REFERENTE AO BRT TRANSOESTE ... "2.4 Waiting Time, Capacity and Overcrowding Transoeste’s BRT infrastructure has greatly improved bus speeds and travel times. However, it is currently operating without a sufficient number of vehicles to meet demand, particularly at peak hours. This creates significant waiting times for users at these hours, specifically at terminal stations. At the busiest periods, surveys indicate riders must wait for up to four buses to pass before they were able to board. The average user reported waiting in line for 1.4 buses to pass before being able to board and reported an average perceived waiting time of 13 minutes. Waiting times are a function of demand, bus capacity and bus headways. Bus headways refer to the length of time between buses and can be halved to find the average waiting time for a bus route that is not above capacity, since riders will generally arrive at an equal distribution throughout the time between buses. While it varies depending on the station, during off-peak hours, Transoeste buses for all lines at the Alvorada station were scheduled to operate at headway of six minutes for express buses (a three-minute average wait time) and 8 minutes for local buses (a four-minute average wait time) in early 2013. Peak-hour headways are much shorter and were scheduled to be three minutes for express service and six minutes for local service. However, in an audit of the actual bus headways achieved at Alvorada station, the peak-hour headways observed are approximately 25 percent longer than the bus operator’s target. This may be due to long boarding times at terminal stations and/or other operational issues with bus circulation described below, which restrict the number of loaded buses that can exit the station per hour. For ITDP’s recommendations on how to improve bus frequencies, see Section 3.1. Table 7. Planned versus observed peak hour bus frequency, January 2013 Line Service Bus/Hr Planned Bus/Hr Observed Alvorada–Santa Cruz Express 20 15 Local* n/a n/a Alvorada–Pingo d’Água Express 20 15 Local 10 8 Recreio–Paciência Express 8.6 8.6** TOTAL 58.6 46.6 *Alvorada–Santa Cruz local service only runs during evening off-peak hours. ** Assumed frequency, not observed. Source: Rio Ônibus, January 2013 and Observations March 28, 2013. At terminal stations and some intermediate stations, buses fill to beyond their capacity during peak hours. This creates long boarding lines, which also increase wait times. Of the passengers surveyed, 73.2 percent of express passengers reported waiting more than 7 minutes and 42.5 percent of local passengers reported waiting more than 12 minutes. Wait times for peak-hour service have been as much as 40 minutes based on headway times, survey reports and observations. In addition, during peak hours at terminal stations, Transoeste has two and sometimes three separate lines for passengers to board the bus at the terminal stations, which affects waiting time. In the “sitting line” riders queue up to be allowed to enter the bus first for a guaranteed seat. The “sitting line” takes longer (approximately 20 to 40 minutes at peak) as most riders are going from one terminal station to the other and seats for an hour-long bus ride are preferred. Users who are in a hurry or do not need a seat can enter a faster line for a standing position on the bus (approximately ten to 20 minutes at peak hour). After enough passengers from the “sitting line” have entered the bus and the seats are filled, riders from the “standing line” are allowed to enter and fill a portion of the standing space. Some stations have a third line for “priority” passengers, including elderly, disabled and pregnant passengers, who are allowed to board before everyone else and are allocated a fixed number of reserved seats per bus. In completing this two- to three-step loading process, the bus must advance between lines in the station, adding delay to the process" FONTE-ITDP
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 08:44:38 +0000
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