California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

Caltrans has recently funded a project, through the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San Jose State University, about geometric and performance feasibility of using virtually only one dedicated but dynamically reversible lane to provide two-way Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or light-rail services at the same or similar service levels as those achievable with two dedicated lanes, along the median of a busy commute corridor with at-grade crossings and regular provision of left-turn lanes. This project extended that deterministic performance study in four complementary directions. We (i) developed two episodes of simulation/animation to facilitate understanding key ideas of the concept, (ii) addressed the “backward-compatibility” issue, (iii) developed speed control rules to absorb the impact of the stochastic demand (and the different distances between pairs of neighboring stops) on the performance of a closed system, and (iv) developed speed control rules and transit-signal-priority rules for an open system to ensure a green signal for all transit vehicles at any intersection. We believe that the next step in this line of research is to work on, simultaneously, deployment issues with city and transportation planners, acceptance issues with transit users, automobile drivers, other stakeholders (including the general public), design issues for actual deployment sites (based on inputs provided by the planners, transit users, automobile drivers and other stakeholders), and development of site-specific and high-fidelity study tools.