%0 Journal Article
%T A self-coördinating bus route to resist bus bunching
%J Transportation research part B: methodological
%D 2012
%A Bartholdi, John J.
%A Eisenstein, Donald D.
%V 46
%N 4
%P 481-491
%X The primary challenge for an urban bus system is to maintain constant headways between successive buses. Most bus systems try to achieve this by adherence to a schedule; but this is undermined by the tendency of headways to collapse, so that buses travel in bunches. To counter this, we propose a new method of coördinating buses. Our method abandons the idea of a schedule and even any a priori target headway. Under our scheme headways are dynamically self-equalizing and the natural headway of the system tends to emerge spontaneously. Headways also become self-correcting in that after disturbances they reëqualize without intervention by management or even awareness of the drivers.  We report on a successful implementation to control a bus route in Atlanta.<p />
%G en
%I Elsevier Publishing
%@ 0191-2615
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trb.2011.11.001