request for information: detailed studies of operations delay

Long ago, when all transit data was collected manually by students with clipboards, I did a few studies that watched what happened on a bus or streetcar/tram in normal operation and counted the seconds of delay associated with each of the following factors:

  • Being stopped at signals.
  • Being stopped or slowed by traffic.
  • Being stopped or slowed by accidents.
  • Normal-pace boarding and alighting.
  • Wheelchair boarding and alighting.
  • Conversations with the driver that interrupt boarding/alighting.

These studies are usually done deep inside of transit agencies and often not published (not out of secrecy or shame, but just because they're very technical.)  Have any readers seen or done any studies like this?  I'd like to pull some typical data for a couple of them. 

19 Responses to request for information: detailed studies of operations delay

  1. Jcwong86 December 30, 2010 at 7:41 pm #

    DC recently released a report about it’s bus priority corridor network and part of the literature review includes what you’re talking about. See page 86.
    http://www.wmata.com/pdfs/planning/PCN_Eval_final_report.pdf

  2. Jack Horner December 31, 2010 at 1:53 am #

    See http://www.ptua.org.au/publications/papers-and-submissions/tram-delays/
    for a study of a Melbourne tram route which has relevant info.

  3. Tom West December 31, 2010 at 6:10 am #

    Hamilton, Ontario: http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/9D868772-92BE-4A69-B874-42A1081726CD/0/TTRFinalReport.pdf starting at page 31 of the PDF. (It might not be detailec enough for you).

  4. Paul K McGregor December 31, 2010 at 8:41 am #

    Many years ago when I was working at DART in Dallas, we did a time delay study through downtown Dallas to determine how much delay occurs at traffic signals. The purpose of doing this was to try and convince the city staff that using preemptive signaling would be a good thing. The information is never really made public because it is used for internal discussions. If you want me to, I can try and contact folks at DART to see if they could dig out any written reports.

  5. GMichaud December 31, 2010 at 5:41 pm #

    http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/publications/1482.aspx
    It is a list of some of the Transport for London publications. The 2007 Travel Report PDF with times for travel,(page 16)is not quite what you asked for, but it has a phone number for inquiries if you don’t get what you want.
    London seems to do a pretty thorough job of studying their transit options. Although it would be interesting to see just what transit planning agencies do a good job and why?

  6. Wai Yip Tung December 31, 2010 at 5:59 pm #

    I have a half done application that does this. It is designed for iPhone, but presumably it should work on any web enabled phoneor your laptop with GPS.
    http://tungwaiyip-sandbox.appspot.com/tracker/iphone
    Once you push the start button, you’ll see a dial showing various traffic condition. Push the button to whenever the state changes. The app will do the rest and record the whole trip. I was hoping this can get some curious or frustrated riders to try do this so that we can get lot more data than what the transit agency paid part time to do once in a while.
    The app is usable. But I was too busy to complete to promote it. If anyone think this is useful I’m available to help.

  7. Eric Fischer January 1, 2011 at 12:11 pm #

    If you want some very old data, the 1937 Report on San Francisco Citywide Traffic Survey by Miller McClintock reports time spent at corners waiting for signals, left turns, pedestrians, stop signs, and right turns, and time spent blocked, waiting for streetcars, loading and unloading, maneuvering to park, and blocked by double parking.

  8. Robert Wightman January 6, 2011 at 5:25 pm #

    You might like to look at some of the studies that Steve Munro has done on several of the street car lines in Toronto and the effect of various factors on operating times. it is at stevemunro.ca

  9. Anonymous January 11, 2011 at 5:33 am #

    I did some analysis on Helsinki tram 8 last winter. Nothing official, just a few rides with a stopwatch and modeling the line based on the results. unfortunately it’s all in finnish, but the excel calculations can be found at
    http://www.sange.fi/~otso/ratikkamallinnus/kasi-mallinnus100314.xls
    and discussion at http://vesirajassa.blogspot.com/2010/03/helsingin-ratikoiden-nopeuttamisesta.html
    The city tram agency has been doing similar study during last year with the intention to increase the tram 8 speed. They haven’t published yet any results yet.
    Typical stop on that line took (median) 15s with std deviation of 3s with the exception of the two largest stops, which took 30s, deviation 10s. Tram stopped at traffic lights with 43% likelihood and traffic light stop times were pretty evenly distributed 0 to 40s (with a few outliers up to 65s). The results are quite bad, considering that the line in principle has traffic light privileges.
    I’ll let you know once the city report is available if it contains anything like this.

