Abstract:

This paper analyzes the morning peak-period commuting pattern in the one-to-many mass transit system. The cost composition is analyzed considering the heterogeneity of the passengers' sensitivity to crowding in public transport. Passengers make trade-o?s between travel time, crowding, and schedule delay costs, and make their optimal time-of-use decision to establish an equilibrium travel model. We deduce the following equilibrium properties of the morning peak-period commuting in a one-to-many mass transit system: Passengers of the same destination disperse in continuous train services and the cumulative number of passengers increase with the closeness to the optimal arrival trains; if there are people taking a specific train at two consecutive stations, then the total number of people who board a specific train at subsequent stations is constant; different passengers with the same destination can be mixed at most on one train; and passengers who are sensitive to crowding will take the train far from the expected arrival time, while passengers who are not sensitive to congestion will do the opposite. The results of the study are conducive in deepening the understanding of transit riding behavior, providing auxiliary support for transportation dispatch management and further improving the related research on the transit equilibrium model.

Key words: urban traffic, passenger heterogeneity, crowding cost, peak hours, equilibrium model