IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transb/v46y2012i4p481-491.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A self-coördinating bus route to resist bus bunching

Author

Listed:
  • Bartholdi, John J.
  • Eisenstein, Donald D.

Abstract

The primary challenge for an urban bus system is to maintain constant headways between successive buses. Most bus systems try to achieve this by adherence to a schedule; but this is undermined by the tendency of headways to collapse, so that buses travel in bunches. To counter this, we propose a new method of coördinating buses. Our method abandons the idea of a schedule and even any a priori target headway. Under our scheme headways are dynamically self-equalizing and the natural headway of the system tends to emerge spontaneously. Headways also become self-correcting in that after disturbances they reëqualize without intervention by management or even awareness of the drivers.

Suggested Citation

  • Bartholdi, John J. & Eisenstein, Donald D., 2012. "A self-coördinating bus route to resist bus bunching," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 481-491.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transb:v:46:y:2012:i:4:p:481-491
    DOI: 10.1016/j.trb.2011.11.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191261511001676
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.trb.2011.11.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jiamin Zhao & Maged Dessouky & Satish Bukkapatnam, 2006. "Optimal Slack Time for Schedule-Based Transit Operations," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(4), pages 529-539, November.
    2. Arnold Barnett, 1974. "On Controlling Randomness in Transit Operations," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(2), pages 102-116, May.
    3. Daganzo, Carlos F., 2009. "A headway-based approach to eliminate bus bunching: Systematic analysis and comparisons," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 913-921, December.
    4. John J. Bartholdi & Donald D. Eisenstein, 1996. "A Production Line that Balances Itself," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 21-34, February.
    5. John J. Bartholdi & Donald D. Eisenstein & Robert D. Foley, 2001. "Performance of Bucket Brigades When Work Is Stochastic," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 49(5), pages 710-719, October.
    6. Mark D. Hickman, 2001. "An Analytic Stochastic Model for the Transit Vehicle Holding Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(3), pages 215-237, August.
    7. Daganzo, Carlos F. & Pilachowski, Josh, 2011. "Reducing bunching with bus-to-bus cooperation," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 267-277, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andres, Matthias & Nair, Rahul, 2017. "A predictive-control framework to address bus bunching," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 123-148.
    2. Xuan, Yiguang & Argote, Juan & Daganzo, Carlos F., 2011. "Dynamic bus holding strategies for schedule reliability: Optimal linear control and performance analysis," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1831-1845.
    3. Delgado, Felipe & Munoz, Juan Carlos & Giesen, Ricardo, 2012. "How much can holding and/or limiting boarding improve transit performance?," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1202-1217.
    4. Dai, Zhuang & Liu, Xiaoyue Cathy & Chen, Zhuo & Guo, Renyong & Ma, Xiaolei, 2019. "A predictive headway-based bus-holding strategy with dynamic control point selection: A cooperative game theory approach," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 29-51.
    5. Zhang, Shuyang & Lo, Hong K., 2018. "Two-way-looking self-equalizing headway control for bus operations," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 280-301.
    6. Li, Shukai & Liu, Ronghui & Yang, Lixing & Gao, Ziyou, 2019. "Robust dynamic bus controls considering delay disturbances and passenger demand uncertainty," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 88-109.
    7. Zhou, Chang & Tian, Qiong & Wang, David Z.W., 2022. "A novel control strategy in mitigating bus bunching: Utilizing real-time information," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-13.
    8. Xuan, Yiguang & Argote, Juan & Daganzo, Carlos F., 2011. "A Dynamic Holding Strategy to Improve Bus Schedule Reliability and Commercial Speed," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt0jp7c8k8, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    9. Wu, Weitiao & Liu, Ronghui & Jin, Wenzhou, 2017. "Modelling bus bunching and holding control with vehicle overtaking and distributed passenger boarding behaviour," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 175-197.
    10. Wang, Shuaian & Meng, Qiang, 2012. "Liner ship route schedule design with sea contingency time and port time uncertainty," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 615-633.
    11. Klumpenhouwer, W. & Wirasinghe, S.C., 2018. "Optimal time point configuration of a bus route - A Markovian approach," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 117(PA), pages 209-227.
    12. Berrebi, Simon J. & Watkins, Kari E. & Laval, Jorge A., 2015. "A real-time bus dispatching policy to minimize passenger wait on a high frequency route," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 377-389.
    13. Daganzo, Carlos F. & Pilachowski, Josh, 2009. "Reducing bunching with bus-to-bus cooperation," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt0551g0zw, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    14. Ibarra-Rojas, O.J. & Delgado, F. & Giesen, R. & Muñoz, J.C., 2015. "Planning, operation, and control of bus transport systems: A literature review," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 38-75.
    15. Minyu Shen & Weihua Gu & Michael J. Cassidy & Yongjie Lin & Wei Ni, 2024. "A vicious cycle along busy bus corridors and how to abate it," Papers 2403.08230, arXiv.org.
    16. Bian, Bomin & Zhu, Ning & Meng, Qiang, 2023. "Real-time cruising speed design approach for multiline bus systems," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 1-24.
    17. Sánchez-Martínez, G.E. & Koutsopoulos, H.N. & Wilson, N.H.M., 2016. "Real-time holding control for high-frequency transit with dynamics," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 1-19.
    18. Wei Wu & Wanjing Ma & Kejun Long & Heping Zhou & Yi Zhang, 2016. "Designing Sustainable Public Transportation: Integrated Optimization of Bus Speed and Holding Time in a Connected Vehicle Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-15, November.
    19. Schmöcker, Jan-Dirk & Sun, Wenzhe & Fonzone, Achille & Liu, Ronghui, 2016. "Bus bunching along a corridor served by two lines," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 300-317.
    20. Daganzo, Carlos F., 2009. "A headway-based approach to eliminate bus bunching: Systematic analysis and comparisons," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 913-921, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transb:v:46:y:2012:i:4:p:481-491. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/548/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.