Bus Rapid Transit design parameters and their impact on travel times : A micro-simulation study of boarding and alighting through all doors and bus lanes

Sammanfattning: Sweden has defined a national transportation objective that aim at making public transportation the most attractive option in more situations. One way of making public transportation mote attractive is to ensure that it is rapid. BRT stands for Bus Rapid Transit and is concept that ensures speed and reliability of public transportation buses through combined priority measures. However, accessibility measures for urban buses are often compromised and not prioritized politically. If the travel time saved for these measures can be estimated, then they are more likely to be implemented. Two components that have been defined for Swedish BRT were tested on a proposed BRT corridor in the city of Södertälje through microsimulation tool VISSIM. The two components that were tested was boarding and alighting through all doors and bus lanes, both median and curb side. The components were tested on a 3,2 km long corridor using the current actuated traffic signal that was currently in use. To test the measures a sensitivity analysis was carried out with three different levels of traffic and five different passenger levels for boarding and alighting. Only the impact on travel time for the bus was studied. The travel time savings from the measure boarding and alighting through all doors was 1 to 3 percent but only significant for the higher levels of boarding with an average of 12 to 15 boarding passengers per stop. The travel time savings of the curb side bus lane with actuated traffic signals was estimated to be up to 5 percent and for the median bus lane up to 11 percent in congested traffic conditions.