Performance Evaluation of Intelligent Space -Time based Priority Strategies for Public Transportation Systems - Case Study: Isfahan, Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Maryam Dehghani-zadeh 1
Mehdi Fallah Tafti 2
Mehdi Rafati Fard 3
1 PhD. Student in Highway and Transportation Eng., Civil Eng., Dep., Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Eng., Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.
3 Assistant Professor, Transportation Planning Group, Faculty of Eng., Imam Khomeini Int. University, Qazvin, Iran.
10.22034/road.2026.572927.2470
Abstract
This study aims to compare two proposed strategies for prioritizing urban public transport buses in pursuit of enhancing the quality of public transportation systems while simultaneously minimizing the total delay experienced by users of the urban roadway network: the space-based priority strategy (intermittent bus lane priority) and the combined space–time priority strategy (intermittent bus lanes integrated with transit signal priority). To this end, a 5.5-km corridor consisting of seven signalized intersections in the city of Isfahan was simulated using the Aimsun Software. Three scenarios were modeled: the existing dedicated bus lane, the bus lane with space-based priority, and the bus lane with combined space–time priority. The simulations were conducted under two traffic volume and for different bus headways. The primary evaluation criterion was the total person delay along the entire corridor (person–hours). The results indicated that the optimal performance of each strategy depended on bus headways and traffic volumes. Under short headways (2 and 3 minutes), the space-based priority strategy outperformed the alternative, reducing person delay by 3.7% under unsaturated–saturated conditions and by 9–15.8% under saturated–oversaturated conditions. In contrast, at longer headways (6 and 10 minutes), the combined space–time priority strategy proved more effective, reducing total person delay by 6.8–7.1% and 20.5–27.1% across the aforementioned traffic. These findings indicate that both examined priority strategies can have a significant positive impact on overall traffic performance for private vehicles and public transportation under appropriate operational conditions, and can thus be effectively implemented.
Keywords
: Public Transport Priority
Spatial (Space-based) Priority
Person Delay
Bus Lanes with Intermittent Priority
Microscopic Simulation Aimsun Next
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