Public Transport Priority Systems: Opportunities and

Recommendations
G. Franco and F. Biora (MIZAR Automazione SpA)

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The bus priority techniques within this document are described in six chapters:

Chapter 2: explains the purpose of the document and how it might be best used.

Chapter 3: lists possible fields, within traffic and travel management and control systems, where
bus priority features may improve the effectiveness of the control action. For each field the
expected contribution to the bus priority feature is described.

Chapter 4: presents the typical conditions where a bus priority scheme is required to perform an
improvement in travel conditions. Problems and characteristics of each scenario are highlighted
and solutions are suggested.

Chapter 5: describes the opportunities offered by the
systems which are equipped for bus priority. An overview
is also provided as the level of performance achievable
knowledge of travelling vehicles. This is the core of the
telematic systems.
adoption of dynamic signal control
of vehicle detection/location methods
with these systems depends on the
document as it deals with advanced

Chapter 6: describes the solutions offered by the current technology for vehicle
location/detection to satisfy the requirements of bus priority systems.

2. INTRODUCTION

One objective of bus priority techniques can be improvements in service regularity, which
usually means alignment with nominal time-tables and/or headways. A regular service
guarantees a good level of transport capacity (expressed in terms of "passengers per hour"):
the major goal of transport management. Moreover it makes service planning easier, reduces
the time lost by passengers at bus or tram stops, increases user satisfaction and reduces driver
stress.

Typical sources of service irregularity are: user demand variations, traffic congestion and traffic
signal control. The reduction of the disturbance caused by traffic signal control and the
exploitation of priority features constitutes a real success.

A second important objective is a gain in commercial speed. Traffic signal priority contributes to
the reduction of PT vehicle journey times and can produce greater transport capacity or a
reduction in the number of vehicles required to provide the service.
A third objective, that is becoming increasingly important for transport management, is
the reduction of pollution. A smaller number of stops at traffic signals and less time lost in
queues are direct effects of traffic signal priority and advanced traffic signal control techniques.

The final important objective is that of a more rational use of energy.

The aim of this document is to report an overview on bus priority techniques as developed and
tested in different systems and contexts throughout Europe.

3. APPLICATION FIELDS FOR BUS PRIORITY

3.1 Fleet control within urban areas

Some AVM (Automatic Vehicle Monitoring) systems, such as the one operating in Turin,
implement a fleet control action which aims to regularise the public transport service. The
regularity of the service is meant as either conformance to the planned timetable or the
headway between following vehicles.

One of the main required control actions for such a system is selective bus priority at signalised
junctions. This feature allows the system to reduce the journey time of late running vehicles.

3.2 Selected bus route protection

Selected bus routes may be required to provide a service as regular and as quick as possible
between any origin and destination. This can be achieved by reserving a bus lane for public
vehicles only and providing absolute priority at the signalised junctions.

These measures make the cruise speed of the public vehicles along the route as constant as
possible by avoiding any stop other than the planned bus-stops.

3.3 Environmental protection schemes

Environmental protection schemes aim to minimise the levels of pollutants emitted from
vehicles. This can be achieved by making the movement of the vehicles within the network as
"smooth" as possible, trying to minimise stops and delays at intersections.

For bus priority measures this target can only be achieved if priority is only given to services for
which predictable arrivals at the intersections can be provided.

4. POSSIBLE SCENARIOS

4.1 Public vehicles and private traffic interaction

With respect to objectives such as:

 service regularity
 gain in commercial speed
 reduction of pollution
 rational use of energy

the best results of the bus priority implementation are expected to be for services operating in
protected lanes. Strategies for absolute priority may apply to services operating in reserved
lanes, but situations where many services share the same reserved lanes, or where emergency
vehicles or taxis can use lanes reserved for public service, have to be handled separately
through strategies for high (but not absolute) priority provision.

For services which operate in mixed lanes with private traffic, strategies which can reduce the
number of stops at traffic signals and the time spent in queues are relevant.

