The Potential of Low-Frequency AVL Data for the Monitoring and Control of Bus Performance

Abstract

1 In this paper we investigate the potential of bus localization data for the mon2 itoring and control of bus system performance. We show that data with a sampling rate as low 3 as one minute, when processed appropriately, can provide ample information. In particular, we 4 obtain accurate estimates of stop arrival and departure times which in turn allow the analysis of 5 headways and travel times. A three parameter gamma family of distributions is fitted for headways 6 at the stops along a bus line. The evolution of the parameters demonstrates critical points on the 7 line where bus bunching is significantly increased. Moreover, this analysis allows to differenti8 ate problems associated with varying passenger demand from uncertainties associated with traffic 9 conditions. Furthermore we show that both expected travel time and travel time variability can be 10 calculated from low-frequency localization data. Finally, we present how our results can be used 11 to calibrate a simulation model which can test bus control strategies. We apply and validate the 12 methods to data obtained from bus route number 1 in Boston. 13 TRB 2013 Annual Meeting Paper revised from original submittal. Yang et al. Potentials of low-frequency AVL data 2

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 5 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.