Relating bus dwell time and platform crowding at a busway station

Bus dwell time is traditionally modelled as a function of the number of alighting and boarding passengers plus an amount of time for door opening and closing. Such an approach can be used to estimate bus dwell time at an on street bus stop. However, it could be less accurate for a busway station, where more than one loading area is available, due to the phenomenon of crowding on the platform. This paper discusses an approach to understand platform crowding and its effects on bus dwell times by way of a pilot study. Video footage using digital cameras was captured and later analysed in the laboratory in two phases. In the first phase, the bus-side data (dwell time, service time per passenger, etc) was extracted. In second phase, passenger-side data (reaction time to bus, walking time, crowd density, etc) was extracted. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that the activities performed by passengers and buses can be grouped into two distinct classes – passenger-bus interface and passenger-bus interaction. The variation in duration of passenger-bus interface with respect to the platform crowding is addressed. Particular behaviour of the passengers waiting on the platform is also considered.