Evaluating the Influence of Bus Stops on Traffic Flow Characteristics of Disordered Systems

Abstract

There are various types of bus stops available for stopping a bus, but the curbside bus stop is the most seen bus stop in the urban road. While boarding and alighting from buses, which take place from near curbside bus stop, a portion of the lane gets occupied that reduces the lane width. This reduction of road width or lane narrowing causes bottleneck formation, which may result in congestion. Due to congestion, delay and safety problem to other vehicles can occur. Other problems can also be observed during stopping of buses in the curbside depending upon the dwell time of the bus. For example, lane changing behaviour of other vehicles from the curb lane to the middle or inner will be observed. Due to this, vehicles will always try to manoeuvre through the effective width of the road and there will change in lateral placement from the edge of the pavement and a change in lateral separation of different vehicle categories. Buses at bus stops will also cause problems like queuing and reduction of speed of different vehicles due to reduction of lane width. All these different factors affect the traffic flow and capacity of a road. The current study aims to find out the lateral position of the different vehicles, their lateral separation with respect to the dwell time of the bus, speed in the presence and absence of the bus, time headway and traffic flow (presence and absence of the bus). Here, a six-lane divided road in Delhi has been selected for the study and traffic data was collected using a video graphic technique. The trajectory of different types of vehicles is extracted with the help of software. The result of the study shows that the average traffic flow is more when there are no buses near the bus stop. Motorized two-wheelers and autorickshaws are the vehicles which occupy most of the lane when there are no buses, while the buses cause these vehicles to shift more toward the inner lane. Additionally, while changing the lane, there will be an interaction between the various vehicles (motorized two-wheeler- motorized two-wheeler, motorized two wheeler-autorickshaw, motorized two-wheeler-car, autorickshaw-autorickshaw, car-car) which will affect the lateral separation. A significant reduction in the speed of vehicles and lateral separation is observed due to the buses. More lateral separation was observed in motorized two-wheeler- motorized two-wheeler (MTW-MTW). Moreover, bus dwell time has more impact on the speed, lateral placement and lateral separation of the vehicle. Also, the time headway of different vehicle combinations is more when there is a bus in curbside.