STUDY ON BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM AND QUEUE JUMP LANE

Seminar report submitted by

CHAITHANYA M
KNR17CE026
To
The APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University
in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the award of the degree
Of
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
CIVIL ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING KANNUR

KERALA, 670563

OCTOBER 2020
 DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING KANNUR

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar report entitled STUDY ON BUS RAPID TRANSIT
SYSTEM AND QUEUE JUMP LANE is a bonafide report of the seminar presented by
CHAITHANYA M with Reg. No. KNR17CE026 of 7th semester in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of the Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from
APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University during the academic year 2020-2021.

Head of Department Guided by

Dr.Rajesh K.N Ms.Dhanya Raveendran

Head of the Department Assistant Professor

Department of Civil Engineering Department of Civil Engineering

DATE : 5-10-2020

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Presentation, inspiration and motivation are considered to be the key roles for accomplishment of
a successful seminar report. I am overwhelmed and indebted to all the people who helped me to
complete my seminar report.
I would like to express my wholehearted and sincere gratitude to my seminar guide Ms.Dhanya
Raveendran, Assistant Professor, for her esteemed guidance and moral support during my
course of seminar.
I wish to convey my thanks to Dr Rajesh K.N, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering for
providing the access to the resources for the smooth completion of my work.
I also extend my heartfelt thanks to the seminar coordinator Dr.Vandana Sreedharan, Professor
Dept of Civil Engineering and all the faculty members for their in depth cooperation throughout
the course.
I also wish to convey my gratitude to my parents, my friends and all other well wishers for their
prompt advice and help that contributed to my successful completion of my work.
Above all I thank the Almighty, who escorted me throughout this duration without whom I
couldn't have completed this work.

CHAITHANYA M

ii
 ABSTRACT
Traffic congestion has become one of the challenging issues around the world because of the
rapid growth in urbanization where there is huge increase in the number of vehicles and
gradually increased travel needs of individuals. Unfortunately, there is simultaneous rise in the
vehicle discharged emissions causing environmental pollution and fuel consumption including
the congestion issue. This led to the introduction of new efficient transport system especially for
bus transport, one method of Implementation of BRTS and another method of providing Queue
Jump Lane in a mixed traffic. This report mainly deals with implementation of Bus Rapid Transit
System (BRTS) and exclusive usage of queue jump lane with pre signal operations. This report
deals with BRTS and its control strategy, installation of Global Positioning System(GPS) studies
on Queue Jump Lane (QJL) including design consideration for implementation of QJL and case
studies and finally comprises a comparison between bus priority treatments and conventional
buses.

KEYWORDS: Bus Rapid Transit System(BRTS);Global Positioning System(GPS);

Heterogeneous Traffic; Pre signal; Public Transport ;Queue Jump Lane(QJL)

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
TITLE
NO
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 GENERAL 1
1.2 EFFICIENT BUS TRANSPORT SYSTEM 1
CHAPTER 2 IMPLEMENTATION OF BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM
3
(BRTS)
2.1 BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM (BRTS) 3
2.2 MAIN FEATURES OF BRT SYSTEM 4
2.2.1 Dedicated bus lane and alignment 4
2.2.2 Off board fare collection 4
2.2.3 Intersection treatment 4
2.2.4 Platform level boarding 4
2.3 TYPE OF BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM 5
2.3.1 Full Bus Rapid Transit System 5
2.3.2 High Capacity Bus System (HCBS) 5
BRTS TRACKING USING GLOBAL POSITIONING
2.4 5
SYSTEM (GPS)
2.5 PRIORITY CONTROL STRATEGY 7
2.6 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGE OF BRTS 8
CHAPTER 3 IMPLEMENTATION OF QUEUE JUMP LANE 9
3.1 QUEUE JUMP LANE (QJL) 9
3.2 DESIGN CONSIDERATION OF QJL 10
3.3 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF QUEUE JUMP
11
LANE (QJL)

CHAPTER 4 CASE STUDIES 12

4.1 CASE STUDY FOR QUEUE JUMP LANE 12
4.1.1 Methodology 12

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4.1.2 Findings and Discussions 14
4.1.2.1 Impact on Travel Time 14
4.1.2.2 Impact on Vehicle Discharge 15
4.1.2.3 Impact on passenger Boarding and Alighting 16
4.1.2.4 Social Acceptability of QJL 17
4.2 CASE STUDY FOR BUS TAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM 19
4.2.1 Route Level Analysis 19
4.2.2 Segment Level Analysis 21
CHAPTER 5 COMPARISON BETWEEN BUS PRIORITY
TREATMENTS WITH CONVENTIONAL BUS 23
TREATMENTS
COMPARISON OF BRTS,QJL AND TRADITIONAL BUS
5.1 23
SYSTEM
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION 24
CHAPTER 7 REFERENCE 25

