20. Transit Service Reliability

TL;DR

Transit service reliability is important for passengers and transit agencies. Preventive strategies, such as reserve fleets and exclusive bus lanes, can help maintain normal service. Corrective strategies, like holding to schedule and deadheading, can be used to fix problems in real-time.

Transcript

The following content is provided under a Creative Commons license. Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare continue to offer high-quality educational resources for free. To make a donation or to view additional materials from hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare at ocw.mit.edu. GABRIEL SANCHEZ-MARTINEZ: Great. OK. So today's lecture... Read More

Key Insights

• 🖤 Reliability in transit service is a multifaceted concept, including punctuality, lack of disruptions, and consistent quality.
• 🐕‍🦺 Balancing preventive and corrective strategies is essential for maintaining reliable transit service.
• 🐕‍🦺 Technologies like AVL and scheduling systems have made it easier to measure and improve transit service reliability.

Questions & Answers

Q: What are some examples of preventive strategies for transit service reliability?

Some preventive strategies include having a reserve fleet, exclusive bus lanes, traffic signal priority, and effective scheduling systems.

Q: How can scheduling systems help improve reliability?

Scheduling systems can help adjust schedules in real-time based on factors like traffic and passenger demand, reducing the chance of unreliability.

Q: What is the difference between holding and deadheading?

Holding refers to not allowing a vehicle to depart early from a timing point or terminal, while deadheading is moving a bus without passengers to a specific location.

Q: How can correctives strategies like deadheading be used to fix problems in real-time?

Deadheading can be used to change the schedule and balance headways when there are bunching issues or long gaps in a route.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Reliable transit service ensures punctual arrival, lack of disruptions, and consistent quality.

• External causes of unreliability include traffic, demand variability, and incidents. Internal causes include equipment failure and poor operations planning.

• There are preventive strategies to minimize unreliability, like having reserve fleets, exclusive bus lanes, and effective scheduling systems. Corrective strategies include holding to schedule, deadheading, and expressing.