Impact Analysis of Traffic Factors on Urban Bus Bunching

Due to the mixed right-of-way and varying traffic conditions, urban bus operations are often subject to random delays and eventually bus bunching, undermining the schedule reliability. The existing studies have proposed different models to emulate bus bunching and control strategies to mitigate bus bunching, yet few of them considered the effect of the three important traffic factors: intersections with signal coordination, varying traffic volume, and passenger demand. To fill in the research gap, we first define the stop-level frequency of bus bunching events for a bus route in this study. We proceed to present a simulation-based approach to quantify the impact of the three traffic factors on bus bunching. Numerical experiments based on different scenarios are carried out to reveal the cause–effect relationship between these factors and bus bunching events. Contributors to bus bunching are evaluated, and the effect of control delays is examined through statistical measurements. Finally, a real-world case study based on bus route 51 in Singapore is performed, and some insights are provided to alleviate the bus bunching phenomenon.