TITLE:
Integrated Performance Measures for Bus Rapid Transit System and Traffic Signal Systems Using Trajectory Data
AUTHORS:
Jijo Kulathintekizhakethil Mathew, Howell Li, Enrique Saldivar-Carrranza, Matthew Duffy, Darcy Michael Bullock
KEYWORDS:
Connected Vehicle Trajectory, Bus Rapid Transit, Performance, Traffic Signal Retiming, Schedules
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Transportation Technologies,
Vol.12 No.4,
October
21,
2022
ABSTRACT: Bus rapid transit (BRT) systems have been
implemented in many cities over the past two
decades. Widespread adoption of General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), the
deployment of high-fidelity bus GPS data tracking, and anonymized
high-fidelity connected vehicle data from private vehicles have provided new
opportunities for performance measures that can be used by both transit
agencies and traffic signal system operators. This paper describes the use of
trajectory-based data to develop performance measures for a BRT system in Indianapolis, Indiana. Over 3 million
data records during the 3-month period between March and May 2022 are
analyzed to develop visualizations and performance metrics. A methodology to
estimate the average delay and schedule adherence is presented along a route
comprised of 74 signals and 28 bus stations. Additionally, this research
demonstrates how these performance measures can be used to evaluate dedicated
and non-dedicated bus lanes with general traffic. Travel times and reliability
of buses are compared with nearly 30 million private vehicle trips. Results
show that median travel time for buses on
dedicated bi-directional lanes is within one minute of general traffic and
during peak periods the buses are often faster. Schedule adherence was observed
to be more challenging, with approximately 3% of buses arriving within 1
minute on average during the 5AM hour and 5% of buses arriving 6 - 9 minutes
late during the 5PM hour. The framework and performance measures presented in this research provide agencies
and transportation professionals with tools to identify opportunities
for adjustments and to justify investment decisions.