Comprehensive Approach to Transfer Synchronization in Public Transit

Abstract

The dynamic and uncertain characters of traffic often make bus schedules erratic; therefore, planned synchronized public transit transfers do not always materialize. This research aims at reducing the operational deviation of buses, and thus increasing arrival reliability of vehicles as well as improving the occurrence of direct transfer. To achieve this objective, a mathematical model is developed to calculate the recommended parameters of real-time bus operation strategies according to real-time arrival time deviation data. A case study is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in practice. Results illustrate that adopting this approach reduces the probability of bus bunching from 8.33% to 0, and increases the operational reliability of vehicles, although transit vehicles have a larger delay. Moreover, direct transfer can be guaranteed with our proposed approach.