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Fig.No Name Page

1.1 Traffic congestion in Bengaluru 2
1.2 Traffic congestion at intersection 2
2.1 BRTS system in Ahmedabad 3
2.2 Features of BRTS 5
2.3 GPS system in BRTS 7
3.1 Layout of Bus advance area 9
3.2 Configuration of traffic movement with implementation of QJL 11
3.3 Configuration of traffic movement with implementation of QJL with
11
pre signal
4.1 Traffic composition in Southern Avenue and Rashbehari Avenue 13
4.2 Bus for priority implementation plan of Southern Avenue 13
4.3 Bus for priority implementation plan of Rashbehari Avenue
4.4 Passenger travel time savings at different demand levels of Southern
15
Avenue and Rashbehari Avenue
4.5 Vehicle discharge profile of Southern Avenue and Rashbehari
16
Avenue
4.6 Bus dwell time distribution at Rashbehari Avenue 17
4.7 Selected Routes of Ahmedabad BRTS to carry out Route analysis 19

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table. No Name Page

4.1 Right-of-way Violations of Southern Avenue and Rashbehari Avenue 18
4.2 Right-of-way Violations of Rashbehari Avenue 18
4.3 Within a Day Descriptive statistics of Travel Time Route 1 20
4.4 Within a Day Descriptive statistics of Travel Time Route 2 21
4.5 Descriptive statics of segment travel time for Route 1 22
4.6 Descriptive statics of segment travel time for Route 2 22

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL

Traffic congestion has now become a challenge in this emerging population. Many scholars
identified mainly three reasons for traffic congestion. One reason found was the correlation
between populations and vehicles as it exceeds the traffic capacity, second reason was identified
as generation of huge number of trips within short interval of time especially in the case of bus
trips and third reason was found to be due to the occurrence of certain accidents, vehicle
breakdown, and improper traffic signals. Due to this traffic congestion there was a huge loss in
the case of public transportation mainly for buses like overcrowding or either lacking in serving
passengers, delay in the travel time etc. It was observed that there was a double effect on the bus
speed as it was noticed that the bus speed were reduced to about 6-10km/h and the overcrowding
were found to increase ie, it was concluded from different survey that bus as a public transport
lied in the low performance-high importance quadrant creating a negative impact on the bus
drivers causing frustration and anger and compel in road rage and finally leading to accidents
and again to traffic congestion and delay in travel time of the passengers. On contrary, buses are
the main public transport is used by the urban and the weaker sections of the society even though
they cause significant losses. However these compelled to take necessary steps for a better bus
transportation system technique which could act more efficiently and systematically, with more
operational performances and full reliability.

1.2EFFICIENT BUS TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Due to rise in traffic congestion and related problems, led to the emergence of many studies and
lifted many researchers interest to study on a sustainable, environmental preservation and
equitable solution which could provide an efficient and systematic flow of bus in traffic by
improving the travel time, safety, comfort and capacity of passengers. Many scholars learned
about efficient bus transport system and studied on two improvement techniques and found
better results on implementation of these two methods, they were, one method was the
implementation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system by providing a dedicated lane and second

1
method was by providing a Queue Jump Lane (QJL) to mixed traffic congestion. These modes
found to develop a better and flexible movement of buses and also noticed to improve the
efficiency and travel time.

Figure 1.1 Traffic congestion in Bengaluru

(Source:https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2018/apr/19/traffic-congestion-
costs-bengaluru-rs-38000-crore-annually-1803533.)

Figure 1.2 Traffic congestion at intersection

(Source:https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/373309/what-word-describes-the-
traffic-when-vehicles-are-totally-stopped)

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 CHAPTER 2
IMPLEMENTATION OF BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM (BRTS)

2.1 BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM (BRTS)

Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) is a mass transit system which was found to provide a high
quality transit system with all infrastructure delivering fast, comfortable, and cost effective at its
higher level of metro capacity.The basic history of BRTS is giving priority to the buses in the
road which are stuck in the mixed traffic congestion ensuring the large number of passengers to
reach their destination as fast as possible. This transit system is provided with a provision of
dedicated bus lanes, and busway and also with an attracted bus platform station including the off
board fare collection typically aligned in the centre of the road. Bus Rapid Transit System
(BRTS) occupies a reserved space on the road for their smooth and flexible transportation. BRTS
helps to improve the capacity of the passengers and also found to reduce the delay caused by the
passengers during boarding or leaving the bus (ie. reduce the dwell time).Compared to other
transit modes like light rail or metro,buses are more attractive due to its less cost to establish and
operate.BRTS were found to be more expensive than conventional buses due to its high quality
infrastructure even though it offers better speed and exceed the capacity of passengers depending
upon the length of implementation of BRTS lanes.

Figure 2.1 BRTS in Ahmedabad

(Source: https://www.narendramodi.in/janmarg-transforming-ahmedabads-public-transit-system)

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2.2 MAIN FEATURES OF BRT SYSTEM ARE

Main features of BRTS system are as follows

2.2.1 Dedicated bus lane and alignment
Mostly the bus only lanes are found to offer a fast travel of buses and ensure no delay of buses
and travel time in mixed traffic congestion. It was found that median alignment of bus lanes can
only protect the buses from busy curbside conflicts (includes parking of cars,trucks,standing and
turning by them).Moreover separate lanes were also found to be useful like providing separate
elevated lanes or providing bus streets in the city.

