An investigation into the performance of full BRT and partial bus priority stragies at intersections by micro-simulation modelling in a South African context

Abstract

Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Southern African Transport Conference 7-10 July 2014 "Leading Transport into the Future", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.

Rapid urbanisation is a global problem affecting most developing countries. Current statistics indicate that South Africa’s urban population is set to double by 2030.Urban infrastructure expansion generally lags behind this exponential growth, especially in African countries. This reality calls for smart responses, implying that current resources need to be used more efficiently, catering for the needs of the ever increasing urban population. Smart Transport is an innovative response to the urgent mobility and accessibility needs of urban inhabitants. One such strategy is Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System. Research into High Level of Service Bus (HLSB) systems, such as BRT has shown that they can successfully improve urban mobility, while simultaneously reducing congestion, energy consumption vehicular emissions and increase transit efficiencies. However, the relatively high capital and operating costs of full specification BRT are prohibitive to many local authorities. In the long term, BRT has been selected as the preferred model for mass urban transit by the South African government. To optimise service delivery, an opportunity exists to identify alternative ways to implement HLSB. Hence, the following fundamental question is investigated this paper: Is it possible to reap the benefits of a full specification BRT system at a lower cost by tactical implementation of Bus Priority Schemes at strategic locations along transit routes? Through the application of micro-simulation software, a number of suitable transit priority schemes are modelled for a proposed transit corridor in Cape Town. Preliminary outputs indicate that applying transit priority, such as Bus Signal Priority can produce Level of Services (LOS), which are comparable to full specification BRT Systems.