Study Of Bus Bay At Nagambadam

1. INTRODUCTION A bus bay (or turnout) is a specially constructed area separated from the travel lanes and off the normal section of a roadway that provides for the pickup and discharge of passengers. This design allows through traffic to flow freely without the obstruction of stopped buses. Bus bays are provided primarily on high-volume or high-speed roadways, such as suburban arterial roads. Additionally, bus bays are frequently constructed in heavily congested downtown and shopping areas where large numbers of passengers may board and alight. Bus bays have been introduced in a bus stop in Nagambadam where stopping buses without bays block traffic stream seriously. In that sense, bus-bay has been evaluated as successful. However, based on some observations, buses in bus-bays do not stop closely at curbs, which make boarding and alighting passengers inconvenient due to big gap between buses and curbs. There might be several reasons why buses do not stop closely at curbs, including driving technical issues by bus drivers, some psychological issues for them and traffic conditions at streets. Coming to our study area Kottayam, which is one of the fast growing cities in Kerala, the transportation facilities especially road network is inadequate. The bus traffic interferes with the free flow of traffic due to the stopping of vehicles on the road way itself. The solution for this problem is to provide properly designed bus bay. Unfortunately in Kottayam there is only one bus bay, which is at Nagambadam. 2. OBJECTIVES General study about bus bay. Performance evaluation of existing bus bays in Kottayam town.

3. STUDY AREA The area chosen for the study is Nagambadam, which is the heart of Kottayam. Buses to Ettumanur, Medical College, Trissur, Pala, Thodupuzha passes through this route. For this reason, there is frequent bus service in this route. This bay is located beside the railway station, Nagambadam bus stand and the Nagambadam bridge. Even though, the road facilities available here is inadequate. There is a proposal for improving the road way. This provides the opportunity

Study Of Bus Bay At Nagambadam

to include the bus bay as part of the reconstruction, resulting in a better-designed and less-costly bus bay.

Fig 1: Satellite view of the study area

Fig 2: Map of Nagambadam

Study Of Bus Bay At Nagambadam

4. FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED Bus bays should be considered at a location when the following factors are present: Traffic in the curb lane exceeds 250 vehicles during the peak hour, Traffic speed is greater than 40 mph, Bus volumes are 10 or more per peak hour on the roadway, Passenger volumes exceed 20 to 40 boardings an hour, Average peak-period dwell time exceeds 30 seconds per bus, Buses are expected to layover at the end of a trip, Potential for auto/bus conflicts warrants separation of transit and passenger vehicles, History of repeated traffic and/or pedestrian accidents at stop location, Right-of-way width is adequate to construct the bay without adversely affecting sidewalk pedestrian movement, Sight distances (i.e., hills, curves) prevent traffic from stopping safely behind a stopped bus, A right-turn lane is used by buses as a queue jumper lane, Appropriate bus signal priority treatment exists at an intersection, Bus parking in the curb lane is prohibited, and Improvements, such as widening, are planned for a major roadway.

5. METHODOLOGY A detailed study of the existing bus bay at Nagambadam is carried out. Bus bay dimensions,

number of passengers boarding and alighting, number of buses stopping in the bus bay and not stopping, dwell time, number of male and female passengers using the bus bay, efficiency of the bay were studied. 6. DATA COLLECTION Videographic method was used for the data collection for concerning the safety of crews and also for not disturbing the traffic operations. To conserve manpower, a systematic short-count procedure was applied. Observations were made at 10 min intervals during each hour. One observer for each observation session was preliminarily assigned. The heavy traffic during peak

Study Of Bus Bay At Nagambadam

periods not only placed an intensive workload on the observer but also increased the chances of recording data erroneously. As a result, the observers worked in two-person teams. Because short-count data collection procedures were used, an expansion factor was required to expand the counts to the total estimates of the respective time periods. For each observation location of a specific time period, the expansion factor was computed by: f= Where T = total time of the study time period; t = actual counting time; f= expansion factor 6.1 PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION Firstly, Nagambadam is selected as the study area. The bus bay shape and dimensions are as shown below.

Fig 3: Bus bay shape Dimensions of the bus bay are measured using tape. Similarly the distance from the curb at which the buses stopped is also measured. By Videographic method, the data regarding number of buses stopping at bus bay, their dwell time and gender wise number of passengers boarding and alighting were collected. From the table 1,it is observed that female passengers take more time for boarding and alighting as compared to male passengers. It is also observed that the dwell time of private bus is more than that of KSRTC.

