Busway Platform Bus Capacity Analysis Sumeet Kumar Jaiswal B.E. (Civil), M. Tech (Transportation) A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Urban Development Faculty of Built Environment & Engineering Queensland University of Technology December 2010 Dedicated to my dear sister Deepti Muley Keywords BRT, busway, capacity, lost time, crowd, transit, public transport, interface, dwell time. Sumeet Jaiswal Page i Abstract Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), because of its operational flexibility and simplicity, is rapidly gaining popularity with urban designers and transit planners. Earlier BRTs were bus shared lane or bus only lane, which share the roadway with general and other forms of traffic. In recent time, more sophisticated designs of BRT have emerged, such as busway, which has separate carriageway for buses and provides very high physical separation of buses from general traffic. Line capacities of a busway are predominately dependent on bus capacity of its stations. Despite new developments in BRT designs, the methodology of capacity analysis is still based on traditional principles of kerbside bus stop on bus only lane operations. Consequently, the tradition methodology lacks accounting for various dimensions of busway station operation, such as passenger crowd, passenger walking and bus lost time along the long busway station platform. This research has developed a purpose made bus capacity analysis methodology for busway station analysis. Extensive observations of kerbside bus stops and busway stations in Brisbane, Australia were made and differences in their operation were studied. A large scale data collection was conducted using the video recording technique at the Mater Hill Busway Station on the South East Busway in Brisbane. This research identified new parameters concerning busway station operation, and through intricate analysis identified the elements and processes which influence the bus dwell time at a busway station platform. A new variable, Bus lost time, was defined and its quantitative descriptions were established. Based on these finding and analysis, a busway station platform bus capacity methodology was developed, comprising of new models for busway station lost time, busway station dwell time, busway station loading area bus capacity, and busway station platform bus capacity. The new methodology not only accounts for passenger boarding and alighting, but also covers platform crowd and bus lost time in station platform bus capacity estimation. The applicability of this methodology was shown through demonstrative Sumeet Jaiswal Page iii Busway Platform Bus Capacity Analysis examples. Additionally, these examples illustrated the significance of the bus lost time variable in determining station capacities. Sumeet Jaiswal Page iv Contents Abstract iii List of Tables ix List of Figures xi Chapter One 1Introduction 1 1.1 General 1 1.2 Background 1 1.3 Research motivation 2 1.4 Research hypothesis 3 1.5 Research aim and objectives 3 1.6 Scope of this research 3 1.7 Relevance of this research 4 1.8 Thesis outline 5 1.9 Publications from this research 7 Two 2Literature Review 9 2.1 Overview 9 2.2 Bus Rapid Transit System 9 2.2.1 BRT defined 9 2.2.2 Busway defined 11 2.3 Bus stop/ station classification 12 2.3.1 Simple stop 12 2.3.2 Enhanced stop 14 2.3.3 Dedicated station 14 2.3.4 Intermodal Terminal or Transit Centre 15 2.4 Role and impact of bus stop/ station 16 2.4.1 Bus dwell time 17 2.5 Busway station 23 2.5.1 Role of busway station 24 2.5.2 Passenger flow at a busway station 24 2.5.3 Platform crowd 26 Sumeet Jaiswal Page v Busway Platform Bus Capacity Analysis 2.6 Crowd density and walking speed 28 2.6.1 Pedestrian speed-density-flow relationship 29 2.6.2 TCQSM method 32 2.7 Busway platform bus capacity 36 2.7.1 Development of Bus capacity model 37 2.7.2 Revised capacity model 38 2.7.3 TCQSM methodology of capacity calculation 39 2.8 Gaps in the knowledge 41 Three 3Research Problem Development 45 3.1 Overview 45 3.2 Difference in bus stop and busway station operation 45 3.2.1 The size 46 3.2.2 The demand 46 3.2.3 The passenger boarding process 47 3.3 Problem conceptualisation 48 3.4 Busway operation 49 3.5 Definition of terms 52 3.6 Conclusions 53 Four 4Data Collection and Processing 55 4.1 Overview 55 4.2 State of art in relevant data collection technique 55 4.3 Technique used for data collection in this study 58 4.4 Research methodology 59 4.4.1 Data collection methodology 59 4.4.2 Data extraction methodology 59 4.4.3 Data analysis methodology 60 4.5 Selection of study station 61 4.6 Characteristics of Mater Hill Busway Station 64 4.6.1 Passenger flow at station 66 4.6.2 Bus flow at station 67 4.7 Sequence of data collection 68 4.8 Data processing 71 4.9 Chapter