  10. Anonymous January 11, 2011 at 5:33 am #

    I did some analysis on Helsinki tram 8 last winter. Nothing official, just a few rides with a stopwatch and modeling the line based on the results. unfortunately it’s all in finnish, but the excel calculations can be found at
    http://www.sange.fi/~otso/ratikkamallinnus/kasi-mallinnus100314.xls
    and discussion at http://vesirajassa.blogspot.com/2010/03/helsingin-ratikoiden-nopeuttamisesta.html
    The city tram agency has been doing similar study during last year with the intention to increase the tram 8 speed. They haven’t published yet any results yet.
    Typical stop on that line took (median) 15s with std deviation of 3s with the exception of the two largest stops, which took 30s, deviation 10s. Tram stopped at traffic lights with 43% likelihood and traffic light stop times were pretty evenly distributed 0 to 40s (with a few outliers up to 65s). The results are quite bad, considering that the line in principle has traffic light privileges.
    I’ll let you know once the city report is available if it contains anything like this.

  11. Anonymous January 11, 2011 at 5:33 am #

    I did some analysis on Helsinki tram 8 last winter. Nothing official, just a few rides with a stopwatch and modeling the line based on the results. unfortunately it’s all in finnish, but the excel calculations can be found at
    http://www.sange.fi/~otso/ratikkamallinnus/kasi-mallinnus100314.xls
    and discussion at http://vesirajassa.blogspot.com/2010/03/helsingin-ratikoiden-nopeuttamisesta.html
    The city tram agency has been doing similar study during last year with the intention to increase the tram 8 speed. They haven’t published yet any results yet.
    Typical stop on that line took (median) 15s with std deviation of 3s with the exception of the two largest stops, which took 30s, deviation 10s. Tram stopped at traffic lights with 43% likelihood and traffic light stop times were pretty evenly distributed 0 to 40s (with a few outliers up to 65s). The results are quite bad, considering that the line in principle has traffic light privileges.
    I’ll let you know once the city report is available if it contains anything like this.

  12. Anonymous January 11, 2011 at 5:33 am #

    I did some analysis on Helsinki tram 8 last winter. Nothing official, just a few rides with a stopwatch and modeling the line based on the results. unfortunately it’s all in finnish, but the excel calculations can be found at
    http://www.sange.fi/~otso/ratikkamallinnus/kasi-mallinnus100314.xls
    and discussion at http://vesirajassa.blogspot.com/2010/03/helsingin-ratikoiden-nopeuttamisesta.html
    The city tram agency has been doing similar study during last year with the intention to increase the tram 8 speed. They haven’t published yet any results yet.
    Typical stop on that line took (median) 15s with std deviation of 3s with the exception of the two largest stops, which took 30s, deviation 10s. Tram stopped at traffic lights with 43% likelihood and traffic light stop times were pretty evenly distributed 0 to 40s (with a few outliers up to 65s). The results are quite bad, considering that the line in principle has traffic light privileges.
    I’ll let you know once the city report is available if it contains anything like this.

