A max-plus algebraic model of bus bunching and control strategies

Šfiligoj, Tina (author), Peperko, Aljoša (author)

Disruptions in bus public transport systems, such as congestion, varying demands etc. lead to deviations from timetables in bus headways. An often occurring and problematic phenomenon is bus bunching, where several buses on the same route arrive at a stop at the same time and there are large headways between separate bunches. Thus the bus arrival frequency is effectively diminished and travel time is prolonged, including waiting time and in-vehicle time, which has considerable negative impact on system reliability. In order to improve service performance in terms of travel times and predictable bus arrival frequencies, bus holding strategies need to be employed. We propose a max-plus algebraic approach to modelling bus dynamics and the occurrence of bus bunching. The model is used to propose a bus holding strategy. Numerical results are presented for a simulation of a high-frequency route in a small artificial bus public transport network.

• Language: English
• Keywords: max-plus algebra, bus bunching, bus holding, bus service reliability
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.08 - Published Scientific Conference Contribution
• Organization: FPP - Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport; FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 88-94
• Numbering: Vol. 83
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-176502
• UDC: 512:656.1
• ISSN on article: 2352-1465
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trpro.2025.02.013
• COBISS.SI-ID: 232190211
• Publication date in RUL: 02.12.2025

Record is a part of a proceedings

• Title: 21st International conference on transport science (ICTS 2024)
• COBISS.SI-ID: 230609155

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Transportation research procedia
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 2352-1465
• COBISS.SI-ID: 520396313

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: algebra, avtobusni prevozi, projekti, zanesljivost

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P1-0222
• Name: Algebra, teorija operatorjev in finančna matematika