Service design for heavy demand corridors : limited-stop bus service

Many transit agencies run both limited-stop and local service along some of their heavy ridership corridors. The primary benefit of limited-stop bus service is higher speed which results in reduced running time and thus reduced travel time for passengers. This reduced travel time can improve the service quality for existing passengers and can increase ridership on the route and thus both passengers and the agency can benefit from limited- stop service. However, this strategy also results in increased access time, and in increased wait time for some passengers. This thesis develops a model to evaluate limited stop bus service and then applies the model to develop general design guidelines for limited-stop service. The model created evaluates a specific service configuration including both the local and limited-stop headways and stops. The model calculates travel times, and assigns existing demand to limited and local stops and to limited and local routes, based on minimum passenger (weighted) travel time. This assignment is applied at the origin-destination pair level. The model then calculates several measures of effectiveness, which are used to compare different configurations, including market share (local preferred, limited preferred, and choice passengers), stop and route assignment (number of passengers selecting the limited service stops and limited-stop service), net change in passenger travel time (weighted and un-weighted), and finally productivity (passengers per trip and per vehicle hour for the local and limited-stop service). The model was used to analyze two CTA cases: Western Avenue local Route 49 and limited-stop Route X49, and the Madison Avenue Route 20.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Schwarcz, Stacey

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nigel H.M. Wilson and John Attanucci.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32415

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32415