  13. Anonymous January 11, 2011 at 5:33 am #

    I did some analysis on Helsinki tram 8 last winter. Nothing official, just a few rides with a stopwatch and modeling the line based on the results. unfortunately it’s all in finnish, but the excel calculations can be found at
    http://www.sange.fi/~otso/ratikkamallinnus/kasi-mallinnus100314.xls
    and discussion at http://vesirajassa.blogspot.com/2010/03/helsingin-ratikoiden-nopeuttamisesta.html
    The city tram agency has been doing similar study during last year with the intention to increase the tram 8 speed. They haven’t published yet any results yet.
    Typical stop on that line took (median) 15s with std deviation of 3s with the exception of the two largest stops, which took 30s, deviation 10s. Tram stopped at traffic lights with 43% likelihood and traffic light stop times were pretty evenly distributed 0 to 40s (with a few outliers up to 65s). The results are quite bad, considering that the line in principle has traffic light privileges.
    I’ll let you know once the city report is available if it contains anything like this.

  14. Anonymous January 11, 2011 at 5:33 am #

    I did some analysis on Helsinki tram 8 last winter. Nothing official, just a few rides with a stopwatch and modeling the line based on the results. unfortunately it’s all in finnish, but the excel calculations can be found at
    http://www.sange.fi/~otso/ratikkamallinnus/kasi-mallinnus100314.xls
    and discussion at http://vesirajassa.blogspot.com/2010/03/helsingin-ratikoiden-nopeuttamisesta.html
    The city tram agency has been doing similar study during last year with the intention to increase the tram 8 speed. They haven’t published yet any results yet.
    Typical stop on that line took (median) 15s with std deviation of 3s with the exception of the two largest stops, which took 30s, deviation 10s. Tram stopped at traffic lights with 43% likelihood and traffic light stop times were pretty evenly distributed 0 to 40s (with a few outliers up to 65s). The results are quite bad, considering that the line in principle has traffic light privileges.
    I’ll let you know once the city report is available if it contains anything like this.

  15. Anonymous January 11, 2011 at 5:33 am #

    I did some analysis on Helsinki tram 8 last winter. Nothing official, just a few rides with a stopwatch and modeling the line based on the results. unfortunately it’s all in finnish, but the excel calculations can be found at
    http://www.sange.fi/~otso/ratikkamallinnus/kasi-mallinnus100314.xls
    and discussion at http://vesirajassa.blogspot.com/2010/03/helsingin-ratikoiden-nopeuttamisesta.html
    The city tram agency has been doing similar study during last year with the intention to increase the tram 8 speed. They haven’t published yet any results yet.
    Typical stop on that line took (median) 15s with std deviation of 3s with the exception of the two largest stops, which took 30s, deviation 10s. Tram stopped at traffic lights with 43% likelihood and traffic light stop times were pretty evenly distributed 0 to 40s (with a few outliers up to 65s). The results are quite bad, considering that the line in principle has traffic light privileges.
    I’ll let you know once the city report is available if it contains anything like this.

  16. Anonymous January 11, 2011 at 5:33 am #

    I did some analysis on Helsinki tram 8 last winter. Nothing official, just a few rides with a stopwatch and modeling the line based on the results. unfortunately it’s all in finnish, but the excel calculations can be found at
    http://www.sange.fi/~otso/ratikkamallinnus/kasi-mallinnus100314.xls
    and discussion at http://vesirajassa.blogspot.com/2010/03/helsingin-ratikoiden-nopeuttamisesta.html
    The city tram agency has been doing similar study during last year with the intention to increase the tram 8 speed. They haven’t published yet any results yet.
    Typical stop on that line took (median) 15s with std deviation of 3s with the exception of the two largest stops, which took 30s, deviation 10s. Tram stopped at traffic lights with 43% likelihood and traffic light stop times were pretty evenly distributed 0 to 40s (with a few outliers up to 65s). The results are quite bad, considering that the line in principle has traffic light privileges.
    I’ll let you know once the city report is available if it contains anything like this.

  17. Nathan Landau January 11, 2011 at 3:44 pm #

    http://www.actransit.org/planning-focus/projects-in-the-works/projects-in-the-works-2/
    http://www.actransit.org/planning-focus/projects-in-the-works/projects-in-the-works-3/
    Here are two reports from AC Transit in Oakland-Berkeley, California that look significantly at that very topic