Service quality implications of Transbus.

The results of this bus service simulation indicated that mobility limited riders of handicapped-accessible buses can cause late bus arrivals, deteriorated reliability or slower bus travel times. The investigation was designed to analyze the purchase of Transbus, a kneeling, wide-door, ramp equipped urban bus. Reasonable levels of transit travel demand for the mobility limited and estimates of the time required for their boarding and alighting of Transbus were used as inputs to a simulation model. Three different types of bus service and different levels of handicapped patronage were combined in a series of experiments designed to test the sensitivity of bus service to delays associated with the boarding and alighting of transportation handicapped persons. The magnitude of the deterioration in the bus service is dependent upon the number and type of handicapped persons as well as the distribution of their arrivals and departures along the bus route. Levels of handicapped ridership between 2% and 5% are enough to consume the time saved by faster boarding times for mobile passengers on the improved buses; higher handicapped travel demand levels affect the performance and reliability noticeably. -from ASCE Publications Abstracts