Study Of Bus Bay At Nagambadam

Table 1: Bus bay observations

DWELL TIME KSRTC 10 15 25 35 13 15 6 7 PRIVATE BUS 45 15 8 25 30 5 20 20 20 18 12 60 NUMBER OF PASSENGERS BOARDING KSRTC PRIVATE BUS MALE 6 3 5 4 2 2 1 2 FEMALE 4 4 3 1 5 1 1 MALE 5 1 3 4 3 1 2 1 6 3 8 FEMALE 8 4 3 2 5 2 4 6 2 4 3 2 1 3 7 1 NUMBER OF PASSENGERS ALIGHTING KSRTC PRIVATE BUS MALE FEMALE 1 2 7 5 1 2 MALE 4 2 2 2 1 6 FEMALE 2 2 6 4 1 3 1 2 1 1 5

6.1.1. Road side interview For road side interview, the general questions asked are as follows. 15 passengers were interviewed. 1 2 3 4 5 Is the bus bay useful to the general public? Do all the buses stop at the bus bay? Is this facility available in both peak and off peak hours? Do KSRTC and private bus utilize the bus bay? Is general public facing any difficulty or safety issues? Yes No Yes Yes Yes

From this survey, some interesting information was obtained. Of course the bus bay is useful to the general public; how far the facility is being used is a question. Even though the facility is available in both peak and off peak hours, majority of the buses are not willing to stop at the bay. It was found that KSRTC buses stop on the through road itself. The boarding and alighting of passengers are at risk as they have to cross the lane to catch the bus. At the same time, if another bus is trying to enter the bay, due to lack of enough sight distance there is a chance of accidents. So there is a safety issue. There is enough length for the bay which enables two buses to stop simultaneously, but it is not been used. This is the psychological issue of the driver.

Study Of Bus Bay At Nagambadam

Fig 4: Two buses using the bay simultaneously

Fig 5: Space not been used by the second bus

Fig 6: Not stopping in the bay

Fig 7: Bay used by car instead of bus

Fig 8: People crossing the bay to catch the bus

Study Of Bus Bay At Nagambadam

7. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION Frequency of bus operations: 120-130 buses per hour 7.1. Gap data distribution The observations on how the buses are stopping at the bay are shown below. Around 20 to 30 buses were observed for a period of 15 minutes. Based on observations, buses in bus-bays do not stop closely at curbs, which make boarding and alighting passengers inconvenient due to big gap between buses and curbs. Table 2: Gap data distribution at bus bay Curb Distance(m) 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 KSRTC 17% 13% 60% 10% Private 21% 42% 17% 13% 7% -

Figure 9: Gap data distribution at bus bay

Study Of Bus Bay At Nagambadam

The reasons why buses do not stop closely at curbs were found to be the driving technical issues by bus drivers, some psychological issues for them and traffic conditions at streets. 7.2. Average dwell time KSRTC, average dwell time: 15.75sec Private bus, average dwell time: 23.2 sec Table 3: Average dwell time in seconds DWELL TIME KSRTC PRIVATE BUS 10 45 15 15 25 8 35 25 13 30 15 5 6 20 7 20 20 18 12 60 Avg=15.75 Avg=23.167

Figure 10: Average dwell time in seconds

Study Of Bus Bay At Nagambadam

8. CONCLUSION Bus bays are the essential part of road network to avoid queuing up of vehicles behind the bus near the stop. From the study it is concluded that the performance of Nagambadam bus bay is satisfactory. For the proper utilization of bay, enforcement measures must be made powerful. The improvement of operations at the bus bay could enhance frequent bus transport keeping a certain level of service. As the topics for the further study, space requirement, coordination with waiting facilities and arrangement with other lanes should be considered more carefully. Furthermore, bus-bays shape must be designed for easy maneuvering of the buses.

Study Of Bus Bay At Nagambadam

9. REFERENCE 1. Tsutomu YABE, Fumihiko Nakamura, 2005, Study on the relationship between

capacity, cost and operation Alternatives of bus rapid transit, Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol. 6, pp. 408 - 422 2. Tsutomu YABE, Fumihiko Nakamura, 2005, A study on improvement of bus-bay design, Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol. 6, pp. 449 456 3. Xumei Chen, Lei Yu, Lin Zhu, Jifu Guo, and Mingzheng Sun, 2010, Microscopic Traffic Simulation Approach to the Capacity Impact Analysis of Weaving Sections for the Exclusive Bus Lanes on an Urban Expressway, Journal Of Transportation Engineering ASCE 4. TCRP Report 19: Guidelines for design and location of bus stop (part B)