{"124631":{"#nid":"124631","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Researchers Address Bus Bunching","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs any city dweller knows, buses are rarely on time. It\u2019s typical to wait a while, only to have several buses show up one after another, a phenomenon known as bus bunching.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFortunately, researchers and students at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a possible solution for bus bunching that provides better service to riders, simplifies the job of drivers and reduces work for management. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIndustrial \u0026amp; Systems Engineering Professor John Bartholdi and Georgia Tech alumnus Don Eisenstein (MS IE 1983, PhD IE 1992), a colleague from the University of Chicago, have devised a way of computing the delays so gaps between buses \u201cself-equalize.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow an interdisciplinary team of Georgia Tech students, together with Tech Parking and Transportation Services, have built a system of tablet computers to control the trolleys on Tech\u2019s main campus route, which carries more than 5,000 passengers a day.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBecause of its simplicity, our scheme is easy to implement and easy to adapt,\u201d said Bartholdi, who is also the Manhattan Associates Chair of Supply Chain Management. \u201cWe expect it to be useful for other transportation systems with short headways, such as subway trains or airport shuttles.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe first step toward reliable bus service, Bartholdi says, is to abandon the fixed schedule and have drivers go with the flow of traffic.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnder the scheme, each bus is equipped with a GPS and cellphone. The GPS constantly reports the bus\u2019s position to a central server. When the server recognizes the bus has reached a stop, it sends a message via cellphone telling the driver how long to wait and when to proceed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat departure time is calculated through a \u201cself-equalizing\u201d equation, which changes the headway of each newly arrived bus to an average of its former headway and the headway of the trailing bus. For example, if its former headway was larger, its new headway becomes smaller. Using the equation, gaps between buses will equalize even if a bus is added or removed, or if the bus route changes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe equation computes a wait time for each bus arriving at a control point in such a way that gaps between buses tend to equalize,\u201d Bartholdi said. \u201cExactly how that happens is the magic of the mathematics.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen the research team tested the system on Tech\u2019s bus line earlier this semester, the researchers received positive results and favorable reviews from bus riders and drivers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis is a Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) at Georgia Tech, which combines students from across disciplines to solve a real-world project. The research outcomes will be published in \u003Cem\u003ETransportation Research Part B\u003C\/em\u003E in May.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs any city dweller knows, buses are rarely on time. It\u2019s typical to wait a while, only to have several buses show up one after another, a phenomenon known as bus bunching.\u0026nbsp;Fortunately, researchers and students at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a possible solution for bus bunching that provides better service to riders, simplifies the job of drivers and reduces work for management.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers developed a possible solution for bus bunching that provides better service to riders."}],"uid":"27462","created_gmt":"2012-04-18 09:43:29","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:00","author":"Liz Klipp","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-04-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-04-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"128351":{"id":"128351","type":"image","title":"Bus bunching demo - 1","body":null,"created":"1449178622","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:02","changed":"1475894751","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:51","alt":"Bus bunching demo - 1","file":{"fid":"194572","name":"12p1000-p26-58.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/12p1000-p26-58_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/12p1000-p26-58_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2034484,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/12p1000-p26-58_0.jpg?itok=pOXD-9xH"}},"128361":{"id":"128361","type":"image","title":"Bus bunching demo - 2","body":null,"created":"1449178622","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:02","changed":"1475894751","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:51","alt":"Bus bunching demo - 2","file":{"fid":"194573","name":"12p1000-p26-45.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/12p1000-p26-45_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/12p1000-p26-45_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2596005,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/12p1000-p26-45_0.jpg?itok=I_1DCLUc"}},"128371":{"id":"128371","type":"image","title":"Bus bunching demo - 3","body":null,"created":"1449178622","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:02","changed":"1475894751","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:51","alt":"Bus bunching demo - 3","file":{"fid":"194574","name":"12p1000-p26-60.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/12p1000-p26-60_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/12p1000-p26-60_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2023077,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/12p1000-p26-60_0.jpg?itok=28oRwLLI"}},"128381":{"id":"128381","type":"image","title":"Bus bunching demo - 4","body":null,"created":"1449178622","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:02","changed":"1475894751","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:51","alt":"Bus bunching demo - 4","file":{"fid":"194575","name":"12p1000-p26-17.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/12p1000-p26-17_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/12p1000-p26-17_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3010322,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/12p1000-p26-17_0.jpg?itok=VfQHqYXa"}}},"media_ids":["128351","128361","128371","128381"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www2.isye.gatech.edu\/~jjb\/buses\/buses.html","title":"http:\/\/www2.isye.gatech.edu\/~jjb\/buses\/buses.html"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"30641","name":"Bus bunching"},{"id":"30651","name":"H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial \u0026 Systems Engineering"},{"id":"2380","name":"John Bartholdi"},{"id":"30661","name":"VIP"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["klipp@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}