Quantifying the Importance of Level Boarding and Pre-paid to BRT: Case Study in Beijing

摘要

Dwell time at station is a very important part of travel time for both bus rapidtransit and regular bus systems. Level boarding and pre-paid fare collectionwhich are caused by new type of bus and station mode could help the BRTsystem to reduce boarding and alighting time of passengers and dwell timefor vehicles. In this paper, new bus is defined as a bus with wide doors,low-level floor without steps; BRT station mode is defined as a closed stationwith the platform is as high as bus floor, and using pre-paid fare collectionmethod. Other factors can affect the boarding and alighting time such asoccupancy in bus, and order & overcrowding of platform are not discussed bythis paper. Authors conducted surveys on BRT Line One and several regularbus lines in Beijing, and analyzed the differences of boarding and alightingtime between BRT and regular bus based on the bus types and station modes.Data analysis shows evidence that level boarding and pre-paid fare collectioncould essentially help to save boarding and alighting time. Authors alsosuggest that if cities or specific areas could not build more exclusive lanes forBRT, they could think about to replace bus type and improve bus station to beBRT mode for regular public transit. The conclusion of this paper showsthose two measures can help to shorten dwell time, and increase operationspeed, reliability, and capacity of public transit system.