Safety Evaluation of Transit Signal Priority with Bus Speed Volatility as a Surrogate Measure: Case Study in Minnesota

TL;DR

This study evaluates how transit signal priority (TSP) impacts traffic safety by analyzing bus speed volatility (BSV) as a surrogate measure, showing TSP reduces safety risks at intersections in Minnesota.

Contribution

It introduces BSV as a novel surrogate safety measure to assess TSP's safety effects using detailed AVL data in a real-world case study.

Findings

TSP significantly reduces bus speed volatility at intersections.

Lower BSV indicates decreased safety risks with TSP implementation.

Results support TSP's role in enhancing transit safety.

Abstract

Previous studies have found correlations between the implementation of transit signal priority (TSP) and the reduction in number of crashes. To further understand how TSP affects traffic safety, a more in-depth evaluation was carried out using detailed bus automatic vehicle location (AVL) data. The data was from Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metro Transit Bus Route 5, where TSP was implemented at 30 signalized intersections in early 2019. A surrogate safety measure, bus speed volatility (BSV), was used to estimate the safety effects of TSP, with a higher BSV indicating more safety risks. A regression analysis was carried out on 23,123 event-level observations, with event defined as a bus traversal of a TSP-equipped intersection. Results indicate that with a TSP request, BSV was significantly lower than without a TSP request, confirming the effectiveness of TSP in smoothing bus trips through intersections, thus reducing risks of bus collisions and passenger fall-overs.