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BUS SCHEDULING MODEL: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Conference Paper · January 2011

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Regional Engineering Postgraduate Conference (EPC) 2011

BUS SCHEDULING MODEL: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Mohammad Hesam Hafezi a, Amiruddin Ismail b and Ramez A. Al-Mansob c

Sustainable Urban Transport Research Centre (SUTRA)/ Department of Civil
and Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment,
National University of Malaysia, Malaysia
a
hafezi23@eng.ukm.com, b abim@eng.ukm.my, c ramizizzi@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Buses are the most widely used in transit technology today because bus networks
are easily accessible and cheaper than other kinds of public transportation. They
are operated in nearly all cities with transit service and in a majority of them are
the only transit modes. Demand of passengers for using bus network is higher
due to cheaper and more area cover. There are three basic agents in bus
scheduling model: passenger, bus authority and traffic. Behaviour of passengers
are including: payment fare, demand patterns and waiting time in bus. Bus
authority is including: fleet size, fare collection system and frequency. Finally,
interaction between traffic and bus network is including: traffic light, width
streets and overlap of bus lines. This review covers several bus scheduling model
for different position such as: peak-hour traffic, non-peak hour traffic and central
business district.

Keyword: Bus scheduling; passengers; traffic; waiting time; fare collection.

INTRODUCTION

In developing countries, demand of passenger trip is higher, due to

economic growth (Yan and Chen 2002). Buses network is widespread network
and they are operated in nearly all cities with transit service and in a majority of
them are the only transit modes. All standard buses look largely alike and they
have basically the same configuration: a large passengers compartment, where
riders can move standing up, engine in the rear, doors along one side, each door
has two channels, a single person up font driving the vehicle and usually
supervising fare collection. Average speed for bus operation is around 15 to 20
km/h during off-peak hours. And, 8 to 14 km/h is during peaks. Also, for express
routes average speed of bus operation is around 50 to 70 km/h (Grava 2002).
Performance characteristics of bus service are: reliability, frequency,
capacity, safety and costs (Vuchic 1981).
The first performance characteristic of bus service is reliability. Usually
it is measured as a percentage of arrivals buses at the terminus with 0 to 4 min
delay, and this is depends on traffic conditions along the route. Generally, where
bus stop spacing had equal intervals, service reliability was safer (Bermond and
Ergincan 1996; Ibeas et al. 1996). The second performance characteristic of bus
service is frequency. It is the main issue in increasing reliability. Proper headway
buses along the route can decline delays of arrivals buses in the each stop. The
third performance characteristic of bus service is capacity. Use the full capacity
of buses can decrease operating costs. Usually during peak-hour traffic capacity
of bus is full and may not capacity for alighting the passengers in bus stops along
the route. The fourth performance characteristic of bus service is safety. It is
more than the private car. Finally, the fifth performance characteristic of bus
service is costs. It is including operating costs and investment. Operating cost is
including: transportation, or direct costs or operating buses, vehicle maintenance
and garages, general and administration, marketing and advertisings, taxes and
licenses and insurance (Dessouky et al. 2003).
Generally, with considering performance characteristics of bus operation
can preparing proper bus scheduling model for different time and position.
In this paper we review some bus scheduling model and shown effective
parameters to obtain proper model in different position.

METHODOLOGY

In the World Bank Data the value of load factor is 70%, headway of
buses is around 1-12 minutes and average operating speed is around 15-25 km/h
for bus standard operation inter-city.
Nowadays, for increasing reliability and achievement to standard
characteristic operation, one way is using a exclusive bus lane. Where, bus
operation is done out of other traffic. In this position, bus operation duration
peak-hour traffic have reliability near duration non peak-hour traffic due to buses
can keeping average velocity and dwell time in bus stop.
HWE et al. in 2006 review merging bus route for obtained proper bus
scheduling model in central business district. Where, a significant portion of the
200,000 people working in central business district (CBD) relies on buses as their
primary means of transport. Duration peak-hour traffic demand of passengers is
higher and buses are overcrowding. They proposed a merging bus routes method
for reduce traffic congestion problem with increasing bus occupancy in central
business district. They review overlapping of bus routes and fleet size. Also, they
obtained rate of passengers in different operation time during day. They by
merging routes which they have more than 60% overlap obtained a new method
for bus operation. The proposed method could decrease fleet size and the number
of bus stopping activities. Also, for tranquility passengers, frequency increase
and reduction travel time. Furthermore, they review pros and cons of route
merger from three point of view. By summarizing the pros and cons (see Table
1), we can see that the benefits of the route mergers outweigh the drawbacks
(Hwe et al. 2006).

