Use of Automated Vehicle Location Data for Route- and Segment-Level Analyses of Bus Route Reliability and Speed

Reliability and speed are arguably the most important indicators of surface transit performance for both operators and passengers. They can be influenced by a variety of factors, including service characteristics of bus routes, physical infrastructure, signal settings, traffic conditions and ridership patterns. These factors have often been analyzed individually for their impact on transit reliability or speed. Studies considering more than one factor tend to use one or two transit routes to explore their effects. The study that is the subject of this paper proposed an evaluation framework to guide the selection of an appropriate reliability measure. Regression analysis was applied subsequently to determine the factors that exhibit a statistically significant relationship with transit reliability and speed at both the route and segment levels. Automated vehicle location data of a bus route sample that is representative of the entire bus network in the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada were used. Features significantly associated with reliability and speed were compared. The results showed that lower transit reliability and speed are significantly associated with the increase in service distance, signalized intersection density, stop density, volume of boarding and alighting passengers, and traffic volume. By segregating bus route segments on the basis of the presence of transit signal priority, the results of the segment-level model demonstrated the beneficial impact of transit signal priority on improving transit reliability.