2.2.2 Off board fare collection

On contrary to conventional buses, payment of fare was done in the station itself instead of
payment of fare after boarding. This method contributed to elimination of delay to the passengers
on board .In modern cases there are also automated off board fare collection.

2.2.3 Intersection treatment

It is prohibiting the turning movements in the bus lane in order to reduce the delay. To achieve
this several bus priority treatments were often provided at the signalised intersection by
extending the green phase or reducing red phase etc.

2.2.4 Platform level boarding

The station platform floors are provided in the same level with respect to the bus floor. This
provided an easy and comfortable way of boarding to the bus for the passengers especially to the
wheelchair passengers. .

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 Figure2.2Features of BRTS (Source: https://morethanbuses.ca/2018/02/12/bus-rapid-transit-
could-totally-transform-our-transit-network/)

2.3 TYPES OF BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM

BRTS are mainly classified into two major types

2.3.1 Full Bus Rapid Transit System

This transit system was found similar to metro rail transit system and preferred high quality
infrastructure facilities. In this type of transit system they have a strong dedicated central median
bus lane with a centrally constructed station ticketing system including other feeder networks
and smooth interchangers. It consists of some of the characteristics like separate dedicated bus
lanes at median, consists of station with fare collection present at median and also includes best
infrastructural facilities. This type of transit system is found only in Bogota, Colombia and others
in Curitiba, Brazil around the world.

2.3.2 High Capacity Bus System (HCBS)

It is also known as Open BRTS since they are fully integrated and they utilise highly flexible
services and advanced technology for the convenience of the passengers. It combines the light
rail with flexibility, low operating and maintenance cost, modern express buses and station,
automated fare collection and a combined Intelligent Transport System (ITS).

2.4 BRTS TRACKING USING GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS)

Many of the buses in the BRT System consist of a pre-installed Global Positioning System
(GPS) device. The installation of this GPS device helps to determine the position of the transit

5
bus vehicle and transmit the data to their respective control centres including the information
about the position and relevant time data which are measured in real time. The main aim of the
installation of GPS device is to reduce the holdup time of the travellers and passengers and to
inform them the latest upcoming bus transport timetable using IoT (Internet of things).Even
though the installation and maintenance of GPS are found to be very expensive, they can store
data for more than 6 months. The GPS device helps to improve Public Information System (PIS)
and the performance of buses. The bus transit system transportation can be tracked by GPS using
a GPS receiver that collects the information of the position of transit vehicle by locating their
latitudinal and longitudinal positional values and then continuously records the locations of the
transit bus as long the bus continues its operation. For the working of the GPS device, either the
travel will have a Transit Smart Card or Travellers Smart Card in the case of an Automated Fare
collection System where, when the passengers board into the particular transit bus this smart card
record the information. These collected data are transmitted to the control centres through remote
connections like GPRS and then at the centre they redesign the position data and showcase the
data presentation board at the bus transport terminals. Since GPS technology helps to track and
schedule the bus transit system they have been successfully executed in Indian context like in
Ahmedabad BRT System for the sustainable utilisation manner. Many scholars conducted
studies on the use of GPS to determine the travel time. Kathuria et al (2020) conducted a study
on the GPS works installed in Ahmedabad BRTS system to determine the Travel Time
variability analysis using GPS device. Several other studies were also conducted on the relevance
of installation of GPS device and to locate the position of bus transit. Many relevant studies were
conducted by Jain et al (2015) with the aim to develop the passenger travel performance using
GIS and GPS and Mazloumi et al (2010) also studied about GPS in order to improve the Travel
Time Reliability.

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 Figure 2.3 GPS system in BRTS (Source: Ruikar 2017)

2.5 PRIORITY CONTROL STRATEGY

Control Strategies plays an important role in improving the efficiency of bus transport and
improving the performance of the bus in terms of travel time. During the off peak period, many
scholars observed a poor performance of BRTS like problems related to periodic idleness, poor
traffic efficiency or inadequate utilisation of transit vehicles which in turn affects the efficiency
of other non priority vehicles. Therefore, priority control strategies help to ensure full reliability
and systematic utilisation of the transit services especially during the off peak periods. Many
scholars conducted relevant studies on the flexible utilisation of BRTS in intermittent bus lane.
Scholars proposed the concepts of intermittent bus lane and its signal control strategies. Several
studies were conducted for the efficient control strategy including advanced technologies.
Changxi et al (2020),Eichler and Danganzo et al (2006) conducted a simulation approach on two
control strategy which included spatial and time control strategy ie to use variable information
sign board for the non priority vehicles as the spatial control strategy and for control strategy
Changxi et al (2020) and Changxi et al (2019) proposed a multiphase Bus Priority Control
strategy for signal intersection ie to extend the green time of bus phase and also studied about
Green Wave Coordination traffic control and concluded time priority can be controlled optimally
by using the Green Wave control system by extending the green phase time. Yang et al (2013)

7
also evaluated the performance of two advanced control strategies that is signal priority using
advanced detection and transit speed control using a simulation software VISSIM and found a
positive impact on the bus operation and observed that signal priority using advanced detection
improved the system efficiency rather than using speed control and similar studies were also
conducted. From the studies, we can conclude that all the scholars proposed control strategies
provided an improvement in the utilisation of road spaces and punctuality time rate.

