simulation based evaluation of public transport stop designs

Abstract: Due to plans of reconstructing the local public transport stop in front of the railway station in Norrköping, southern Sweden, a simulation model was created to compare the current stop design with an alternative design. The micro simulation model was created with the simulation software Aimsun and includes scenarios based on the current traffic situation as well as future scenarios including assumptions for the future demand growth. While creating the alternative design, which provides a second lane for overtaking, several limitations in Aimsun were recognized and modifications were required to create simulation behaviour as close to reality as possible. Due to the software limitations the simulation results for the alternative design showed slightly higher results and made it difficult to make explicit comparisons of the output values. Nevertheless the output data indicated that both design layouts include remaining capacity of the public transport stop.