Evaluation of Route Changes Utilizing High-Resolution GPS Bus Transit Data

Abstract

This study applies high-resolution archived transit data to study the effect of roadway changes using data collected before and after the completion of a project affecting transit. Methodologies are presented to compare percentile and time-of-day performance measures before and after the project. In addition, differences in travel time and travel-time variability are examined over the altered route. The case study examines one heavily used route in Portland that was recently diverted onto a newly built transit-only bridge to examine the claims that travel times would decrease and reliability would increase. The results of this study indicate that travel times increased for the majority of trips but travel-time variability during the peak period was sharply reduced.