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Mitigation of overcrowding in buses through bus planning

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Abstract

Mathematical models have been developed to address overcrowding in buses to incentivize their use. The models capture real-life requirements of bus planning, are computationally tractable, and easy to understand by decision makers. First, the current level of bus services on the given network is assessed. Then the models are developed to allocate the existing buses optimally and determine the minimum number of buses needed to satisfy the existing and future demand. Our results demonstrate that significant benefits can be obtained by the use of these models. The models also incorporate decision-making flexibility by allowing policy makers to adjust the policy parameters according to their requirements. As a result, they can be useful decision-making tools for city transport anywhere in the world, especially Delhi and other cities with similar problems.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been partially supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India with grant number RS/FTP/ETA/0025/2011. We thank the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) for providing the ticketing data. We also thank Maansi Gupta and Abhishek Bhatnagar for their contributions. We would also like to express our gratitude to Rama Shankar and Premchand for providing logistical support in data collection, and to all the experts and organizations that participated in our research.

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  1. Department of Transport Engineering and Logistics, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Hemant Kumar Suman

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Nomesh B. Bolia

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  1. Hemant Kumar Suman
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Correspondence to Hemant Kumar Suman.

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Suman, H.K., Bolia, N.B. Mitigation of overcrowding in buses through bus planning. Public Transp 11, 159–187 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12469-019-00197-x

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