passengers' transit experiences have been developed but they cannot directly be used in a frequency-based transit assignment software, through generalized cost, because they are always based on timetables. As well, these indicators make little case of onboard congestion. The objective of this paper is to introduce a stochastic model describing passenger travel conditions along a transit line, from the users' perspective and in a frequency-based framework. Inter-arrival times are treated as random variables. The model is based on a simple assumption about successive headways that describe the way irregularity is propagated along the line. It yields analytical formulas for the distribution of passenger loads on all sections. An efficient way of computing congestion costs for passenger is also described. Finally, the model is applied to a portion of a suburban rail line from the Paris region and orders of magnitude of the difference between what operators measures and what passengers experience are derived.
  Authors: Benezech, Vincent; Combes, François; Leurent, Fabien M.
  Authors: Benezech, Vincent; Combes, François; Leurent, Fabien M.
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Paper
  Subject: Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation
  Session: 422
  Paper Number: 13-3676
• High Load Transit Line Passenger Transmission and Productiveness Efficiencies
  Authors: Bunker, Jonathan
  Authors: Bunker, Jonathan
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation; Poster
  Subject: Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation
  Session: 422
  Paper Number: 13-0035
• Bus Arrival Headway Reliability: Case Study in Hefei, China
  Authors: Chen, Qian
  Authors: Chen, Qian
  Year: 2013
  Document Type: Presentation; Poster
  Subject: Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation
  Session: 422
  Paper Number: 13-0698