Bus Analysis In Montgomery County, Maryland

Authors

Ryan P. Foley, Scott Ryan MacDonald, Brian Tate

Sponsor

Montgomery County

Advisors

Creighton R. Peet, Kaveh Pahlavan

Term

October – December 2008

Project Outcomes

Final Report

Abstract

Optimizing public transit is an important issue in the 21st century. This research project was focused on the run time performance of the Ride On bus system in Montgomery County, MD. Through a focus group, field observations, and interviews we were able to create a set of comprehensive recommendations targeting addressable issues such as bus boarding, traffic signal idle time, and scheduling. Besides recommending common solutions, such as smartcards and transit signal prioritization, we developed an innovative scheduling paradigm.