Papers by Pedro Chiovetti
The bus system is currently the most used mode of transport, even in cities with an adequately st... more The bus system is currently the most used mode of transport, even in cities with an adequately structured rail system. However, it cannot be said that the population's perception of the system's quality is good due to the frequent delays and unpredictability of travel times. Culture gives preference to private vehicles, which leads to the exhaustion of the road system's capacity. Municipal governments have been taking measures such as implementing bus corridor and exclusive lanes. However, these measures have not provided a level of performance improvement that significantly changes users' perceptions. Thus, looking for additional ways to help increase the quality of the bus system has been a relevant research question in recent decades. This dissertation aims to propose a systematic method to evaluate the impact of operational interventions, in quantitative terms, to increase the performance of the public transport system in bus corridors. This research focused on the following interventions: 1) intermittent bus lanes (IBL); 2) traffic sign prioritization (TSP); 3) Skip-stop, and 4) half-trip. The first two refer to intervention in the infrastructure, and the last two are operational interventions in the fleet. We sought to understand the system's behavior better when different types of interventions are applied, solo or in combination. The studies were carried out using data on bus speeds, traffic lights, and operating conditions in the Santo Amaro-Nove de Julho bus corridor in São Paulo, obtained from the Traffic Engineering Company (CET-São Paulo) and São Paulo Transport (SPTrans). The gains from the interventions were quantified through computer simulation using a VISSIM traffic micro simulator. The experiments showed that different intervention strategies could achieve significant reductions in buses travel times from 10% to 20%, depending on the intensities of the prioritizations and the combination of applied interventions. The public administrator can use the present study to assess and plan the most appropriate interventions for the traffic and transport conditions in their city.
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Papers by Pedro Chiovetti