Using Archived AVL/APC Bus Data to Identify Spatial-Temporal Causes of Bus Bunching

Automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) technologies provide tremendous amounts of archived data for transit planners and operators to measure and visualize transit system performance. This research is based on a half year’s data of route 15 from TriMet, the public transit provider in the Portland region. This paper proposed a method to identify and visualize bus bunching problems in a time-space diagram. This study also develops a method to summarize causes of identified bus bunching incidents. Seven factors for the leading bus and six factors for the following bus are analyzed. The main causes of bus bunching are found to be leading bus late departure from previous stops and following bus short dwell time at current stop. Findings from the results can help transit agencies to understand the main causes of bus bunching and develop efficient strategies to improve overall service quality.

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