Knowledge Resources

This study investigated the feasibility of implementing a Cooperative Vehicle-Highway Automation System (CVHAS) to improve the performance of bus rapid transit (BRT) operations and freight movement in Chicago, Illinois. The sites chosen for the case study included a metropolitan bus rapid transit circulator system and an intermodal freight interchange system at the port of Chicago.

ANALYSIS OF CVHAS APPLICATIONS FOR BUSES

This case study investigated the feasibility of implementing CVHAS technologies to improve the performance of bus transit in the central area of Chicago. The potential impacts of transit signal priority, collision warning, precision docking, and automatic steering control were analyzed. The analysis included three case studies.

• East-West Loop arterial
• Underground Monroe busway
• Clinton-Carroll Avenue busway

An incremental benefit-cost analysis was conducted to evaluate the potential impacts of CVHAS technologies on each transit corridor. Initially, the physical and transit operational characteristics of each corridor were studied to identify performance measures that could be used to measure the effects of CVHAS technologies and estimate potential cost effectiveness of implementing each technology.

FINDINGS (Subject to the data limitations discussed in the report)

There was a nearly universal ability for each CVHAS application to break even (or pay for the system). The deployment of precision docking technology and transit signal priority would be cost-effective as long as they provided relatively small improvements in bus travel times (one to four seconds per stop, and seven seconds over a 15 to 20 minute bus run; respectively).