Bunching Dynamics of Buses in a Loop

Abstract

Bus bunching is a curse of transportation systems such as buses in a loop. Here we present an analytical method to find the number of revolutions before two buses bunch in an idealised system, as a function of the initial distance and the crowdedness of the bus stops. We can also characterise the average waiting time for passengers as the buses bunch. The results give a better understanding of the phenomenon of bus bunching and design recommendations for bus loops.