2.6 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF BRTS

BRTS were found to be an efficient public transportation compared to other transport systems
which could carry high capacity and also noted to have the ability to achieve high mobility
needs. BRTS were considered to provide an environment and pedestrian friendly developmental
patterns. According to the recent analysis, BRT system helps to reduce transportation related
CO2 emission and it was also stated that this can be implemented compared to rail system as it
can attract many of the passengers out of car too. The latest ITS (Intelligent Transportation
System) technology are found to combine with BRTS to achieve smart card based collection
,automatic vehicle tracking system ,passenger information system etc .BRTS traffic were found
to have no interference with the mixed traffic they take away a part of the lane for the purpose.

The problems related to BRTS were the concern about the design issue. Introduction of BRTS
occupies a certain equitable space which may tend to increase lining of vehicles causing queue at
junctions, another problem is concerned about the cost, BRT system is found to have higher
capital cost and maintenance cost. Another disadvantage of BRTS include some environmental
issues like deforestation and levelling of land for the implementation of BRTS and other
drawbacks included issues related to the land acquisition that is for widening the construction of
station additional land must be acquired.

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 CHAPTER 3
IMPLEMENTATION OF QUEUE JUMP LANE

3.1 QUEUE JUMP LANE (QJL)

In a heterogeneous traffic environment, buses are the most important public transport which are
generally used by many people without a bias on urban and rural people. But many scholars
noticed that buses were facing significant losses especially delay in travel time mainly at the
intersections of road. Intersections on the road were found to be major cause for the traffic
congestions. At the intersection, bus priority treatment using Queue Jump lane(QJL) were found
to prove themselves instrumental and found to improve the overall bus efficiency by reducing the
travel time as well as delay variability and found to acquire less area compared to Bus Transit
System. Queue Jump Lane (QJL) is defined as a type of road geometry mainly provided as
priority for only buses mainly at the intersections. QJL consists of a separate travel lane for the
buses at the traffic signal intersections to jump from the queue at the traffic signals accompanied
either with a pre signal which facilitate the vehicles in this lane to get a head start over other
vehicles and transit vehicles can move into the regular lane quickly than other vehicles beyond
the signal at intersections or without pre signal. Implementation of QJL along with TSP (Transit
Signal Priority) helps to improve better travel times. The major design concept of Queue Jump
lane was considered to be installation of pre signal before the main signal, so that non priority
vehicles can be controlled by this pre signal Therefore a Bus advance area is given after the pre
signal. Bus advance area refers to the area which found to exits in between the pre signal and the
main signal. In this way, buses can enter the bus advance area through the exclusive bus lane and
therefore it can reduce the time spent in the queue and also reduces conflicts between the buses
and other turning vehicles

Figure 3.1Layout of Bus advance area (Source: Yiming Bie et al 2020)

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3.2 DESIGN CONSIDERATION OF QJL

According to different studies and implementation QJL can be adopted in certain situations only.
For the implementation of QJL, there must be a source of heavy mixed traffic congestion or
delay. If there is no congestion and there is normal traffic operating with a signal of green, then
there is no use of entering into the Queue Jump Lane. Second consideration is that there must be
sufficient length of QJL to provide a notable travel time savings. Bus must have the access to
lane and ability to reach the front of the queue at the beginning of the signal cycle with the help
of advance green. QJL can also be used in situations like Bus stop pullouts or at end of a bus
only lane. Queue jump lane cannot be provided in high volume right turning movement vehicles
instead for right turning vehicles a separate lane or advanced signal phase can also be provided.
Another important consideration to be noted is the bus stop location. If there is a presence of far
side bus stops, advanced transit signal do not show much benefit whereas in the case of a near
side bus stops present, advanced transit signals can be effective providing a head start for the
bus. In this also detection strategy has also to be considered during the bus stop location with
advanced transit signal. A typical layout of QJL alone and QJL with pre signal are shown in
figure 3.2 and 3.3.From different studies conducted by Zachary et al (2015) and by Burak et al
(2014) found that even though the effectiveness of QJL is dependent upon many factors, far side
bus stop location provides much higher improvement in travel time savings compared to near
side bus stop location through micro simulation models. Many studies were also conducted on
the impact of QJL on different factors. Several other guidelines for the implementation of QJL
was given by Bhattacharyya et al (2020) with an eight step procedure were also considered to
identify optimal design of QJL for the practitioners. The performance evaluation of QJL for the
implementation is done by micro simulation method and other predicting models to decide the
tools and necessities for the implementation of Queue Jump Lane.

