Estimating the Passenger Waiting Time for Public Buses in Rural Roads – A Case Study in Kandy District, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Total travel time, including the waiting time, is a key parameter among the factors affecting the mode choice behaviour of commuters. Therefore, this study investigates the average waiting time of a bus passenger on selected rural roads. The dwell time of a bus at a given bus stop is modelled considering the number of boarding and alighting passengers. According to the analysis, the average waiting time for a single bus route is calculated around ten minutes while it is around five minutes for the roads where two bus routes are operating. Further, the operational cost of a bus in the selected route is identified as 463.66 LKR/km and the load factor is identified as 1.52. The results of the analysis suggest that to avoid the overloading of the buses, the bus fare has to be increased from 21.8% and the headway between the buses can be reduced from 3 minutes.