Public Transport Prioritization and Descriptive Criteria-Based Urban Sections Classification on Arterial Streets

Abstract

The present paper is aimed at improving minimization methods in traffic flows, particularly reducing the costs of civil transportation through sections of the transport network by giving priority to public transport in densely developed areas. In cities with a radial and radial–circular planning scheme of the road network, where arterial traffic flows converge in the central part, the challenge of street congestion with traffic often arises. As a result, delays of all types of vehicles increase, which causes excessive travel time for users of private and public transport. In this regard, it is proposed to divide the sections of the transport network into eight types based on their geometric parameters and traffic conditions. This differentiation of sections improves the existing methods for determining the spatial delay of traffic flows on sections of the transport network with different parameters. It was achieved by considering the duration of vehicles passing signalized intersections and pedestrian crosswalks and the sections of streets between them, while simultaneously recording the duration of public transport movement, as well as the time they spend at stopping points, using GPS receivers. The results of onsite monitoring and further computations revealed that there are particular urban sections with specific, different distances between adjacent stop lines that are critical for public transport operation. Furthermore, based on the delay criterion, there were three different passage modes proposed to improve the efficiency of the traffic.