Impacts of Exclusive Lanes and Signal Priority on Bus Rapid Transit Effectiveness

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a new public transport development mode that has been successfully applied by many countries in the recent years. Impact of different design scenarios on BRT performance has become one of the most evolving research areas in the field of transportation. This paper is intended to study primarily two core techniques of BRT: exclusive bus lanes and transit signal priority (TSP). The background of BRT development in China is first introduced, followed by a synthesis of state-of-the-art on the simulation-based evaluation of BRT effectiveness. The first-stage route of North-South Central Axis BRT system in Beijing is selected as the case study, on which a micro-simulation platform is developed based on extensive field survey and data collections. For a comparison purpose, two BRT scenarios are designed: median bus lanes versus curb bus lanes, and with versus without TSP. The micro-simulation model VISSIM is used to simulate different scenarios, and the traffic flow characteristics under different scenarios are analyzed according to the simulation results. Analysis indicates that: (1) Exclusive bus lanes and signal priority should be implemented simultaneously in order to effectively improve the BRT's operational performance; (2) After the signal priority is applied, the traffic flow status of the intersections along the BRT route is considerably improved; and (3) with respect to the exclusive lane layout, when it is divided from other lanes by physical infrastructure, median bus lane and curb bus lane have different impacts on traffic flows on the roadway and traffic flows at the intersection.