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This paper researches the impacts of bus stops on passengers’ walking time. Walking time is classified as additional walking time, access time and egress time. A subsequent bus has to stop upstream of a bus stop when there is no berth available. Passengers waiting on the platforms prefer walking to the stopped bus, which leads to additional walking time. The locations of bus stops can impact passengers’ access and egress time significantly. In order to evaluate the impacts of bus stops on passengers’ walking time, this paper formulates additional walking time based on theory of queueing and probability. Data from public transit OD survey in a real transit corridor of Zhengzhou City in China is analyzed to identify the relationship between bus stop locations and passengers’ access and egress time. Additional walking time increases on a large scale when the number of berths at a bus stop exceeds the threshold of three. Bus arrival rate and dwell time significantly affect the additional walking time by platform. The proposed analysis also shows that the access and egress time is sensitive to locations of bus stops, and arranging bus stops based on equilibrium distribution of passenger miles can significantly reduce the access and egress time.

An objective effectiveness evaluation of a multi-modal public transit network lays the foundation for reasonable policy recommendations. This paper presents a triple-level procedure for appraising a multi-modal public transit network's effectiveness. Route levels - considering economic, service, and environmental impact criteria - are evaluated by the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. A transit effectiveness index is proposed for a specific model (conventional bus, bus rapid transit, tram, and subway) level assessment. Then, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is designated for appraising a multi-modal public transit network at the system level. Finally, case research on a multi-modal public transit network was conducted to illustrate the evaluation procedure.

This paper develops a theoretical mathematical model based on the mean demand of boarding and exiting per unit length along a bus corridor to decrease the travel time of transit travelers. The solution procedure of the proposed model is also presented. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model, research on a real transit corridor in Foshan City, China was conducted. The analysis of results shows that the boarding and exiting time was the most influenced by the locations of bus stops. Arranging bus stops based on equilibrium distribution of passenger flow can minimize the boarding and exiting time.

A limited number of berths can result in a bus stopping upstream of a bus stop when the berths are fully occupied. When this traffic situation occurs, passengers waiting on the platform usually prefer to walk to the stopped bus, which leads to additional walking time before boarding the bus. To understand this situation, this paper divides the travel time at conventional bus stops into waiting time, additional walking time, and boarding time. The additional walking time was formulated based on the theory of queuing and probability. Field-measured and simulated data were designated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. By analysing the results, it can be concluded that additional walking time will increase on a large scale when the number of berths at a bus stop exceeds the threshold of three. The theoretical analysis explains the inefficiency of bus stops with more than three berths from the perspective of passengers' additional walking time, which is significant in regards to the design of bus stops.