4.1.1 Public vehicles in reserved lanes

Public transport vehicles operating in protected lanes constitute the class of vehicle which can
be given effective priority by any priority system provided with selective priority features.

The frequency of priority requests is the only major constraint to absolute priority provision.

This constraint can result in changes to both the traffic signal control and the priority request
provider.

When the intersection is crossed by only one priority service, the frequency should be
determined on the basis of the nominal headways of the vehicles on both directions of the
service.

When the intersection is crossed by more than one service, the frequency should be computed
on the basis of the headways of all the vehicles which will approach the intersection.

In any case, if the maximum frequency is not compatible with the average cycle foreseen for the
intersection, some restrictions should be applied to the priority request. Reasonable criteria are:

a) Reduce the level of priority for one or more services from "absolute" to "high".

This rule can be applied only if services do not share the same route. Otherwise lower priority
vehicles could obstruct the progress of the absolute priority vehicles.

b) Request priority only for vehicles running late.

This rule could be applied either to one, to a subset, or to all of the priority services. Some
services could maintain the absolute priority if the resulting request frequency becomes
comparable with the average length of the traffic signal cycle. The other vehicles could be
provided with a "high" level priority.

As a consequence of specification a) defined above, possible conflicts between priority requests

of the same level or of different levels should be solved by the intersection controller.
4.1.2 Public vehicles in lanes reserved for special vehicles

A "reserved lane" is defined here as a non-protected lane which is reserved for public transport
vehicles. The access to a reserved lane is forbidden to private traffic but can be permitted to
vehicles of other public service providers (emergency vehicle, police, taxis and so on). Normally
reserved lanes are shared by many services (trams and buses).

For this class of vehicles journey time predictions present higher variances. The intersection
control can still provide a high level of priority.

Priority assignment at the intersections can still be constrained by the priority request frequency.
Problems due to possible obstacles to the vehicle's progress can occur.

Specifications a) and b) defined in 4.1.1 can apply also to this context only in some particular
cases: reserved lanes shared by a few services, all provided with the same level of priority and
not disturbed by vehicles with lower priority.

In other cases a common level of priority (lower than absolute) should be defined for the set of
services sharing the reserved lane. The evaluation of the request frequency could become
really complex: conflicts with other services using different reserved lanes can be present in
several intersections. A general specification is:

 to request priority only for late vehicles, and/or

 to solve conflicting requests at the intersection level.

4.1.3 Public vehicles mixed with private flows

The importance attributed to the single service should lead to the definition of the weight of the
priority requests for different vehicles.

Also for this class of vehicles the accuracy of journey time prediction is sufficient for the
formulation of priority requests, but the priority assignment depends strongly on special features
of the intersection control. Indeed, in this context the real problem concerns private traffic which
can obstruct vehicle motion towards the downstream intersection.

The intersection control should be provided with features for lane clearance. The clearance
action should start with the first vehicle arrival time forecast received by the intersection
controller, and continue until the vehicle has left the intersection.

This technique could be implemented by increasing the weight of the incoming link used by the
vehicle, and consequently by influencing the functional optimisation performed by the
intersection controller.

This kind of action in general can introduce a disturbance in the traffic control. Hence, priority
requests for vehicles mixed with the private traffic should be limited.

Priority request for vehicles mixed with private traffic should be limited to extremely late
vehicles.
The great number of possible priority requests which can be generated at network level
suggests a general specification: the weight of the priority requests should also be defined
according to the variance of the predictions of the arrival time of the vehicles.

The intersection controller should be able to manage priority request weights defined
dynamically and to solve possible conflicts between requests accordingly.

4.2 Priority on a sequence of junctions

The previous section analyses the possible scenarios for bus priority at a signalised junction
according to different topological layouts of the intersection. General specifications and
considerations have been formulated both for the local level controller and the priority requester
about the priority level to be requested and the accuracy of the arrival time prediction.

These considerations have to be integrated by others when priority is requested in scenarios

where intersections are not isolated but are part of a controlled network.

The simplest and most frequent of these cases may be represented by a sequence of controlled
junctions on a corridor.

