Eliminating Bus Stops: Evaluating Changes in Operations, Emissions and Coverage

Bus systems in the United States are unattractive to many potential riders because of their lack of efficiency, especially with regard to travel time. One of the reasons services are not more efficient has to do with the spacing of bus stops. After using a nearest facility algorithm with an 800 m walking distance threshold to identify eligible bus stops in the current bus system in the city of Fairfax, Virginia, the impacts of their elimination on operations, emissions, and coverage are estimated. Results indicate that eliminating some bus stops (about 40% of current stops) could improve travel times and reduce operating costs by the same percentage (23%). In addition, bus-related emissions such as CO (34%), VOC (18%), and NOx (10%) could all be substantially lower. Surprisingly, the loss in coverage due to eliminating stops would not be large (10% of the total population of the city of Fairfax). Introduction One of the reasons bus service in the United States is unpopular is because it is inefficient; it takes too long to get riders to their destinations. Many attribute this inefficiency to the spacing of bus stops (Furth et al. 2007). Densely-spaced bus stops improve geographic coverage and rider accessibility, but they also increase in-vehicle time and supply costs (Chien and Qin 2004). Sparsely-spaced bus stops, Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2013 154 on the other hand, yield faster services and lower operating costs even if ridership accessibility is lower (Murray and Wu 2003). This study focused on bus service in the city of Fairfax, Virginia, also known as the City-University-Energysaver (CUE) bus system, which serves George Mason University (GMU). Currently, the CUE bus provides service to local residents and GMU students in the city of Fairfax who need access to campus as well as other modes of transportation such as light rail. The primary objective was to estimate the operating costs savings and emission reductions that could be realized by eliminating some stops on CUE bus routes. The secondary objective was to determine if it is possible to eliminate some CUE bus stops without adversely affecting service coverage. To meet the latter objective, equity and tradeoff analyses were performed by looking at the characteristics of stops and the people who would lose coverage if some of the stops on the current CUE bus routes were eliminated. The second section provides background on bus stop spacing and the costs and benefits (economic, environmental, and social) of eliminating some of them. The third section discusses the data used in the study and the study area. The fourth section discusses the methods used to identify bus stops eligible for elimination and explores the service improvements which could result from their elimination. The fifth section presents the results of the study and the effect that eliminating some stops could have on the populations currently served by the CUE bus. The last section presents the conclusions of the study and avenues for future research. Background Public Transportation Today The quality of bus service is perceived differently by different users. From the user’s perspective, bus service quality is usually based on availability, frequency, travel speed, reliability and safety (Pratt 2000; Rood 1999; Phillips et al. 2001; Kittelson & Associates 2003; Kihl et al. 2005; Marsden and Bonsall 2006; Litman 2007; 2008; Stradling et al. 2007; Kenworthy 2008). Although these are equally important for bus service evaluation, due to data availability and time constraints, this study evaluated the service quality improvements that could be realized by eliminating some stops on CUE bus routes in terms of travel time. In addition, it explored how operating costs, transit-based emissions, and population coverage would change if some CUE bus stops were eliminated.