Diagnostic-Oriented and Evaluation-Driven Framework for Bus Route Performance Improvement
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147, Issue 6
Abstract
This paper develops a diagnostic-oriented and evaluation-driven framework that can bridge the gap between transit performance evaluation and improvement prioritization at the route level, where the roles of government agencies, transit operators, and passengers are incorporated. In the proposed framework, input and output variables are extracted from multiple data sources to evaluate technical efficiency and service effectiveness of bus routes, and after which, the inefficient bus routes are analyzed through an improvement diagnosing process featured with route categorization and improvement direction identification. Three alternative strategies, namely, adjusting single critical input or output strategy, adjusting multiple critical input or output strategy, and simultaneously controlling both input and output strategy are developed. Recommendations for selecting these strategies are also provided for transit agencies to develop practical solutions. The framework is applied and validated in a case study for the service performance improvement of 23 bus routes in Jinan, China.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data (including bus GPS data and Smart Card data), models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61773293.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147 • Issue 6 • June 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 21, 2020
Accepted: Dec 30, 2020
Published online: Mar 31, 2021
Published in print: Jun 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Aug 31, 2021
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