Planning of operation policies for fixed bus routes in Baghdad City

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of some selected public transport bus routes in Baghdad City. Some operation policies will then be considered to improve the operational characteristics of these routes. FROBSS (Fixed Route Bus Simulation System) simulation model is used to evaluate the performance of the routes. Five routes have been selected from the network of the General Company for Passenger Transport (GCPT) in Baghdad. Field data regarding these routes have been collected through field survey during March, April, and May of 2001, by using special field data sheets. These field data include: number of buses working on each route, average running time between nodes, total journey time, headway, frequency and stopping times at each bus stop. Information about the route has been also gathered such as: route length, area type, number of bus stops, and distance between nodes. These data have been input FROBSS, and the evaluation results indicated some problems on these routes such as long waiting time of passengers at bus stops, inadequate in addition to the most affecting problem which is the long journey time.. The most importance conclusion is that No. of doors and boarding and alighting times have substantial effect on bus journey time to improve the level of service on the selected routes. In the other hand, signal preemption to buses reducing intersection delay and this effect on journey time.

I. INTRODUCTION

FROBSS program will be used to analyze the collected data for the selected routes. The analysis is based on two categories. First a thorough consideration is given to the evaluation of the existing condition. Second, the investigation of possible improvement strategies, if required, is examined. Generally, the values of the input parameters may be changed in the analysis, as appropriate, within reasonable and realistic limits. The effect of different input parameters will be critically illustrated and discussed. While it is not practically possible to include every single case in the analysis, the emphasis will be concentrated on fulfilling the study objectives. Chapman et. al. [1977] stated that the movement of buses along any route is a basic function of the following components: •

Time Spent at Bus Stop (Ts)

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Time Required Reaching the Next Stop (Tr)

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Time Spent at Control Points (Tc)