Abstract

The number of private vehicles increased dramatically during the last two decades in the island of Cyprus. This phenomenon had a negative effect on the bus transport mode which over the years its use has been considerably reduced. As traffic congestion increased considerably during the same period the need for a high quality public transportation system became clear. This need is also supported by the demand for public transportation by the aging and disadvantaged population. The best way to attract people back to public transportation is to have a reliable bus system with a high quality of service which can compensate for the lack of freedom and exibility a private vehicle can provide. However such a system should not have a negative effect on the traffic network in terms of congestion and travel times but should coexist serving both the needs of people who do not drive and those who use the public transport mode. The purpose of this paper is to present the development and evaluation of a number of scenarios aiming at attracting commuters back to public transportation. This idea stems from the fact that surveys among the Cypriot commuters show that people will use buses if buses provide a fast and reliable service. For this purpose, microscopic simulation models are developed in order to examine several scenarios of dedicated bus lanes and bus priority schemes so that the buses can provide the desired level of service with the minimal impact on the rest of the traffic. © 2009 IFAC. 434 441 "p"Sponsors: IFAC Technical Committee on Transportation Systems TC 7.4 Conference code: 85831 Cited By :3

Abstract

One method to increase the quality of railway traffic flow is to construct a more robust timetable in which trains are able to both recover from delays and the delays are prevented from propagating. Previous research results show that the indicator Robustness in Critical Points (RCP) can be used to increase timetable robustness. In this paper we present the use of a method for RCP optimization, how can be implemented and assessed ex-post via microscopic simulation and subsequently evaluated. From the evaluation we learn more about how increased RCP values influence a timetable’s performance. The aim is to understand more about RCP increase at a localised level within a timetable in terms of effects to the pairs of trains that are part of the indicator. We present a case study where an initial timetable and a timetable with increased RCP values are evaluated. The ex-post evaluation includes the quantification of measures concerning train-borne delay and robustness of traffic flow, as well as measures capturing the subsequent quality of service experienced by passengers to assess the broader effects of improved robustness. The result shows that it is necessary to use several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the effects of an RCP increase. The robustness will increase at a localised level, but the results also indicate that there is a need to analyse the relationship between ex-post measures and RCP further, to improve the method used to increase RCP and thus its overall effect on timetable robustness.