The Centre for Transport Studies is pleased to welcome
Professor John Bartholdi
(Director of Global Research, The Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
to lead a seminar entitled
A Self-coordinating Approach to the Bus Bunching Problem in Urban Transport
to be held
Wednesday 21 March 2012 – 16:00
Please join us for presentation and discussion at
Room 163, Skempton Building, Imperial College London
(Maps and travel directions: http://www.cts.cv.imperial.ac.uk/html/Miscellaneous/travelDirections.asp)
Abstract
The main challenge for an urban bus system is to maintain constant headways between successive buses. Most bus systems try to adhere to a schedule, but the natural dynamics of the system tends to collapse headways so that buses travel in bunches. We propose a method of coordinating buses that abandons the idea of a schedule and any a priori headway and instead allows equal headways to emerge spontaneously. Our scheme is based on the designation of certain stops, such as ends of the route, as "control points", at which we require each bus to pause briefly. The duration of the pause is computed from the estimated time until the next bus. Under very general conditions, headways tend to equalize, and without direction by management or intention or even awareness of the drivers. We report on the implementation of our scheme on a bus route in Atlanta.
About the Speakers
Prof. John Bartholdi is the Director of Global Research at The Supply Chain and Logistics Institute and holds the Manhattan Associates Chair of Supply Chain Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. His research centres on warehousing and distribution; but also covers wider interests, including public transit systems, computer science and biology. He is co-author of the book Warehouse & Distribution Science and a founder of the Wine Supply Chain Council. Bartholdi’s work has been supported by, among others, the Defence Logistics Agency and the Office of Naval Research. In 2005 he was named a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science.
Imperial’s next CTS Seminar
Mr CTS seminars will continue again in the Summer term starting with a seminar by Dr Anders Johansson (Bristol University) on Wednesday 2 May 2012 @ 16:00.
About the CTS Seminar Series
The CTS seminar series aims to facilitate discussion on current research topics in the transport field. Seminars are held jointly with our colleagues in the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London. They are usually held on Wednesday afternoons at Imperial College London or University College London.
Seminars are free of charge and open to all interested parties. Booking is not required.
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CTS home: www.imperial.ac.uk/cts<http://www.imperial.ac.uk/cts>
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