Two-way-looking self-equalizing headway control for bus operations

Shuyang Zhang and Hong K. Lo

Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 2018, vol. 110, issue C, 280-301

Abstract: Headway variations between successive buses, which lead to bus bunching, is undesirable for both passengers and bus operators, instigating longer average passenger waiting times and capacity underutilization of buses bunched together. Limiting bus bunching, hence, is important for urban bus operations. In this study, we analyze a two-way-looking self-equalizing control method for both deterministic and stochastic running times, derive its convergence properties, study the knock-on effect, and optimize its control parameter as a function of the number of buses operating in the route. By comparing the headways from both upstream and downstream of the control point, the control scheme will hold buses, if needed, at the control point to gradually restore the common headway of the system. By utilizing properties of the headway transition matrices associated with the control scheme, we prove that the bus headways will self-equalize under deterministic travel time. In addition, under the context of stochastic travel time variations, we prove that the headway variance of all buses will be reduced to a certain value by the control scheme. Further, we analyze the headway control parameter to determine its optimal value and adopt the scheme for dynamic control. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to illustrate the performance of this control scheme, with promising results.

Keywords: Bus operations; Headway control; Self-equalizing; Bus bunching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191261516308074
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transb:v:110:y:2018:i:c:p:280-301

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.trb.2018.02.012

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part B: Methodological is currently edited by Fred Mannering

More articles in Transportation Research Part B: Methodological from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().