| Actual bus arrival times often deviate from the posted schedules due to a variety of factors; hence, providing real time bus information can improve service quality. The main objectives of this thesis are 1) to examine riders' attitude and preferences towards real time transit information systems in Calgary, 2) to understand the factors that affect bus travel time in Calgary and 3) to develop a method to estimate the delays in bus travel time created by a traffic signal using shockwave theory, traffic signal database and bus speed. A survey was conducted to get users views whereas archived APC/AVL data combined with weather information was analyzed to examine the factors affecting bus travel time. Survey results showed that a majority of the respondents (88%) indicated that real time transit information is not necessary if headway is less than 10 minutes. Display board at stops was the most preferred medium to get en-route information whereas for pre-trip information, website/call centre were the preferred media. As for preferred information content, next bus arrival time information got the highest priority. In general, LRT users showed least interest in real-time information whereas females, younger riders, current car users and infrequent transit users showed higher interest. From travel time analysis, it was found that run time increased by about one minute for every kilometer traveled by a bus. Winter season, snowy weather, traffic signal increased the bus running time and the presence of LRT crossing added almost one minute per link. Morning peak trips were found to be faster than afternoon peak whereas running time was lowest during Federal holidays. Buses tend to dwell 42s longer at time points, each boarding increased dwell time by about 4s where each alighting added 3s and each minute that a bus was late increased the average dwell by 1s. |
