City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002 Bus Priority in Portland - Lessons Learned Bill Kloos City of Portland (Prepared 12/3/01)

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Bus Priority in Portland -Lessons Learned

Bill Kloos

City of Portland (Prepared 12/3/01)

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

The problem - buses in mixed flow

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Exclusive bus lanes are the best option

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

But, our talk is about mixed flow.

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Outline for Today’s TSP Talk

• History of transit priority in Portland

• System architecture for bus priority

• Portland’s large scale bus priority project

• Lessons learned

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Outline for Today’s TSP Talk

• History of transit priority in Portland

• System architecture for bus priority

• Portland’s large scale bus priority project

• Lessons learned

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Transit definition:

Light Rail Bus

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Light rail preemption

• Station-to-station running w/o stopping

• Mostly emergency vehicle-like preemption

• Detected via Vetag and inductive loops

• In CBD, goes with progression

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Bus Priority

Two issues:

• Detection method

• Priority method

Kloos Way

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Have Tried 3 Detection Methods:

• LoopComm– Hockey puck & loop

• TOTE (1st generation)– Amtech RF tags & reader

• Opticom– Emitter and detector

Current

Choice

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Various TSP Methods Tried

• Provide green extension, red truncation

• Provide queue jumps

• Provide bus-only phase

• Eliminate phase skipping

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

• Basic premise:– If arrive on green, extend a few seconds more– If arrive on red, shorten other phases to return

earlier

• Powell Blvd test (1993):– 3 intersections using Wapiti Type 170 software– 5% to 8% travel time reduction peak direction– discontinued due to inflexible phase shortening

Provide green extension /red truncation

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Outline for Today’s TSP Talk

• History of transit priority in Portland

• System architecture for bus priority

• Portland’s large scale bus priority project

• Lessons learned

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Basis for Bus Signal Priority Direction in Portland

Three main concepts:• Use Tri-Met’s GPS based AVL

(smart bus concept)

• Use bus-controller communication method shared with Fire (Opticom)

• Develop next generation Type 170 controller and software

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Basis for Bus Signal Priority Direction in Portland

But always keep control distributed!!!

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

1. Use Basic Smart Bus Concept

1. Smart bus knows location and schedule status

2. Bus communicates priority request to signal

3. Local controller provides priority

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

2. Use existing Opticom for Communication

• 150+ of 963 intersections had Opticom

• Most suburbs have 100% Opticom

• Goal is for City to also reach 100%

• Don’t want another intersection “add-on” piece of hardware

• Makes expansion easy

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

3. Develop next generation ofcontroller and firmware

• From 6800 based Type 170 to 170 HC11

• Future will use ATC

• Port existing program to new platform.

• Continue to expand algorithms

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Next generation firmware

• Will be upgrade of existing Wapiti local intersection program

• Will include extended priority functions -– will add ‘smart’ recovery options– will include improved green extension routine

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Basic description of how it works

A ‘smart’ bus knows its location in time and space. When the bus is late, it activates its Opticom emitter. The intersection receives the low priority call and extends green or truncates red as defined in the controllers database. As the bus passes the intersection detector, the priority call is dropped and the controller returns to normal operation.

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

What is the definition of late?

• Industry standard - 5 minutes late

• BDS reporting - 7 minutes late

• For our bus priority project - – bus activates emitter when 90 seconds late– bus deactivates emitter when 30 seconds late– may decrease value later

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Outline for Today’s TSP Talk

• History of transit priority in Portland

• System architecture for bus priority

• Portland’s large scale bus priority project

• Lessons learned

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

What are our implementation plans?

Or, do we have any -

Money? Yes we do!

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

TEA-21 Earmark for signals

• $4.5 million “high priority” project

• Intended to provide signal priority for emergency and transit vehicles

• Will be used to:– Install Opticom on 775 buses– Provide priority at 250+ intersections– Retrofit 190+ intersections with Opticom

detectors

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Central City

Clackamas TC

St John’s

Gresham

Washington Square

Beaverton

Oregon City

Gateway TC

Phase II

Phase I

4

Milwaukie

44

4

72

72

72

12

12

9

9

9

14

14

19 19

19

19

15

15 15

6

6

5

5

5

75

75

75

75

71

71

71

71

33

33

33

33

8

8

56

565454

Phase III

Where? Every where!

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Project status

• Tri-Met has installed Opticom emitters on buses and revised the bus software

• Activated priority on pilot corridor (line #4) last July (55 intersections out of 71 total)

• Completed major arterial (Barbur Blvd) with 12 intersections last September

• Will do 4 other lines this winter/spring

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

City / Tri-Met Partnership for Transit Priority

• Signal priority is only one element

• Have established joint program for all aspects of transit priority– special lanes, curb extensions, stop

relocation

• Tri-Met plans to provide ~$1.5 mil/yr

• Hope for true impact on operating costs

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

But, most of all . . .

We’re working together to find solutions!!!

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Outline for Today’s TSP Talk

• History of transit priority in Portland

• System architecture for bus priority

• Portland’s large scale bus priority project

• Lessons learned

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

LL#1 - Bus AVL data is your friend.

Tri-Met’s AVL:• Uses a PCMCIA Data Card for each bus.

• Each bus records data throughout the day.

• The bus makes a data record for each stop or event

• Over 600,000 records are generated per day

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

AVL information obtained• Service Date• Vehicle Number• Train No. (Block)• Badge Number• Route• Day Type• Trip Number• Scheduled Time

• Actual Arrive Time• Actual Leave Time• Dwell• Door Open (yes or no)• Lift Used (yes or no)• Maximum Speed• Distance Between Stops• X & Y Coordinates

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Map of delay

Not in the City of Portland

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Analyzing the Data Delay By Segment

Shows delay by direction -

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

AVL used for overall analysis

Results from Portland pilot routes:

• 10% reduced travel time - peak period / peak direction

• 8-10% improvement in on-time performance

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

AVL data caveat -

Sometimes we had trouble turning the mounds of AVL data into understandable information for for decision makers.

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

LL#2 - The devil’s in the details

Developing and implementing TSP for the controller is labor intensive.

• The truncation / extension algorithm requires review of each location

• Method requires mounds of data the needs to be checked and re-checked

• Similar intersections are not similar.

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

LL#3 - TSP is an iterative process.

• With fixed route transit, the schedule needs to be optimized to take advantage of priority

• Initial schedule change on the pilot route took too much time out of the schedule

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

LL#4 - Working together is best.

• Need to include all groups from each agency -– signal and operations staff w/City– schedulers, operators, analysts, ITS staff, and

PMs for transit agency

• Reviewing the route block-by-block

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

City of Portland - TRB Transit Signal Priority Workshop 2002

Bottom line -

• Bus signal priority can help reduce travel time and improve on-time performance

• The process requires involving staffs from both the traffic and transit agencies

• The process is iterative and takes time to reach the final objective.