Traffic management measures for guided bus operation

Guided bus systems use a dedicated guideway to enable equipped buses to bypass other traffic at congested points. They are increasingly appreciated as a cost effective method of luring travellers from private to public transport. This paper outlines the modelling issues for evaluating the guided bus operations and describes briefly the development made to enhance a traffic microsimulation model in order to explicitly incorporate regular bus and guided bus services, bus lanes, bus stops, guideways, selective vehicle detection and responsive traffic control. The model framework is illustrated through numerical experiments on simple artificial networks where traditional bus priority measures are performed and compared with a base case without any form of bus priority. The results show that the model responds logically to changes in model parameters. Future research is planned to include tests on real networks with guided bus schemes actually being considered for real-life implementation. Effects of implementing guided bus systems on drivers' route choices will also be studied.