Headway management
Evenly spaced shuttles, without a dispatcher
Shuttles on a busy route tend to bunch: riders wait a long time, then two buses arrive together. BusGenius keeps them evenly spaced on its own, with no schedule to maintain.
The problem
Why buses bunch
It is hard for buses to keep a schedule or target headway because traffic, riders, drivers, and weather are unpredictable and can vary greatly over the day. This variability creates a tendency for buses to bunch. Here is why: Suppose the buses on a route are perfectly spaced, at equal time intervals so no one has to wait long for a bus. When, by chance, one bus is delayed, perhaps at a traffic light, there will be a larger gap (headway) in front of it, so the delayed bus will encounter more passengers to load at each stop, and so fall still further behind. The following bus will then have a shorter headway, encounter fewer passengers, and so gain on the leading bus.
And so things only get worse: Large headways tend to grow and small headways tend to shrink, and ever more strongly. The result is that many passengers must wait for a long time and then two or more buses arrive together, with the first one full and the trailing bus nearly empty. Indeed, bunching is the most frequent complaint about any bus system, as a web search on “bus bunching” will confirm.
Bunching is not only bad service, it is bad economics because any bus with a short headway is being underutilized, and driver time wasted.
Their dynamic headway management has prevented bus bunching, which had been a horrible problem on our campus.
The solution
Manage headways, not a schedule
For many routes, no one cares about a schedule as long as the gaps between buses (the headways) are small. A target schedule or headway is just an aspiration. It never survives contact with the real world. Instead, work to equalize headways by strategically pausing buses briefly at certain designated stops (“layover points”), such as the ends of the route or at transfer points, or anywhere the bus can pull out of traffic briefly. By this means BusGenius coördinates the buses on a route to keep them arriving at regular, short intervals, and with no schedule, no dispatcher, no intervention by management — even without intention or awareness of the drivers.
How it works
BusGenius watches and learns your route
It recognizes when a bus arrives at a layover point, and, based on where all the other buses are and recent travel times, BusGenius will adjust headways to become more nearly equal — and without anyone having to guess in advance what headways “should be”. BusGenius establishes the shortest headway possible under current conditions to ensure that no one has to wait too long for a bus.
The technology that enables BusGenius to do this on a real route, with all its complications and constant change, comes from our founders' operations research, developed and refined over many years.
Whenever a bus arrives at a layover point, where some delay is possible, BusGenius computes the desired hold, if any, and displays it to the driver on the driver tablet as a countdown timer.
Live simulation of buses on a route
See it in action
Watch how it works
Advantages
Better for passengers, drivers and managers
Passengers
Passengers like it because buses arrive more regularly.
Drivers
Drivers like it because it frees them of the pressure of chasing a moving target.
Managers
Management likes it because BusGenius can deliver better service with fewer buses, and there is no need to create and maintain bus schedules.
Because BusGenius automatically senses changes and adjusts accordingly, buses can be added to or removed from the route at any time. In fact, the route itself can be changed (for example, to detour around construction). After any such change the headways will automatically re-equalize to the shortest possible. If a manager wants even smaller headways, just add a bus; there is no need to wait for an open slot in a schedule.
Case study · Northern Arizona University
Shorter waits with fewer buses
NAU's two campus loops ran seven buses at peak, and bunching still left students waiting as long as 12 minutes. With BusGenius, buses stay evenly spaced on their own.
12 → 5
minutes between buses
Peak headways, down from as long as 12 minutes
7 → 6
buses per route
One fewer bus on each loop at peak
540
bus-hours a month
Of service freed up across routes
Do more than track your shuttles.
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