Eliminating Bus Stops: Evaluating Changes in Operations, Emissions and Coverage

Bus systems in the United States are unattractive to many potential riders because of their lack of efficiency, especially with regard to travel time. One of the reasons services are not more efficient has to do with the spacing of bus stops. After using a nearest facility algorithm with an 800 m walking distance threshold to identify eligible bus stops in the current bus system in the city of Fairfax, Virginia, the impacts of their elimination on operations, emissions, and coverage are estimated. Results indicate that eliminating some bus stops (about 40% of current stops) could improve travel times and reduce operating costs by the same percentage (23%). In addition, bus-related emissions such as CO (34%), VOC (18%), and NO x (10%) could all be substantially lower. Surprisingly, the loss in coverage due to eliminating stops would not be large (10% of the total population of the city of Fairfax)