Assessing bus transport reliability using micro-simulation

A wide range of public transport schemes have been proposed and put in practice to improve bus service reliability (including bus lanes, bus priority signals, passenger information systems, etc.). Central to the successful evaluation of such operational and management measures is to have reliability indicators which are easy to measure and can be used readily by operators to identify unreliable services and by regulatory authorities to set standards. This paper investigates measures to assess reliability, such as headway, excess waiting time, service regularity and recovery time of an urban network, using a dynamic micro-simulation model (DRACULA). In this paper, the model results from a test case study are presented. The significant factors affecting each measure are identified and the relative merits of the indicators are discussed with regard to their practical contribution to public transport reliability.