Assessment of bus movement and their interactions with motorcyclists in mixed traffic condition: An expanded model

Abstract

Bus services have undergone improvements in various aspects, including driver behavior as perceived by both bus users and non-users. However, previous studies have faced challenges in evaluating bus movements and their interactions with road users, such as an inability to distinguish between lane and speed changes of buses, the significant effort required for data collection, and a lack of comprehensive coverage of all buses in the survey area. This study addresses these gaps with an expanded model that comprehensively evaluates bus driver behavior, considering the interactions between buses and motorcycles. The proposed model utilizes traffic surveillance video data analyzed through specialized software and incorporates eight indices to significantly address the limitations of previous studies. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model, a case study was conducted in Hanoi using the T-surveyor program for data analysis. The findings revealed that: (1) bus lane changes had a significantly greater negative impact on motorcyclists compared to bus speed changes; (2) bus movement situations affecting motorcycles were more frequent in the Bus-Motorcycle-Car (BMC) flow than in the Bus-Motorcycle (BM) flow; and (3) in most cases, the frequency of bus-related situations impacting motorcycles was lower on weekends than on weekdays. The expanded model also identified various hazardous bus movement situations. Furthermore, the propensity score matching (PSM) method was applied to compare the likelihood of motorcycles changing lanes and speeds in response to bus movements between BMC and BM flows. Lastly, this study demonstrated the expanded model’s practicality and its potential for broader implementation.