Benefit Analysis on Bus Rapid Transit Exclusive Lanes

This paper studies the benefit of BRT exclusive lanes and analyzes the changes of the vehicle passing capacity and passenger carrying capacity with and without the BRT exclusive lane, as well as proposes an approach for the corresponding calculation. Finally, the Beijing North-South Central Axis BRT Corridor is selected as a case study using the microscopic simulation model VISSIM. It is shown from the research that (1) the installation of BRT exclusive lane may reduce the vehicle passing capacity of the road, but it can effectively bring benefits the operation efficiency of BRT and improve the passenger carrying capacity of the road; (2) to exert the advantage and benefit of BRT, reasonable coordination between regular bus lines and BRT corridors is very important, especially under the condition that BRT has not formed a network; (3) the reduction of the regular bus volume along the BRT corridor cannot be too big. It is found that for the Beijing North-South Center Axis Corridor, 40% is the critical point to increase the passenger carrying capacity. The other similar cases can be calculated using the method proposed in this paper. The findings from this paper provide a reference to the implementation of BRT, especially for the installation of BRT exclusive lanes in China.