Analysis of the Impact of Bus Signal Priority on Urban Noise

The integration of transportation and the environment in the same strategy creates numerous advantages for local governments, which is probably the reason why the enhancement of city bus services is one of the most recommended action plans to reduce urban traffic noise. The major potential of smart solutions for public transportation lies in providing much of these enhancement options through technology, not only via traditional techniques such as systematically extending the road infrastructure. Unfortunately, many of these solutions need to be carefully analyzed before their application to a real case, among other reasons because of the possibility of creating unintended side effects. In this study, we make use of 'ad-hoc' Bus Signal Priority (BSP) strategies, designed to be applied to a transit corridor to achieve the best compromise between the efficiency and attractiveness of the bus service. VISSIM microscopic traffic flow simulation is used first as a platform to test the proposed strategies through the indirect estimation of the space/time behavior of the noise emissions along the traffic network. Buses travel times are also estimated, as punctuality in the service is the precondition for the introduction of any other measure aimed at persuading drivers to leave their cars at home.