Commonsense Approaches for Improving Transit Bus Speeds


“This report documents the common and perhaps not so commonsense approaches transit agencies have taken to realize gains in average bus speeds. A literature review, survey responses from 31 of 36 agencies (a response rate of 86%), and six case examples offer information with an emphasis on actions that transit agencies an take to improve service speeds, reliability, and attractiveness.

The synthesis identifies metrics pertaining to measures such as changes in travel speed and its opponents, operation cost, and ridership. It shows the results of each or a combination of approaches implemented. The results from this synthesis can benefit every transit agency that operates bus service.

Daniel KI. Boyle, Dan Boyle & Associates, Inc., San Diego, California, collected and synthesized the information and wrote the report, under the guidance of a panel of experts in the subject area. The members of the topic panel are acknowledged on the preceding page. This synthesis is an immediately useful document that records the practices that were acceptable within the limitations of the knowledge available at the time of its preparation. As progress in research and practice continues, new knowledge will be added to that now at hand.”

The document in its entirety can be found here.


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