In this scenario an information flow between the local controllers, or even from the local
controller towards the system that requests priority, is needed in order to take into account the
delays introduced by the sequence of controlled intersections crossed by the public vehicles.

The information exchanged should include the information about the predicted arrival time of the
vehicle at the first junction that will be crossed, the journey times between controlled
intersections and the additional delays introduced by the junctions that will be crossed.

Looking at the network as a whole, the arrival forecast envisaged in the previous section should
become a predicted time trajectory along the corridor or the network depending on:

 the route of the vehicle

 the priority level requested for the vehicle
 the current traffic conditions of the crossed intersections

The interaction between the systems becomes much more complicated as the scenario
changes from a isolated bus route running on a corridor to a network of bus routes running on a
controlled network.

4.2.1 Isolated bus route and network of bus routes

In the case of a bus route running on a corridor or on a sequence of controlled junctions the
interaction between intersections can be solved at both the local controller level and at the
priority requester level.

Under these conditions identification of the vehicle is not needed because all the vehicles follow
the same path.
Interaction could then be resolved at the local level. This should allow a good estimate of the
delays introduced by the junctions on the vehicle's route to be estimated.

On the other hand this approach requires the local controller to be capable of estimating journey
times between the intersections.

As the journey time estimation may become complicated if the route includes bus-stops this
solution can only be envisaged when the topology of the route allows the use of fixed journey
times.

The presence of bus stops or a complex topology of the route would need the interaction to be
resolved at the priority requester level.

With this approach the prediction of the delays on the route becomes more difficult, especially
when the intersection control goes towards full decentralisation, but journey times can be
estimated with a much greater accuracy.

When priority is intended to be given to vehicles running different routes on a network the
problem of resolving conflicts at each intersection between different routes and deciding the
priority level for each route arises.

Identification of the vehicles is an essential point of the above mentioned problem and this leads
to the separation of the local controller functions from the priority requester.

As stated in section 4.1 these problems have to be solved at the priority requester level while
the local level controller should be able to manage priority requests with different levels of
priority. Again an interaction between the traffic signal control and the priority requester may be
envisaged in order to estimate the delays to the public vehicles in the network of controlled
junctions.

5. DYNAMIC ATT METHODS

In the ATT environment, dynamic PT priority is usually considered as a function of an UTC

(Urban Traffic Control) system; these systems are usually based on the identification of a
"minimum cost" control policy; different elements are combined in order to determine the "cost"
of a policy: private vehicles interest (minimisation of time lost in queue and/or of travel time),
public vehicles needs (priority, regularity of service), environmental constraints (minimisation of
queues and stops in order to reduce pollution, avoidance of congestion).

The PT traffic is considered as a component of the global traffic, with peculiar features and
needs; for this reason, most of the UTC systems aim to optimise the overall performance of the
road network, introducing the PT priority as a constraint to the optimisation problem, separating
as little as possible the problem of PT priority from that of private traffic control.

A real-time UTC system is able to react in a short time interval, to each perturbation in the
traffic, typically modifying the setting of the traffic signals at an intersection to allow a bus to
pass without stopping (in this case, the arrival of a PT vehicle is seen as a "perturbation"). In
this approach, the system must be able to perform the following tasks:

recognise the PT vehicle rapidly and accurately, to meet the needs of the control strategy,

implement an effective and rapid optimisation of the local policy, in order to minimise the
disadvantages for the private traffic (e.g., stopped vehicles in the crossing direction when a bus
is given the priority),

perform the procedures involved in the priority task with suitable speed.

5.1 Vehicle location/detection

Dynamic ATT approaches for bus priority require the availability of a vehicle detection system
which allows on-line forecasting of approaching PT vehicles.

The PT detection system can be implemented in three basic ways:

Inductive loops on the reserved lane; this technique gives either the PT vehicle presence or
passage over the loop location. The detection cannot be vehicle specific so the detectors must
be located on reserved areas to avoid confusion with other vehicles. Configurations of loops can
be provided for each junction aiming to follow the movement of the vehicle within the signalised
intersection area.

