Running time variability and resource allocation : a data-driven analysis of high-frequency bus operations

Thesis (S.M. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, February 2013.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sánchez-Martínez, Gabriel Eduardo
Other Authors: Harilaos Koutsopoulos and Nigel H.M. Wilson.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79498
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author Sánchez-Martínez, Gabriel Eduardo
author2 Harilaos Koutsopoulos and Nigel H.M. Wilson.
author_facet Harilaos Koutsopoulos and Nigel H.M. Wilson.
Sánchez-Martínez, Gabriel Eduardo
author_sort Sánchez-Martínez, Gabriel Eduardo
collection MIT
description Thesis (S.M. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, February 2013.
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spelling mit-1721.1/794982019-04-11T00:01:43Z Running time variability and resource allocation : a data-driven analysis of high-frequency bus operations Data-driven analysis of high-frequency bus operations Sánchez-Martínez, Gabriel Eduardo Harilaos Koutsopoulos and Nigel H.M. Wilson. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Civil and Environmental Engineering. Thesis (S.M. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, February 2013. "February 2012." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-132). Running time variability is one of the most important factors determining service quality and operating cost of high-frequency bus transit. This research aims to improve performance analysis tools currently used in the bus transit industry, particularly for measuring running time variability and understanding its effect on resource allocation using automated data collection systems such as AVL. Running time variability comes from both systematic changes in ridership and traffic levels at different times of the day, which can be accounted for in service planning, and the inherent stochasticity of homogeneous periods, which must be dealt with through real-time operations control. An aggregation method is developed to measure the non-systematic variability of arbitrary time periods. Visual analysis tools are developed to illustrate running time variability by time of day at the direction and segment levels. The suite of analysis tools makes variability analysis more approachable, potentially leading to more frequent and consistent evaluations. A discrete event simulation framework is developed to evaluate hypothetical modifications to a route's fleet size using automatically collected data. A simple model based on this framework is built to demonstrate its use. Running times are modeled at the segment level, capturing correlation between adjacent segments. Explicit modeling of ridership, though supported by the framework, is not included. Validation suggests that running times are modeled accurately, but that further work in modeling terminal dispatching, dwell times, and real-time control is required to model headways robustly. A resource allocation optimization framework is developed to maximize service performance in a group of independent routes, given their headways and a total fleet size constraint. Using a simulation model to evaluate the performance of a route with varying fleet sizes, a greedy optimizer adjusts allocation toward optimality. Due to a number of simplifying assumptions, only minor deviations from the current resource allocation are considered. A potential application is aiding managers to fine-tune resource allocation to improve resource effectiveness. by Gabriel Eduardo Sánchez-Martínez. S.M.in Transportation 2013-07-10T14:49:37Z 2013-07-10T14:49:37Z 2012 2013 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79498 849651487 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 132 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Sánchez-Martínez, Gabriel Eduardo
Running time variability and resource allocation : a data-driven analysis of high-frequency bus operations
title Running time variability and resource allocation : a data-driven analysis of high-frequency bus operations
title_full Running time variability and resource allocation : a data-driven analysis of high-frequency bus operations
title_fullStr Running time variability and resource allocation : a data-driven analysis of high-frequency bus operations
title_full_unstemmed Running time variability and resource allocation : a data-driven analysis of high-frequency bus operations
title_short Running time variability and resource allocation : a data-driven analysis of high-frequency bus operations
title_sort running time variability and resource allocation a data driven analysis of high frequency bus operations
topic Civil and Environmental Engineering.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79498
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