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 Figure 3.2 Configuration of traffic movement with implementation of QJL
(Source: Bhattacharyya 2020)

Figure 3.3 Configuration of traffic movement with implementation of QJL with pre signal

(Source: Bhattacharyya 2020)

3.3 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF QUEUE JUMP LANE (QJL)

The benefits of introduction of Queue Jump Lane (QJL) is that it helps to reduce traffic
congestion at the intersection so that priority vehicles buses can easily cut or pass through the
intersections either with the help of the signal or pre signal which provides a head start to the
buses to move quickly through the intersection. It further helps to increase the operation
efficiency and performance of the buses without causing any significant delay in travel time
instead improves the travel time schedule and reliability. These QJL are particularly useful when
there is a long queue at the intersection. The utilisation of QJL contributes to less land

11
requirement, that is they do not take away the lane away from the general traffic and only a part
of lane is made bus only at the intersection.

The challenges faced during the execution of QJL are since there is single lane for jumping the
queue, during high traffic volume this may in turn cause a queuing in the bus only segregated
lane and even though they have to maintain a queue which may raise rage and conflicts within
the users and drivers. And therefore the QJL may have to double in the length to improve the
ridership and this further increase the capital cost. The use of QJL reduces the green time
available for intersection for other traffic vehicles. And also bus drivers must be alert for short
period of available green time.

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 CHAPTER 4
CASE STUDIES

4.1 CASE STUDY FOR QUEUE JUMP LANE

Queue Jump Lane was found to provide better bus priority treatment from many of the studies.
Bhattacharyya et al (2019) studied the concept of QJL and its impact by implementing QJL in
two places. The experiment was conducted in 3 phases within duration of 3 days in two
signalised intersection places in Kolkata. They compared the impact of introduction of using bus
priority using QJL alone and bus priority using QJL along with the provision of pre signal..They
also placed video cameras at several locations along corridor for a period of 4hours from 07:00
to11:00. They covered traffic operations at morning and also at off peak period. They conducted
test experiment in Southern Avenue (Lake Stadium Intersection) and Rashbehari Avenue
(Deshapriya Park Intersection).Finally, Bhattacharyya et al (2019) noted down their findings by
comparing the priority treatments between two places. The two places provided effectiveness of
the introduction of bus priority treatments using QJL under different scenarios

4.1.1Methodology

Southern Avenue was found to be a 4 lane divided corridor, which had a peak hour demand of
approximately 1200 Passenger Car Unit per hour(PCU/h whereas Rashbehari Avenue was a 6
lane divided corridor which had a peak hour demand of approx.1400PCU/h .Traffic composition
at both places were shown by them in figure 4.1.For Southern Avenue they chose median side
lane for the buses to operate and for Rashbehari Avenue they selected curb side lane because for
first place the bus stops were located far side of intersections and also due to the presence of
turning movements and for second place due to easiness to access the bus stops. The main traffic
signal at Lake stadium intersection were noted to operate on 120s length including 50s green
time for westbound approach and pre signal were installed for non priority vehicles and were
located 135m from the STOP line at intersection and green time in pre signal was set 20s prior to
the main signal and for Deshapriya stadium intersection main traffic signal operated on same
length and timings but the pre signal were placed 50m from the STOP line and kept to operate at
a time of 10s prior to main signal. A layout was released for the implementation of both the
places as shown in figure 4.2 and 4.3 and finally they noted their findings.

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Figure 4.1 Traffic Composition in Southern Avenue and Rashbehari Avenue respectively
(Source: Bhattacharya 2019)

No Parking Traffic signal for Traffic cones Bus lane sign

Non priority traffic for segregating Row

Figure 4.2 Bus for priority implementation plan of Southern Avenue

(Source: Bhattacharya 2019)

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 No Parking Traffic signal for Traffic cones Bus + Auto sign

Non priority vehicles for segregating Row

Figure 4.3 Bus for priority implementation plan of Rashbehari Avenue

(Source : Bhattacharya 2019)

4.1.2 Findings and Discussions

From the above two case studies Bhattacharyya et al(2019) illustrated some findings by
considering the impact of three phases on travel time, vehicle discharge, Passenger Boarding and
Alighting and Social Acceptability. All the data collected by them were based on high resolution
cameras.

4.1.2.1 Impact on Travel Time

The impact of implementation of three phases on travel time were investigated for both peak and
off peak period for both the case studies and found that there was a change in the travel time.
They considered the impact starting from the upstream to 50m downstream, thus various impacts
were observed and they figured out as shown in figure 4.4.They observed a 20% reduction in the
travel time of bus and marginal increase of 6% in non-priority vehicle travel time during peak
period in Rashbehari Avenue and when they investigated in Southern Avenue they found a 15%
reduction and 20% increase for bus and car respectively. From this study, it was shown that the

15
implementation of bus priority treatment were largely location specific. It was also evident that
they couldn't directly compare the benefits from two different scenarios since the traffic flow
values and the travel time savings were obtained from the field. It was also observed that
implementation of bus priority with QJL alone showed more benefit in Southern Avenue and this
was due to negative impact on car which shared maximum in the traffic composition whereas
implementation of QJL with pre signal was found to be more beneficial during peak period in
Rashbehari Avenue, this was concluded due to higher contributions of buses in the traffic
composition. Finally it was concluded that the benefit were largely dependent under particular
scenarios and it is necessary to identify the optimal application of priority treatments in different
traffic and control scenarios.

