Graduation Year
2007
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.S.
Degree Granting Department
Civil Engineering
Major Professor
Jian Lu, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Steve Polzin, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Manjriker Gunaratne, Ph.D.
Keywords
Delay, Bus crashes, Clearance time, Bus pull-out bay, Yield-to-bus, Rear lighting
Abstract
Although public transit bus accounts for only a small percentage of the mode share for transportation in Florida, the annual passenger miles were over 1 billion with over 200 million passenger trips in 2005. These numbers warrant close attention to be paid to the safety of public transit vehicles. Despite the relatively low occurrence of fatalities and bus crashes, each crash of a high occupancy vehicle such as a public transit bus could expose more people to injury than a private automobile crash. Bus crashes also have a significant impact on the automobiles that are involved. Since a high percentage of bus crashes in Florida are caused by rear-end collisions with private automobiles, improving the signage and lighting that will allow buses to move back into traffic safely is very important for bus safety and operations. This paper uses bus operator surveys, crash data, and field studies to develop recommendations for lighting and signage on the back of the bus, roadway signs and revised Florida legislations. Improved signage and lighting will help the bus move back into traffic safely, decrease bus delay and improve bus operations however it must be accompanied by laws and law enforcement.
Scholar Commons Citation
Bromfield, Stephanie Antoinette, "Operational and Safety Effects of Signage and Lighting Configurations for Public Transit Buses in Florida" (2007). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/644
