Assessment of scheduled bus operations and its feasibility in the city of Kigali: Case study line 203”

Abstract

The current state of public bus transportation in Kigali, Rwanda. Buses are a crucial mode of transport for a significant portion of the population; however, the existing system largely operates without a formal and consistent timetable. This absence of a scheduled system presents several critical challenges. The scheduled bus operation will solve the problem of long waiting time, Travel time, queues length and increase the Level of services for public transportation. The aim of this research is to assess the scheduled bus operations and feasibility in the city of Kigali by studying the scheduled bus operation of line 203. This study is based on the data conducted from relevant authorities and daily travel demand data. The total of 710 trips for forwards and 710 of backward, Travel demand data was analyzed. to assess the performed of scheduled bus operations at two bus stations punctuality rate was adopted. Analysis using ANOVA and regression showed that deviations were not significantly affected by operator identity, as p-values exceeded the 0.05 significance threshold. Instead, delays and early departures were more commonly associated with time-of-day patterns, especially during late afternoon and evening hours. The findings show 97.7% and 80.6% of on time departures at both Nyanza and CBD and load factor of 53.4% and 58.3% of forward and backward respectively. Researcher also recommend the policies such as formulating regulatory frameworks, traffic congestion measures and implementing dedicated bus lane. From the results from analysis the scheduled bus operation is feasible to be implemented in the City of Kigali.