Exclusive Bus Lane Network Design: A Perspective from Intersection Operational Dynamics

Exclusive bus lanes have demonstrated their effectiveness in increasing capacity and efficiency. However, when discussing the optimal design of exclusive bus lanes at the network level, existing studies predominantly focus on the interaction between transit and private vehicles at the links, while operational dynamics at the intersections and their impacts were insufficiently addressed. This paper contributes to developing a mathematical model for exclusive bus lane network design with operational dynamics at intersections explicitly captured. In the proposed model, lane re-configuration for transit and private vehicles at both road segments and intersections along with signal timing optimization are integrated in a unified framework. The model features a bi-level structure with the objective for reducing the total system person travel time. A genetic algorithm embedded with Emme is used for yielding solutions to the model. Results from both numerical and empirical tests demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and reveal that setting of exclusive bus lanes in the network without explicit consideration of intersection operational dynamics can significantly undermine the network performance with respect to both bus passengers and private vehicles.