Beacon or transponder; this technique allows a vehicle specific detection and a limited
information exchange such as level of required priority and forecast arrival time. The PT
reserved lane is not necessary but the information is constrained to fixed locations.

UTC-AVM integration; the arrival forecast of the public vehicles is provided via AVM which can
usually provide information updating with variable frequency which is not constrained to fixed
locations.

The performance achievable by the UTC system is dependent on the kind of detection available
as well as on the accuracy of the information provided by the detection system.

5.2 Adaptive plan signals

This approach is based on the "green call" concept: a detected PT vehicle which is approaching
an intersection activates a request for the green; the local controller reacts, subject to several
constraints, either by the extension of the current green stage or by the early activation of a
suitable stage (the suitable stage can be either reserved for public vehicles only or for mixed
traffic).

The basic functions which have to be performed by the local controller are described in the
following subsections:

5.2.1 Priority recall
When a bus arrives during a red stage, a suitable green stage is run as soon as possible, with
the constraint that competing stages must be run in the usual order, although for the minimum
length.

This is the main function which characterises the priority approach, the effectiveness of this
function depends on the accuracy of the forecast arrival time of the approaching PT vehicle.

5.2.2 Priority extension

When a bus approaches the detector while a green stage is actuated, the stage can be
extended in order to allow the bus to pass undelayed. The extension is computed using the
free-running time of the bus between the detector and the stop line. In the case of more than
one arrival on the same stage, the extensions can be accumulated up to a fixed maximum.

This function is complementary to the function described in 5.2.1 which allows the exploitation of
suitable stages which could be provided within the standard cycle.

5.2.3 Compensation

When a cycle is modified by a priority procedure, the following cycle is modified too, in order to
recover the time lost by the non-priority flows. The time added to the stages of the cycle can
either be fixed for each intersection or reckoned dynamically based on the traffic demand.

This function works as a complement to the "green-call" functions with the aim of balancing the
effects of the priority on the private flows.

5.2.4 Inhibit

In presence of heavy PT flows, introducing the compensation for non-priority stages, as

described in 5.2.3, can be difficult due to the sequence of the calls. Moreover, in some cases full
priority is considered unacceptably disruptive for the traffic flow. In these cases, priority is
permitted in alternate cycles only.

5.3 Optimised plan signals

ATT systems which adopt on-line optimisation of signal plans are based on forecasts of traffic
conditions. The traffic flow estimate is reckoned and updated by processing the data provided
by the on-road detectors.

Traffic control strategies are dynamically planned in advance in order to match both the private
traffic and PT estimated demand.

The strategy optimisation is focused on the choice of the green split and cycle time for each
intersection as well as on the synchronisation between adjacent signalised junctions.

5.3.1 Private and public vehicles interaction

The representation of the public vehicles with respect to the private vehicles can be different as
it depends on the system used.
Some of the commonly used representations are:

 PT vehicles are modelled independently as dynamic constraints for the optimisation

algorithm rather than particular vehicles which move within the network. This approach is
related to the "green-call" concept explained in 5.2 which could also be use within this context.
 PT vehicles are modelled as a continuous group of cars which moves within the network
following the same model used for the private cars. This approach is an attempt to model the
number of moving passengers rather than vehicles. For different models, the number of cars
which are included in the group, can be chosen as either:
 fixed for every PT vehicle,
 fixed and related to the service route,
 reflecting the delay of the PT,
 reflecting the number of passengers carried

or any mix of the above criteria.

Whatever is the representation of the PT vehicles, the balance between public and private
vehicles can be tuned in order to reach the requested "level of priority" (i.e.: the priority is
absolute if the rate is set as 1 public vehicle = 500 private vehicles).

When public and private vehicles share the carriageway their interaction must be taken into
account. A PT vehicle has to wait for the queue of private vehicles to be cleared before it can
cross the intersection. This effect can be taken into account by systems which are able to
dynamically estimate the traffic conditions.

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