Figure 4.4 Passenger travel time savings at different demand levels of Southern Avenue
and Rashbehari respectively
(Source : Bhattacharya 2019)

4.1.2.2 Impact on Vehicle Discharge

Bhattacharyya et al(2019) observed the vehicle discharge at STOP line for every 2s interval .The
vehicle discharge profile variations for both Southern and Rashbehari Avenue were shown by
them as shown in figure 4.5. It was noted that there was a higher initial discharge in both the
cases after the application of the bus priority treatment. Moreover, it was noticed that there was
much higher discharge rate during the application of pre signal. They considered two factors for

16
the increase in the initial rate, one of the factor was that since the buses can jump from the queue
there was much probability of more number of discharge of buses from STOP line. and second
factor was that non priority vehicles were allowed to maintain progression due to
synchronisation between the pre signal and the main signal thus improved the quality of
discharge. The change in the traffic composition of first ten vehicles discharged from Rashbehari
Avenue were also evaluated which showed an increase in the share of 8% in buses with similar
decrease in other vehicles share, but they did not observe a change in composition of vehicles
from Southern Avenue due to the lower share of buses even in the overall traffic composition.

Figure 4.5 Vehicle discharge profile of Southern Avenue vehicle discharge profile of
Rashbehari Avenuec(Source : Bhattacharya 2019)

4.1.2.3 Impact on Passenger Boarding and Alighting

In case study 2 (Rashbehari Avenue)bus stops were present at nearside of the intersection,
therefore prior to the implementation of bus priority treatment they found that buses exhibited an
unsafe boarding and alighting behaviour ie by stopping the buses far away from the curbside.
After the implementation of the QJL they observed a change in these behaviour, this was found
due to the restriction of buses to use the curbside lane and thus automatically was found to
ensure a safe boarding and alighting of passengers among 90% of buses. They also noted
significant decrease in the dwell time by the introduction of the QJL as shown in figure 4.6.It
was found that average bus dwell times decreased from a value of 6.6s to 5.5s after the
implementation of the QJL, further decreased value the value to 5.2s after the introduction of
QJL with pre signal. They concluded that this improvement was due to the restrictions given to
the buses which forced them to sustain a single queue along QJL and moreover the bus at the

17
first cannot waste additional time at the bus stop because of the pressure from the other following
buses.

Figure 4.6 Bus dwell time distribution at Rashbehari Avenue

(Source: Bhattacharya 2019)

4.1.2.4 Social Acceptability of QJL

In this they investigated the behaviour of road users i.e. the degree of violations that occur after
the implementation of the bus priority treatments. Usually,in the normal case, road users violate
the rules primarily due to lack of awareness. They tabulated the percentage of violations showed
by the different road users as shown in table 4.1 and 4.2 for both the case studies. They found
that in the first case at Rashbehari Avenue,M2W(2wheeled motor)vehicles significantly violate
the right-of-way restrictions and they noted this may be due to the provision of QJL on the
curbside and M2W vehicles being vulnerable preferred to use the curbside on 3lane road for
safety measures. They also observed a substantial violation by the left turning vehicles and
subsequently noted significant reduction in the violations soon after the implementation of the
QJL along with the pre signal.

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 Table 4.1 Right-of –way Violations of Southern Avenue (Source:Bhattacharyya 2019)

Violations by non-priority vehicle users (% of each vehicle type)

QJL QJL + Pre-signal
Vehicle
Left Through Right Total Left Through Right Total
type
Car 24.0 3.0 10.0 7.0 22.5 4.5 2.0 7.5
Taxi 26.0 10.5 0.0 12.0 30.0 7.5 0.0 10.5
M2W 72.5 33.0 12.5 37.5 55.0 24.0 35.0 30.0
Violations by priority vehicle users (% of each vehicle type)
QJL QJL + Pre-signal
Vehicle
Left Through Right Total Left Through Right Total
Type
M3w 0.0 3.5 0.0 3.5 0.0 3.5 0.0 3.5
MiniB 0.0 7.0 31.5 14.5 0.0 2.5 5.0 3.5
OPB 0.0 2.5 20.5 7.5 0.0 1.0 7.5 3.5
LFB 0.0 5.0 0.0 5.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Table 4.2 Right-of-way violations of Rashbehari Avenue (Source :Bhattacharyya 2019)

Violations by non-priority vehicle users (% of each vehicle type)

