Traffic modelling with dynamic bus lane

The idea of dynamic bus lanes (DBL) has been known for several years. Many authors tried to estimate the potential benefits of such a solution. The main principle of the DBL system is to activate an exclusive bus lane (XBL) when a bus approaches a designated road segment and to deactivate XBL when the bus leaves the segment, making the lane available to all road users. The new solution requires additional infrastructure like variable message signs and in-pavement lights, informing drivers whether the DBL is active or not. One of the popular tools to evaluate the new solution is a traffic microsimulation model. Unfortunately, the available software has no ready tools for simulating the activation and deactivation process of the DBL. The paper proposes a new method for modelling DBL control in the PTV Vissim environment. Traffic simulation model was set up to analyze the DBL operation on a street in Rzeszow with an existing exclusive bus lane. The model was calibrated and validated based on travel time measurements along this section. Special control logic and network coding were used to simulate bus and car traffic when DBL is active. The study shows that DBL improves the average travel time for private transport while maintaining travel time savings for buses.