close 71 Sumeet Jaiswal Page vi Five 5Parameter Analysis and Evaluation 73 5.1 Overview 73 5.2 Measuring platform crowd 73 5.3 Passenger - bus Interface 73 5.3.1 Discussion of passenger - bus interface 78 5.3.2 Time - Space Diagram 79 5.4 Passenger behaviour while waiting 81 5.5 Bus lost time 84 5.6 Passenger - bus interaction 87 5.6.1 Effect of fare collection policy 90 5.7 Chapter close 93 Six 6Modelling Bus Lost Time 95 6.1 Overview 95 6.2 Bus lost time histogram 95 6.3 Probability distribution curve fitting 99 6.3.1 Assessing normality 103 6.3.2 Null hypothesis testing 104 6.4 Log-normal distribution curves for bus lost time 107 6.4.1 Log-normal probability distribution function curve 108 6.4.2 Log-normal cumulative distribution function curve 115 6.4.3 Descriptive characteristics of busway station bus lost time 115 6.5 Chapter close 116 Seven 7Busway Station Dwell Time Model 119 7.1 Overview 119 7.2 Model framework 119 7.3 Busway station bus dwell time model 121 7.4 Example application 122 7.5 Discussion 127 7.6 Chapter close 128 Eight 8Busway Loading Area Bus Capacity Model 129 8.1 Overview 129 8.2 Approach to busway loading area bus capacity model 129 8.2.1 Busway dwell time 130 8.2.2 Dwell time variability 130 Sumeet Jaiswal Page vii Busway Platform Bus Capacity Analysis 8.2.3 Failure rate 131 8.2.4 Operating margin due to passenger service time variability 131 8.2.5 Lost time variability 132 8.3 Busway loading area bus capacity model 134 8.4 Effective bus capacity of loading area 135 8.5 Busway station platform bus capacity 136 8.6 Example application 136 8.7 Discussion 139 8.8 Chapter close 140 Nine 9Busway Station Efficiency Model 141 9.1 Overview 141 9.2 Loading area blocking 141 9.2.1 Existing approach 146 9.3 Approach to loading area efficiency factor calculation 147 9.4 Loading area efficiency factors for Mater Hill Busway Station 148 9.5 Discussion 149 9.6 Chapter close 150 Ten 10Conclusions 151 10.1 Overview 151 10.2 Summary of this thesis 151 10.3 Contributions of this research 153 10.4 Implications of this research 153 10.5 Conclusions 154 10.6 Recommendations for future work 155 11References 157 Appendix 12 A 13Busway Station Platform Bus Capacity Analysis Worksheet 163 B 14Bus Capacity example application 165 C 15List of Publications 169 Sumeet Jaiswal Page viii List of Tables Table 2.1 Pedestrian level of service on walkways 34 Table 2.2 Levels of service for queuing area 34 Table 2.3 Similar type of bus lanes and busway 37 Table 2.4 Failure rates and corresponding ‘z’ values 39 Table 2.5 Efficiency of multiple offline linear loading area at bus stops 41 Table 3.1 Boarding process at a bus stop and at a busway station 48 Table 4.1 Data collection techniques used in past studies 56 Table 4.2 Candidate busway station (outbound) platforms 63 Table 4.3 Fare collection policies at Mater Hill Busway Station 65 Table 4.4 Bus flow rate and passenger demand classification split 69 Table 4.5 Characteristics of analysis time 69 Table 5.1 Duration of passenger – bus interface during off-peak period 74 Table 5.2 Duration of passenger – bus interface during peak period 75 Table 5.3 Passenger boarding and alighting during evening peak period 85 Table 5.4 Bus lost times (LT) during off-peak periods 85 Table 5.5 Bus lost times (LT) during peak period 86 Table 5.6 Descriptive statistics 90 Table 5.7 Fare collection policies and observations at study station 91 Table 5.8 Effect of fare collection policy on boarding time per passenger 92 Table 5.9 Effect of fare collection policy on alighting time per passenger 92 Table 6.1 Descriptive statistics of loading area 1 (Off-peak period) 100 Table 6.2 Descriptive statistics of loading area 2 (Off-peak period) 100 Table 6.3 Descriptive statistics of loading area 3 (Off-peak period) 101 Table 6.4 Descriptive statistics of loading area 1 (Peak period) 101 Sumeet Jaiswal Page ix Busway Platform Bus Capacity Analysis Table 6.5 Descriptive statistics of loading area 2 (Peak period) 102 Table 6.6 Descriptive statistics of loading area 3 (Peak period) 102 Table 6.7 Methods for testing normality 103 Table 6.8 Assessing normality for loading area 1 (Off-peak period) 105 Table 6.9 Assessing normality for loading area 2 (Off-peak period) 105 Table 6.10 Assessing normality for loading area 3 (Off-peak period) 105 Table 6.11 Assessing normality for loading area 1 (Peak period) 106 Table 6.12 Assessing normality for loading area 2 (Peak period) 106 Table 6.13 Assessing normality for loading area 3 (Peak period) 106 Table 6.14 Statistical parameters of bus lost time curves 115 Table 6.15 Descriptive characteristics of bus lost times (Peak period) 116 Table 6.16 Descriptive characteristics of bus lost times (Off- peak period) 116 Table 7.1 Example demonstration 123 Table 8.1 Failure rates