Data Collection
& Analysis
Data was collected at the Kennedy Library bust stop during the peak usage hours of 2-7PM. This project watched passengers line up for the bus and counted how many boarded along with each bus' available capacity. An analysis of the data along with a time study can be found in the Appendix below.
Experiment Overview
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Our Simio model separated each individual line to allow each line to have its own characteristics and not be subject to other lines' operations.
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Passenger arrival rate was set to equal the average net passengers getting on each line and the loops are time paths which time equals the interval for a bus coming to the Kennedy stop.
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The model achieved final results of passengers served from stop within 10% of our observed results.
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Experiment Results/Recommendation
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To see which bus capacity would achieve the most passengers served, an experiment was created with bus capacity equaling the initial distribution + n, where n was 0 (control), 10, and 20. 0 symbolized no change to the current buses used, while 10 and 20 are new buses each with added cost for the extra capacity. By maintaining a distribution in the capacity, the simulation will leave the statistical fluctuations variable intact.
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Experiment results found that the total passengers moved where no greater with an additional capacity of 20 passengers per bus when compared with 10. However, the bus stop saw a 13% increase in passengers delivered with 10 extra spots on the bus when compared to the current bus capacity.
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In order to increase total passengers moved, increasing capacity by 10 would present a worthwhile solution when compared to the alternatives. Adding 20 would carry extra costs with no gain when looking at total passengers moved. Increasing bus capacity would also reduce the overcrowding that currently takes place on SLO Transit buses.
Recommendation
Appendix
Data Collected for Analysis: planned vs actual arrival time differences, incoming bus capacity, riders served per bus arrival.
Table 1 - Collected Data
High-Level Takeaways and Model Driving Factors
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All four bus lines saw peak passengers from the hours of 4-7p (marked by green). By focusing on that specific data, this project can make recommendations to ensure better capacity management and ridership during peak hours.
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Bus capacity was exceed on numerous occasions.
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While bus lines 3B and 4A both have two buses serving SLO at throughout the day, only 3B's line runs both buses from 4-7p.
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Students were never queued in a central location for more than a handful of minutes, leading this project to bypass analysis of any queues.