Dedicated bus lanes and other transit priority treatments are a cost-effective way to improve transit speed and reliability. However, creating a bus lane can be a contentious process; it requires justification to the public and frequently entails competition for federal grants. In addition, more complex bus networks are likely to have unknown locations where transit priority infrastructure would provide high value to riders.

This analysis presents a methodology for estimating the value of bus preferential treatments for all segments of a given bus network. It calculates the passenger-weighted travel time savings potential for each inter-stop segment based on schedule padding. The input data, ridership data, and General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) trip-stop data are universally accessible to transit agencies.

This study examines the 2018 Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) bus network and identifies a portion of route 39 on Buford Highway as an example candidate for a bus lane corridor. The results are used to evaluate the value of time savings to passengers, operating cost savings to the agency, and other benefits that would result from implementing bus lanes on Buford Highway.

This study does not extend to estimating the cost of transit priority infrastructure or recommending locations based on traffic flow characteristics. However, it does provide a reproducible methodology to estimate the value of transit priority treatments, and it identifies locations with high value, all using data that are readily available to transit agencies. Conducting this analysis provides a foundation for beginning the planning process for transit priority infrastructure.

专用公交专用道和其他公交优先处理是提高公交速度和可靠性的一种经济有效的方式。然而，创建公交专用道可能是一个有争议的过程。它需要向公众说明理由，并经常导致对联邦拨款的竞争。此外，更复杂的公交网络可能有未知的地点，在这些地点，公交优先基础设施将为乘客提供高价值。

该分析提出了一种方法，用于估计给定公交网络所有部分的公交优惠待遇的价值。它根据时间表填充计算每个停靠站间段的乘客加权旅行时间节省潜力。输入数据、乘客量数据和通用公交馈送规范 (GTFS) 行程-停靠点数据可供公交机构普遍访问。

本研究检查了 2018 年亚特兰大大都会快速交通管理局 (MARTA) 公交网络，并确定了布福德高速公路上 39 号路线的一部分作为公交专用道走廊的示例候选。结果用于评估为乘客节省时间、为机构节省运营成本以及在布福德高速公路上实施公交专用道所带来的其他好处。

本研究并未扩展到估计交通优先基础设施的成本或根据交通流量特征推荐位置。然而，它确实提供了一种可重复的方法来估计公交优先处理的价值，并确定具有高价值的位置，所有这些都使用公交机构容易获得的数据。进行此分析为开始交通优先基础设施的规划过程奠定了基础。