Exploring the effects of cooperative adaptive cruise control-based transit bus operation on signalized corridors

The world’s transportation system is overburdened by ever-growing travel demand, which brings mobility, safety, and pollution problems. To combat these issues and make better use of existing road capacity on urban arterials, public transit buses are designed to carry more people in fewer vehicles. However, transit buses travel slowly and make frequent intermittent stops, resulting in unreliable travel times and inconvenient riding experiences; this hinders people from choosing to travel on public transit buses. However, a research gap exists in using connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies specifically for transit bus operation optimization. To bridge this gap, the present study extended CAV applications to transit bus operation and developed a transit bus control method based on cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC). The proposed model first optimized bus segment speeds to minimize schedule deviations and fuel consumption. Then, a CACC algorithm was integrated with optimal segment speed. The proposed control method was implemented through micro-simulations of an actual corridor in Jinan, Shandong, China. The evaluation results indicate that the proposed control method reduced the total arrival deviation up to 65.1% and total fuel consumption up to 6.8%. The study adapts CAV technologies to transit bus operation. The findings in this study validate CAV applications in transit bus operation.