Impact of congestion on bus operations and costs.

Traffic congestion in Northern New Jersey imposes substantial operational and monetary penalty on bus service. The purpose of this project was to quantify the additional time and costs due to traffic congestion. A regression model was developed that estimates the travel time rate (in minutes per mile) of a bus as a function of car traffic
time rate, number of passengers boarding per mile, and the number of bus stops per mile. The model was used to estimate the bus travel time rate if cars were traveling under free flow conditions, and the results compared to the observed bus travel times. A second model was developed that estimated operating costs as a function of vehicle
hours and peak vehicles. This model was used to estimate the cost of the additional time represented by the difference in current time minus travel time estimated under free flow conditions.