The definition of bus fleet operational parameters: The dwell time estimation

Public transport may represent a useful tool to increase the sustainability of areas, especially in urban and suburban contexts. The attractiveness of a transport system, especially in the case of buses, is closely linked to its reliability which depends in turn on the adoption of adequate planning and design methodologies. Currently, although the dwell time (i.e. the time spent by a vehicle at a bus stop for boarding and alighting passengers) may represent a relevant rate of the total travel time, it generally is adopted as constant and prefixed. In this context, this paper aims to identify an analytical formulation to determine at each bus stop the corresponding dwell time to increase the reliability of the planned service. Numerical results have shown the correctness of the proposed approach.