In recent years, declining budgets for roadway improvements, limitations on roadway widening in urban areas, and other economic and non-economic factors have made it clear that public transportation is a viable alternative to single-occupancy vehicle travel. This situation brings a new emphasis on the need for positive measures to help buses avoid delays caused by other traffic. Therefore, policies providing priority to high occupancy vehicles, such as buses, have been initiated in many urban areas areas in the USA. Giving priority to buses along certain corridors, by providing more green time, would result in a more competitive mode of travel. The paper presents the results of a study conducted to assess the effectiveness of bus priority in the Columbus, Ohio area. In doing so, the study examines the benefits to bus riders and the impacts on automobiles as a result of applying priority schemes. The paper also discusses several issues that need to be addressed when dealing with bus priority: transit in mixed flow versus exclusive lanes, level of priority versus schedule adherence, and activation of signal priority. To assess the impact of bus priority, the results generated by CORSIM model are reported.
Abstract