Developing models and simulations for transit service improvements of congested urban corridors

加拿大各地的交通机构正面临着越来越大的挑战，要在拥挤的城市走廊上为乘客提供可靠的服务。在不列颠哥伦比亚省（BC）运输公司的案例中，由于基洛纳的企业路和斯普林菲尔德路沿市中心走廊的交通拥堵而造成的运输延误的成本估计每年约为30万美元。基洛纳大约三分之一的过境旅行都要经过这些走廊。为了应对日益增长的可靠性和成本挑战，BC Transit已经确定了几种服务改进策略作为潜在的解决方案。此外，交通拥堵可能受到这些走廊的建成环境特征的影响，例如购物中心的存在，以及紧密间隔的十字路口。为有效提高不同交叉口的服务可靠性，需要进一步研究确定交通优惠政策和建筑环境配置。本研究开发了创新的建模方法和仿真工具，用于测试交通可靠性（即旅行时间变化）的备选服务改进策略。本研究的目标是：1)开发交通微观模拟工具，以研究交通优惠待遇对出行时间变化的影响；2)建立统计模型，以测试建成环境特征对出行时间变化的影响。这项研究的结果将有助于BC运输确定优先投资领域，以有效改善运输服务。这种可靠性的提高将通过增加乘客和收入，以及减少运输延误的成本，直接使BC运输公司受益。增加的收入和节省的成本将进一步促进扩大交通网络的投资，以服务于BC省更多的人口。这项研究的结果还将有助于加拿大在未来10年有效地分配1800亿美元投资于加拿大基础设施计划下的交通服务改善项目的资金。除了经济利益外，加拿大还将从该项目中获得许多倍的利益，包括减少交通拥堵和温室气体排放，以及改善人口健康和可及性。

Transit agencies across Canada are experiencing increased challenges to offer reliable services to passengers along the congested urban corridors. In the case of British Columbia (BC) Transit, the cost of transit delays due to traffic congestion through the midtown corridors along Enterprise Way and Springfield Road of Kelowna is estimated approximately $300,000 annually. Around one-third of transit trips in Kelowna pass through these corridors. To address the growing reliability and cost challenges, BC Transit has identified several service improvement strategies as potential solutions. Moreover, traffic congestion is potentially influenced by the built environment characteristics of these corridors, such as presence of shopping centres, and closely spaced intersections. Further research is required to identify transit preferential treatments and built environment configurations for effectively improving service reliability at different intersections. This research develops innovative modelling methods and simulation tools for testing alternative service improvement strategies on transit reliability (i.e. travel time variation). The objectives of this study are to: 1) develop a traffic microsimulation tool for examining the impact of transit preferential treatments on travel time variation, and 2) develop statistical models for testing the influence of built environment characteristics on travel time variation. The findings of this study will assist BC Transit to identify priority investment areas for effective improvement of transit services. This improved reliability will directly benefit BC Transit through increased ridership and revenue, and reduced cost for transit delays. The increased revenue and cost savings will further facilitate investments in expanding the transit network to serve a larger segment of the population in BC. The outcome of this research will also help Canada to effectively allocate funds under the $180 billion Investing in Canada infrastructure plan on transit service improvement projects over the next 10 years. In addition to the economic benefits, Canada will have many-fold benefits from this project including reductions in traffic congestions and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and improvements in population health and accessibility.