QJL QJL + Pre-signal
Vehicle
Left Through Right Total Left Through Right Total
type
Car 4.0 4.5 0.5 4.0 3.0 1.5 3.0 2.5
Taxi 0.0 4.5 0.0 3.0 1.0 2.0 0.0 1.5
M2W 3.0 4.0 9.0 4.5 3.5 4.5 5.5 4.5
Violations by priority vehicle users (% of each vehicle type)
QJL QJL + Pre-signal
Vehicle
Left Through Right Total Left Through Right Total
Type
OPB 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
LFB 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

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4.2 CASESTUDY FOR BUS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM

Kathuria et al (2020) conducted a study on Travel Time data analysis using GPS. Many buses in
India BRTS are noticed to contain GPS (Global Positioning System) device which helps to
collect the travel time data. GPS device are found to determine the Travel Time Reliability(TTR)
performance analysis on the different BRT System. Kathuria et al (2020) studied on the Travel
time Reliability(TTR) performance based analysis using GPS by conducting a case study on
Ahmedabad BRTS. He conducted the analysis in 2 levels in Route and Segment level analysis.

4.2.1 Route Level Analysis

Kathuria et al (2020) conducted the study of route level of TTR analysis by selecting two routes,
Route1 noted to have a total length of 12.1km which found to run between Maninagar and Iskon
and Route 2 found to have a total length of 22km which found to run from Maninagar and Visat,
both routes were found to consists of both signalized and unsignalized intersection. They
analysed 2125 bus trip data of both the two routes and analysed for only half cycle, from the data
obtained from the GPS. They conducted analysis for Within a day Travel Time Variability.

Figure 4.7 Selected Routes of Ahmedabad BRTS to carry out Route analysis
(Source: Kathuria 2020)
Kathuria et al (2020) collected the information using GPS and illustrated the travel time values
of buses running under a departure of 30 min and tabulated the statistical analysis as shown in
table 4.3 and 4.4. They also noted the values of T90 (90th percentile TT),T10(10th percentile TT)
and T90-T10/T50. It was observed that travel time variability was high during morning and
evening peaks and low during morning, inter and evening off peaks. It was also found that for
the Route1,T10,T50 were parallel to mean TT and for Route2, these values and T90 were also

20
parallel to the mean TT. For Route1,an unstable condition was observed during morning and
evening off peak period and for Route2 were observed during morning hours (6:00 to 11:00
am)and evening period. They also compared the Cv values from the table and noticed that Travel
Time variation was high during evening for Route1 and morning off peak period of
Route2.Finally it was suggested that the transit service condition was good during evening off
peak, whereas average speed was observed to be less than 20km/h for both route during evening
peak period which implied a poorest service condition.

Table 4.3Within a Day Descriptive statistics of Travel Time for Route1 (Source :Kathuria
2020)

Descriptive Morning Morning Interpeak Evening peak Evening

statistics offpeak peak (8:00– (11:00– (17:00– offpeak
(6:00–8:00) 11:00) 17:00) 20:00) (20:00–
23:00)
Avg.TT (min) 38.13 39.49 37.25 41.17 34.27
Avg.journey 19.12 18.4 19.5 17.6 21.2
speed (km/h)
Cv (%) 11 15 9 9 16
T10 (min) 34.54 36.36 36.4 40.01 33.54
T50 (min) 38.32 41.02 40.14 42.52 39.44
T90 (min) 42.36 49.16 43.31 47.16 45.33
T90–T10/T50 21.0 31.0 17.0 17.0 29.0
(%)

21
 Table 4.4 Within a Day Descriptive Analysis of Travel Time for Route 2(Source :Kathuria
2020)

Descriptive Morning Morning Interpeak Evening peak Evening

statistics offpeak peak (8:00– (11:00– (17:00– offpeak
(6:00–8:00) 11:00) 17:00) 20:00) (20:00-23:00)
Avg.TT (min) 60 66.4 61.56 69.58 59
Avg.journey 22.0 19.9 21.4 19.0 22.4
speed (km/h)
Cv (%) 14 13 8 11 9
T10 (min) 52.22 57.06 55.57 60.23 53.45
T50 (min) 57.21 62.45 60.38 67.45 57.41
T90 (min) 74.54 76.3 68.44 78.57 65.25
T90–T10/T50(%) 39.01 30.80 21.3 27.019 20.5

4.2.2 Segment Level Analysis

Segment Analysis was observed to be an important factor for determining the poor Travel Time
Variability performance. It was noted that it was a segment of a route that cause travel time
variability and therefore it was important to determine the segment level problems more than the
route level problems. Kathuria et al (2020) conducted the segment analysis by dividing the Route
1and 2 into 7 and 11 segments respectively, each route contained minimum of 3 bus stops in
each segment. They conducted a statistical descriptive Segment analysis and were tabulated and
shown in table 4.6and 4.7.They observed from the results of route 1 that the least performing
segment in terms of average speed was shown by segment1 and also noted from the comparative
study of coefficient variation of Travel time that of segment1 of Route1 showed a poor
performance. They explained the reason behind this was due to presence of bus and railway
terminal which resulted in a huge number of passengers boarding and alighting from stops in this
segment, hence increased dwell time. They noted second poor performance was given by
segment 6 of Route1 and learned reason was due to the low average speed and Segment 6 was
common to 9 routes resulting in a bunching behaviour observed on stops. For Route2 they
noticed a similar poor performance and same reason for segment1.Kathuria et al (2020)

22
recommended that proper enforcement were required for Stop1 for both routes since drivers were
waiting for more passengers ignoring the delay in subsequent stops. Therefore they also
suggested an urgent need of education to drivers that how can they become a reason of poor
serviceability of Transit service.

