Development and Evaluation of an Economic-Driving Assistance Program for Transit Vehicles

This paper focuses on development and evaluation of an economic-driving assistance program for transit vehicles (EDTV) which can minimize energy consumption, air pollution emission of buses, and improve the level of service of transit system as well. Taking advantage of the latest advances in information and communication technologies, the EDTV system can provide bus drivers with optimal recommended bus holding times at near-side bus stops and dynamic bus speed to adapt to the real-time traffic control plan at downstream intersections. In order to address the impacts of the stochastic variation of bus dwell time, the total link between adjacent intersections is divided into three parts: upstream of bus stop part; bus stop part; and downstream of bus stop part. The methods for calculating recommended parameters, including bus holding time and bus speed in each of the three parts are proposed based on real-time bus status and signal status at downstream intersections. A VISSIM-based simulation platform was designed and used for simulating and evaluating the proposed EDTV system. Extensive experimental analyses have shown that the proposed EDTV system can improve the performance of a transit system in terms of reducing fuel consumption, air pollution emissions and level of service of the transit system.