Simulation Analysis of Bus Passenger Boarding and Alighting Behavior Based on Cellular Automata

Abstract

Bus passengers’ boarding and alighting behavior is important content when researching bus operation efficiency. This paper uses an improved cellular automata (CA) model and introduces four dynamic parameters to study individual behavioral characteristics of bus passengers’ boarding and alighting behavior. The research on the relationship between the macro pedestrian flow formed by the interaction between the individual passengers and the stop time of the bus station was realized. Then it was modeled for different situations, and the general update rules of CA were set based on realistic situations. The passenger boarding and alighting behaviors of the No. 245 bus route in Nanchang, China were simulated, and the simulation results of four different door layouts and passenger boarding and alighting modes were compared. It was found that when the passenger loading rate in the bus reaches 65%, the passenger boarding rate has an obvious tendency to slow down; the width of the door has a direct relationship with the passenger alighting efficiency, and the bus stopping time can be reduced by adjusting the width of the alighting door; a strategy which allows passengers board on the bus via the alighting door may effectively reduce the bus stopping time when there are many passengers boarding on the bus. Using strategy four, simulation research found that Bus No. 245 can reduce the stopping time by 40–50% in some station scenarios. Research results show that the CA model has certain practical value and can provide a theoretical reference for public transportation control and management.

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“…The average time between two stops for a city bus is about 30 s (Göhlich, 2018), that is similar in many cities in different countries, as well as in Latvia. The duration of bus standing at the stop depends on the number of passengers getting on and off and it is on average 4 seconds per passenger (Xue et al, 2022). Air exchange mainly takes place through the open doors, as well as the ventilation system of the bus often works in recirculation mode, therefore heat loss through ventilation can be underestimated during calculations (Niemyі, 2020).…”

A Real-Time Control Strategy for Bus Operation to Alleviate Bus Bunching

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