The Bus Inner-Stop Operation Mechanism And Inter-Stop Control Under Multiple-Line Interactions

Urban bus systems always try to provide passengers with efficient,convenient as well as reliable commuting services.During daily bus operations,two phenomena,which are bus queueing and bus bunching,can be frequently observed.When these two phenomena occur,they can significantly influence the operation efficiency as well as the service level of a bus system.This study aims to study the bus inner-stop operating mechanism and inter-stop operation control considering interactions of multiple bus lines and the specific design of a curbside bus stop.Firstly,this study presents four different overtaking rules by combining overtaking-in and overtaking-out maneuvers and develops the corresponding four queueing models.The capacities of these four queueing systems are calculated and analytical results of the expected bus waiting delays are estimated under light,moderate,and heavy traffic.Based on these four queueing models,a generalized queueing model,which allows overtaking maneuvers occur randomly,is further proposed.By conducting simulation experiments,the accuracy of these queueing models is proved and an optimal overtaking strategy is proposed accordingly.Secondly,this study presents a new real-time inter-stop bus cruising speed control method.A holding model and a model,which determines optimal travel times between stops,are considered.Based on the travel time control model,an improved speed-control model is further proposed.Simulation experiments are conducted in a rolling-horizon scheme and the corresponding results show that this speed control method preforms promisingly.Last but not least,based on the above two work,this study proposes a bus control method to avoid bus bunching and bus queueing simultaneously.A new speed-control model is obtained by considering operations of multiple bus lines.Simulation experiments show that this new model can reduce the average passenger waiting time as well as the average bus waiting delay,and thus improve the efficiency of bus operations.