The application of traffic signal preemption systems for controlling bus headways

Details

• Creators:
  Koziol, J. S.
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.) ; United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Bus traffic
  • Headways
  • Traffic signal preemption
  • Urban traffic
  • Bus priority
  • Traffic signal preemption
  • Headways control
  • Analysis
  • Benefits
  • Local service buses
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT-TSC-HW911-PM-79-10
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Project memorandum
• Corporate Publisher:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Abstract:
  This report investigates the application of selective traffic signal preemption ; for controlling the headways of local service buses (buses with average time ; headways of less than 10 minutes), The preemption is selective in that it is granted ; to only "late" buses along a route, leading to a reduction in headway variance. The potential benefits of more evenly spaced bus headways include reduced passenger ; waiting times, reduced incidence of bus over loadings and more efficient fleet operation. Past application of traffic signal preemption systems have concentrated on ; reducing travel times for buses in Central Business District (CBD) grids and arterials. ; However, these systems have not been widely accepted and implemented, ; indicating that the amount of reduction in travel time has not resulted in a sufficient ; increase in ridership to offset the system costs and impacts on other traffic. ; The analysis and simulation results in this report indicated that selective ; traffic s1gual preemption is a feasible method for controlling the headways of buses ; on short headway routes. Furthermore, selective preemp-ifon yielded equal or better ; transit system performance compared to unconditional preemption with less than half ; as many preemptions and preempted cycle time. Future plans are discussed for expandinr, ; the simulation model developed in this report and continuing the analysis. ; The output of this work is expected to be a quantification of benefits as a function ; of bus priority variables, traffic variables and route characteristics.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/8581/dot_8581_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.60 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f79ee7adfd27ce2cf4fbe659467ef11c502eb264c823a235294e6c299a342171501c32db1ed1dcd6efdca25535a329185d850fbefe81eef66a10e0aa38dfe1fe