Studying the Impact of Passenger Ride Choices on Passenger and Bus Travel Times

Bus dwell times are critical to the performance of transit systems. Furthermore, passenger riding choices may greatly impact bus dwell times due to the increased time needed to board and alight passengers on and off the bus. However, the impact of passenger ride choices on other passenger and bus route travel times has not been addressed in the literature. This study attempts to address this void by quantifying the impact of passenger ride choices on bus dwell times, total travel times, and on other passenger travel times. We consider limited bus capacity (i.e. passengers are unable to board a bus once its capacity is reached) without considering the posibility of riding a later bus. We analyzed data from a bus route in Blacksburg, Virginia spanning one year (2017 through 2018). The results demonstrate that bus average dwell times doubled when more passengers chose to ride the bus at all bus stops and consequently increased the bus route average travel time by 26.5%. In addition, the results demonstrate that boarding/alighting times account for 39% of the total travel time at increased demands. Furthermore, the choice of passengers to ride a bus at some bus stops results in an increase in the dwell time of other passengers already on the bus by up to 45% in high demand cases. These results demonstrate that bus dwell times are critical and that traveler decisions can have a significant impact on other bus passenger travel times and cannot be neglected nor assumed to be constant.