Ottawa's bus rapid transit model is well recognized for attracting and keeping riders in spite of competition from the private automobile mode. This specially designed facility enables OC Transpo, Ottawa's transit agency, to provide fast and reliable bus service. However, starting 2003, bus travel time in the eastbound direction on the Central Transitway was showing a significant increase. Over a three-month period transit operations on the Slater eastbound bus corridor were observed and compared with operations on the westbound Albert corridor. After some causes were identified, the Central Transitway within the road network in downtown Ottawa was modeled using the microscopic simulation tool NETSIM. This paper consists of five parts. Part 1 introduces the project background, objectives and methodology. In part two, literature is reviewed on transit operations on bus lanes, bus operating strategies, and headway based reliability control. Part three describes the study area, data collection and analysis of transit operations on the Central Transitway. In part four, the modeling and simulation of the Central Transitway is covered and highlights of results are presented. Finally, in part five conclusions and recommendations are noted. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E216511.
Samenvatting