This research proposes a new methodology for optimizing transit road space priority at the network level. Transit vehicles are efficient at carrying large numbers of passengers within congested roadspace. This aids justification of transit priority. Almost all studies which have investigated transit priority lanes focus on a link or an arterial road basis and no study has investigated road space allocation for priority from a network perspective. The aim of the proposed approach is to find the optimum combination of exclusive lanes in an existing operational transport network. Mode share is assumed variable and an assignment is performed for both private and transit traffic. The problem is formulated using bi-level programming which minimizes the total travel time. The approach is applied to an example network and the results are discussed. The approach can identify the optimal combination of transit priority lanes and achieve the global optimum of the objective function. Areas for further development are discussed.
Samenvatting