Bus dwell time is traditionally modelled as a function of the number of alighting and boarding passengers plus an amount of time for door opening and closing. Such an approach can be used to estimate bus dwell time at an on street bus stop. However, it could be less accurate for a busway station, where more than one loading area is available, due to crowding on the platform. This paper discusses an approach to understand platform crowding and its effects on bus dwell times by way of a pilot study. Video footage using digital cameras was captured and later analysed in the laboratory in two phases. In the first phase, the bus-side data (dwell time, service time per passenger, etc) was extracted. In second phase, passenger-side data (reaction time to bus, walking time, crowd density, etc) was extracted. This paper tests the hypothesis that the platform crowding effects bus dwell time. To support this hypothesis the behaviour of passengers while waiting at the platform is discussed. Later the effect of platform crowd on bus dwell time is analysed. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E217541.
Abstract