Activity-based bottleneck model: Modeling the evening commute problem at bus transit hub

How to remove the bottleneck at a bus transit hub quickly is a difficult problem for commute residents. This paper combines the bottleneck model and the activity-based approach to study commute behavior in the evening rush hours at bus hubs, so as to solve the problem of time allocation between commuters’ activities and trips. Based on the bottleneck model and considering on-board congestion, traffic behavior is related to traffic activity. Dynamic equilibrium is gained by introducing bus congestion cost and choosing departure time according to different utility functions. Properties under the equilibrium conditions are obtained to explain the traffic phenomenon of commuters queuing at the bottleneck in the evening rush hours. Compared with traditional bottleneck models, the activity-based bottleneck model is more abundant and has more complicated departure time selections. Results show that the more sensitive the commuters are to on-board congestion, the more they will try to avoid the peak travel. For greater net utility, commuters may choose to stay in the workplace for longer periods of time and peak hours may be delayed.