Keywords

Transit, micro simulation, statistics, data collection

Abstract

This research demonstrated the effectiveness of Transit Signal Priority (TSP) in improving bus corridor travel time in a simulated environment using real world data. TSP is a technology that provides preferential treatment to buses at signalized intersections. By considering different scenarios of activating bus signal priority when a bus is 3 or 5 minutes behind schedule, it was demonstrated that bus travel times improved significantly while there is little effect on delays for crossing street traffic. The case of providing signal priority for buses unconditionally resulted in significant crossing street delays for some signalized intersections with only minor improvement to bus travel time over both scenarios of Conditional priority. Evaluation was conducted by using micro-simulation and statistical analysis to compare Unconditional and Conditional TSP with the No TSP scenario. This evaluation looked at performance metrics (for buses and all vehicles) including average speed profiles, average travel times, average number of stops, and crossing street delay. Different Conditional TSP scenarios of activating TSP when a bus is 3 or 5 minutes behind schedule were considered. The simulation demonstrated that Conditional TSP significantly improved bus travel times with little effect on crossing street delays. The results also showed that utilizing TSP technology reduced the environmental emissions in the I-Drive corridor. Furthermore, field data was used to calculate actual passenger travel time savings and benefit cost ratio (7.92) that resulted from implementing conditional TSP. Conditional TSP 3 minutes behind schedule was determined to be the most beneficial and practical TSP scenario for real world implementation at both the corridor and regional levels.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2014

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Al-Deek, Haitham

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0005474

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0005474

Language

English

Release Date

December 2014

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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