R.,Impact of traffic congestion on bus travel time in northern New Jersey

Traffic congestion in Northern New Jersey imposes a substantial time operational penalty on bus service. The purpose of a project was to quan-tify the additional travel time that buses need because of traffic conges-tion. A regression model was developed to estimate the travel time rate (in minutes per mile) of a bus as a function of car traffic time rate, num-ber of passengers hoarding per mile, and the number of bus stops per mile. The model was used to estimate the bus travel time rate if cars were traveling under free-flow conditions, and the results were compared with the observed bus travel times. Traffic congestion imposes a substantial operational and monetary penalty on bus transportation by increasing the time required to pro-vide service, Congestion in New Jersey is high and is forecast to be greater; traffic volumes are predicted to increase by 7 % by 2005 over the levels in 1998 and 18 % by 2015 (I). The roadway network in New Jersey currently operates at or above its desired capacity at many loca