Table 4.5 Descriptive statistics of segment travel time for Route 1(Source :Kathuria 2020)

Segment Mean travel Distance Average journey Standard Coefficient of

time (min) (km) speed (km/h) deviation (min) variation (%)
1 11 1.86 10.46 1.85 16.8
2 4.78 1.85 23.47 0.49 10.3
3 4.55 1.90 25.21 0.40 8.7
4 5.97 2.70 27.25 0.46 7.8
5 5.32 2.42 27.55 0.54 10.2
6 4.03 1.30 19.32 0.36 9.7
7 4.04 1.64 24.54 0.34 8.5

Table 4.6 Descriptive statistics of segment travel time for Route 2(Source: Kathuria 2020)

Mean travel Distance Average journey Standard Coefficient of

Segment
time (min) (km) speed (km/h) deviation (min) variation (%)
1 11.4 1.86 10.25 2.36 20.7
2 4.4 1.85 25.12 0.48 10.9
3 4.3 1.90 26.83 0.51 11.7
4 5.6 2.70 29.25 0.41 7.3
5 5.0 2.42 29.15 0.45 9.1
6 4.4 1.87 25.55 0.38 8.7
7 4.1 1.75 25.65 0.29 6.9
8 4.1 1.86 27.17 0.46 11.1
9 4.6 1.76 23.21 0.37 8.2
10 5.3 2.69 31 0.59 11.2
11 3.5 1.46 25.47 0.44 12.6

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 CHAPTER 5
COMPARISON BETWEEN BUS PRIORITY TREATMENTS WITH
CONVENTIONAL BUS TREATMENTS

5.1 COMPARISON OF BRTS, QJL AND TRADITIONAL BUS SYSTEM

The introduction of good bus transport facility contributes to the lesser use of private vehicles.
Therefore showed that these bus priority treatments achieved an efficient system by generating a
good positive attitude for the road users for the implementation of new modes of bus priority
treatments like Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) and Queue Jump Lane (QJL). Bus priority
treatments like BRTS and introduction of Queue Jump Lane were found to be the world’s most
efficient infrastructure facilities in transporting large volume passengers with faster and most
reliable speed when compared to other local conventional buses. BRTS and QJL provide a better
and systematic performance when compared to conventional buses based on the time, safe
boarding of passengers. Both BRTs and Queue Jump lane reduces the dwell time compared to
conventional buses. Implementation of bus priority treatments like BRTS cause a higher increase
in capital cost and operational cost when compared to the conventional buses even though there
is wider flexibility. BRTS and QJL provide a better comfort to the passengers. The operating
speed of BRTS is higher due to the introduction of exclusive lanes and QJL also contributes
incremental trend in speed at the intersections during high peak period and reduce the delay in
time when compared to conventional buses. The implementation of BRTS and Queue Jump Lane
were found to provide a safety in travel by avoiding accidents etc and also provides a better
serving of passengers that is by providing a safe off - boarding and on - boarding of passengers
through the introduction of platform at the level of bus floor in the case of Bus Rapid Transit
System(BRTS) and in case of Queue Jump Lane introducing the QJ lane along the curbside etc
whereas the conventional buses add to many accidents and non-safety of passengers .Manuel et
al (2020) also conducted a survey in Columbia about the experience of the people after travelling
in BRTS. Bus priority treatments like the transit system provides employment opportunities as in
the station and for the operations of advanced technology for the flexible growth of BRTS
whereas conventional buses now had led to lack of job opportunities due to inefficient growth of
conventional system.

24
 CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION

Introduction of an efficient bus transport system is a better alternative compared to the traditional
bus services. Implementation of Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) and Queue Jump Lane (QJL)
provide better travel facilities and comfort for the passengers by reducing the delay in travel
time, improves the schedule adherence and reliability. The utilization of the transit system and
the bus priority treatment system using QJL provide a systematic flow of traffic and help to
reduce the significant losses that occur to the bus operators. Application of these techniques
provided high vehicle discharge and high capacity of passenger flow in a flexible manner.
Utilisation of different control strategy like space, time, speed and advanced detection strategy
helps to maintain a smooth operation of this transit system and bus priority treatment using QJL
during high peak period as well as off peak period. Better results and success shown during the
establishment of QJL along the installation of pre signal and before the launch of QJL certain
design consideration and guidelines must be properly followed. On contrary these systems also
consists of its own drawbacks that is more land and space required along with highly expensive
infrastructure which shows lower probability to develop in India. Moreover construction of QJL
is highly dependent on the traffic composition and also different particular scenario.

25
 CHAPTER 7

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