NVTC Report Identifies Strategies to Improve Bus Speed, Reliability

The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) released a new report that analyzes bus service in Northern Virginia and makes recommendations for how to make buses faster and more reliable for riders. 

"Advancing Bus Priority" features an interactive report that allows users to visualize how infrastructure improvements would reduce traffic congestion for buses, according to NVTC's news release.

The report helps:

• Identify routes and corridors for study of potential new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors
• Highlight opportunities for transit agencies and jurisdictions to collaborate and combine resources to overcome shared bus operation issues
• Leverage the regional nature of the Northern Virginia bus to achieve shared benefits

Congestion Hurts Buses

Traffic congestion lengthens trips, decreases reliability, and increases costs. 

Buses get stuck in traffic just like cars and since they carry more people, a bus stuck in traffic affects more people. Prioritizing buses on the road moves more people faster, according to NVTC.

Bus priority treatments, like dedicated bus lanes, transit signal priority, or queue jumps, are improvements made to the roadway to increase reliability, reduce delays, and even increase safety.

"Congestion-related bus delays are estimated to cost the region nearly $19 million each year," said Xavier Harmony, NVTC Transit Resource Center senior program manager. "While fares stay the same, the cost of a trip can increase as buses sit in traffic. Adopting bus priority measures could lower the economic and travel time costs for transit agencies, local governments, and riders."