Tandem Design of Bus Priority Based on a Pre-Signal System

Abstract

Giving buses priority is an important measure to improve the attractiveness of public transport and to reduce urban traffic congestion. Reducing bus service delays as much as possible will have a positive impact on urban traffic. Based on the pre-signal system, a bus at an intersection with a left-turn special phase is optimized by “tandem design”. The design model is applied to the entrance of an intersection to study the process of vehicle arrival and departure at the main signal and pre-signal, and to calculate and analyze the delay changes of buses, straight social vehicles (meaning vehicles other than those required to be open to traffic) and left-turn vehicles before and after the adoption of “tandem design”. The results show that when the vehicle capacity at the intersection is saturated, the delays to buses and the delays of left-turn vehicles will be significantly reduced once the “tandem design” is adopted at the entrance of a cross intersection with a special left-turn phase. However, it has little effect on the delay of straight-on vehicles; with this system, the total delay experienced by straight vehicles will be reduced to one cycle.

Sustainability Impact of Bus Priority Treatments in Small-Scale Cities

“…Pre-signals are used in intersection approaches with segregated bus lanes (6). For more detailed information about pre-signal priority, studies in the literature can be reviewed (19,(27)(28)(29).…”

“…There are studies in the literature that address BPTs in the context of sustainability ( 29 , 62–64 ). Examining these studies, we see that there is information about the sustainability of BPTs.…”

Choosing the Optimal Method to Provide Public Transportation Priority

“…The study took into account flow rates, bus frequencies, and bus passenger occupancies. The priority of crossing intersections in combination with additional road signs and markings makes it possible to implement priority for buses that move not only in separate directions but also in a separate lane [13]. The work gives an example of applying tandem design for buses making a left turn at an intersection.…”