Evaluation of Bus Operations With ETM and GPS Data: K.Gunasekaran, A.Kavi, P. Knoppers

Evaluation of Bus Operations with ETM
and GPS Data

Dr K. Gunasekaran
Associate Professor,
Division of Transportation Engineering,
Anna University, Chennai 600025
K.Gunasekaran, A.Kavi, P. Knoppers
Introduction
Bus Transport is the most preferred Public
Transport System in many cities.
Recently the passenger patronage for bus transport
is on the decline .
Reasons reported are increased travel time, low
reliability and low frequency of services in urban
fringe areas.
Regular monitoring of bus operation by the
operators on daily and hourly basis in terms of
duration, schedule adherence is essential, as these
aspects have a greater influence on passenger
ridership level.
6 August 2012 3
A healthy and efficient public transit
system is indispensable to reduce
congestion, emissions, energy
consumption, and car dependency in
urban areas
Bus patronage drastically reduced
from41%to 29%,
Modal Split 1970 - 2004
Decline of Modal Share of Bus in Chennai
Bus Transport Scenario in Chennai
6 August 2012 4
The Metropolitan Transport Corporation
operates the public transport buses in
Chennai.
It transports nearly 5.7 million passengers
every day with a fleet of 3421 buses
covering a maximum distance of 50 km
from city centre.
6 August 2012 5
Bus Travel in Chennai
Maximum 73 persons can travel in a bus, but at present upto 85 to 125 peoples
travel in city buses daily during peak hours
It is required to optimise bus routes and bus operations for improving
ridership and effective utilisation of available buses.
Data collection by manual methods for optimisation is time consuming,
and involves huge cost and manpower.
6 August 2012 6
GPS is mounted in the bus with
two basic functions
1. To transfer the location about
the bus to the server
2. To communicate with the driver
Server will receive the data for
every 4 to 10 sec via GPRS
It is mounted at bus
stop and give basic
information about
arrival of bus
Fleet managers
collect the details
and store as
backend information
PASSENGER INFORMATION SYSTEM

Study Route
Route length is 32.6
Kilometers
Route is designated as 21G
by MTC
Average bus stop spacing
within city 1km whereas in
suburbs 3.75 km
AVL is used as a Passenger Information System
vehicle location
Electronic Ticketing Machine (ETM) used for
issuing tickets- travel pattern of the commuters.
The inputs from AVL and ETM are integrated and
analysed using TRITAPT software developed by
Delft University.
Punctuality deviation, loading profile, schedule
adherence and trip duration of the buses were
evaluated to understand the level of existing
operations.
Methodology
GPS Data
ETM data

Punctuality Deviation is the time difference between scheduled time and
the observed time of buses at the bus stops
The buses reached 15 minutes early in non-peak hours and 30 minutes
later in peak hours
Punctuality Deviation

Tambaram to High Court
High Court to Tambaram
Passenger Loading Profile
The load profile -identify the sections having maximum passenger load.
Review of length of operation and modification in number of buses
required direction wise and time wise to carry the passengers.
Deploying the required number of buses would enable passengers to
travel comfortably without overcrowding and the operator to pull out the
extra buses if any.
Passengers Carried Tripwise
Schedule Adherence
The trajectory plot of bus movements helps to verify that whether the buses
run as per schedule and whether time headway between buses is maintained
throughout the route.
Operational Speed Sectionwise
Sectionwise speed helps to arrive the bus schedule accounting the
variations in speed during peak and non peak hours on working days
and holidays
Dwell time at Bus stops and Delay
Sectionwise
Route Section Times for various
time periods

AVL and ETM are devices that provide valuable inputs
for bus transit planning and optimization.
Optimisation of bus operations could be done
effectively and quickly with the output obtained from
VTS and ETM.
Real time monitoring of the fleet operations and fleet
deployment by Transit managers could be performed
with automatic data collection systems.
Conclusion
The Work is an output of the research study
Improving transit system performance through
Automatic data collection systems sponsored
by MOUD supported Centre of Excellence in
Urban Transport, IITM, Chennai.
The authors are grateful to Metropoltan
Transport Corporation, Chennai for providing
the required data and to Delft University,
Netherlands for providing the TRITAPT software
for analysis and conversion of the AVL and ETM
data.
Acknowledgement
Thank You

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