An Integrated Bus-based Progression System for Arterials Having Heavy Transit Flows

Abstract

Conventional Transit Signal Priority (TSP) controls often reach the limitation for arterials accommodating heavy bus flows since the priority control function can significantly increase the delay at minor streets. Under such conditions, a proper signal coordinated plan that aims to offer progression for buses is one potentially effective strategy. This study proposes a bus-based progression system to reduce the delay of buses on local arterials experiencing heavy bus volume. The proposed model is capable of providing bus-progression bands under various traffic conditions, which take into account the stochastic nature of bus dwell time and the capacity of bus stops. The trade-off between passenger-car and bus-based progression bands and the selection logic under different traffic compositions have been also investigated in this study. The results of extensive simulation experiments have confirmed the proposed model's effectiveness in reducing the bus passenger delay and the average passenger-car delays under various traffic conditions.