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 TABLE 1 Pros and cons of route merger

Pros Cons
Traffic and society Reduction in bus trips
and bus stopping
activities
Relief in traffic
congestion and air
pollution
Savings in land that is
used as bus terminus
Bus operators Service extension from Operation cost from
bus trip saving adoption of the truly
distance-based fare
Reduction in number of Difficulty on managing
buses needed long route
Expansion of network

Minimal negative effect

to passenger demands
Passengers Reduction in waiting Use of smart card during
time exiting
Inconvenience from
change of service
Possible slight increase in
travel time by boarding
and alighting
More packed buses

In 2002 a scheduling model based on interrelationship between

passenger trip demands and bus trip supplies for inter-city bus carriers have been
studied by Yan and Chen. They achieved by adjustment frequency of buses could
decreasing journey time and fleet size. They also found by adjustment frequency
of buses duration peak-hour traffic can reducing operating cost (Yan and Chen
2002).
Also, van Oudheusden and Zhu in 1995 have proposed a trip frequency
scheduling for determination of trip frequencies problem which this way reduced
trip frequency duration different period. They achieved that overcrowding of
buses can depend by insufficient planning in addition fleet size and traffic
congestion (van Oudheusden and Zhu 1995).
In 2009 Chen et al. analyzed bus operation reliability at the stop, route
and network levels. They achieved by increasing distance between a bus stop and
the origin terminal, reliability of bus service will be declined. Also, bus service
reliability greatly decreases when this distance to increase to more than 30 km
(Chen et al. 2009).
3
 Fang et al. in 2010 considered a real-time scheduling method for a
variable-route bus. The proposed method was consideration on both the cost and
the passengers. This model reduced cost and average waiting time of the
passengers (Fang et al. 2010).
In 2007 Meignan shown a simulation of urban bus network (Figure 1).
They simulated movement of buses from origin terminal and servicing along bus
route and comeback to destination terminal. Also, they simulated Behaviour of
Passengers. Where, passengers after waiting time on bus stop for arriving buses,
boarding to bus and waiting in bus for arriving to their destination (Meignan et al.
2007).

FIGURE 1 Simulation of passenger and buses behavior in bus network

Also, in past research researchers found some solution for improving bus
scheduling model. Nagatani in 2001 found by passing the bus stop when number
of passenger in bus is full or headway profile is further limit can reduce delay of
buses (Nagatani 2001). Sun et al. in 2008 found by division of paths among bus
stops and stop of buses in some bus bay can decline delay and fleet size (Sun et

4
al. 2008). Gleason in 1974 proposed a decision maker method for dispatching
buses in different frequency (Gleason 1974).

CONCLUSION

Generally, delay of buses are due to some cases: more demand of passengers,
depletion of fleet size, traffic characteristic and frequency of buses. Duration
peak-hour traffic disorganization of bus scheduling is higher than non peak-hour
traffic. Using a exclusive bus lane for bus operation can reduce disorganization
(Wirasinghe and Vandebona 2010). Moreover, to improve bus service in crowed
areas, the mixed traffic lanes and exclusive bus lane can be used together. With
increasing average speed of bus in exclusive bus lane ways and decline running
time between bus stops, can compensate delays at the last stations. This approach
reduces total delays in bus mission .For improving bus scheduling, we suggest
some recommendations: if a crowded bus arrive after a long time waiting time,
indeed there is a empty bus behind this bus then come early. Learn to passengers
for come near door before stop of bus in bus bays for alighting (Gershenson and
Pineda 2009). So, Attachment the bus line map in bus stops for knowledge
passengers and Using flexible frequency of buses instead of stable duration peak-
hour traffic are other solution. plus some spare buses in terminal for necessary
position for covering fleet size can help to correct implementation of bus
scheduling.

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