Exploring Applications of Second-Generation Archived Transit Data for Estimating Performance Measures and Arterial Travel Speeds

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2015

Subject Area

mode - bus, place - north america, place - urban, technology - automatic vehicle monitoring, technology - passenger information, operations - performance, operations - traffic, infrastructure - stop, infrastructure - traffic signals, economics - operating costs

Keywords

automatic vehicle location (AVL), automatic passenger count data, transit performance, travel speeds

Abstract

Travel time and operating speed influence the attractiveness, operating cost, and system efficiency of transit service. As part of its bus dispatch system, the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon has been archiving automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count data for all bus trips at the stop level since 1997. In 2013, a new and higher-resolution bus AVL data collection system was implemented. This new system provides stop-level data as well as 5-s resolution (5-SR) bus position data between stops. The objective of this paper is to explore potential applications of the new data for assessing transit performance and for estimating transportation system performance measures for urban arterials. Results suggest that the 5-SR data provide high-resolution information on time and position that can be used to determine bus travel speeds between bus stops, identify speed breakdowns, and estimate intersection signal and queuing delays.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Transportation Research Board, Washington, copyright remains with them.

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