Investigation and solution to bus bunching problem

• Main Author: Chen, Joseph Junzhe
• Other Authors: Wang Zhiwei
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/61215
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Bus bunching is a common phenomenon that generally occurs in major urbanised cities that contain complex and congested traffic networks. It occurs when one or more buses of the same service fails to adhere to their initial headway due to circumstances. Bus bunching will eventually occur when the buses arrive at the same bus stop together. Many transportation institutions and governments worldwide have devised schemes to alleviate the implications of bus bunching. The Bus Services Enhancement Programme (BSEP) was enacted by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to enhance the connectivity and efficiency of public bus services. This final year project conducted an investigation of the bus bunching phenomenon to perform an assessment of the effectiveness of the BSEP at reducing bus bunching occurrences and the degree and crowdedness on board buses. The investigation compared the results against the findings of Deng & Chua, (2012) to assess the effectiveness of the BSEP. The results were favourable and was in line with the projection of the BSEP. The Public Transport Council (PTC) uses the Quality of Service (QOS) as a standard to evaluate the current Level of Service (LOS) provided by the public transport operators. However, the current QOS does not have a parameter that uses bus bunching as an indicator for measuring the LOS of bus services. This project shall also suggest a standard for bus bunching.