This project deals with the analysis and evaluation of the best strategies to improve the Nice-Monaco Veolia bus system, which is confronted to a rapid expansion of its client base, and seeks alternative solutions to optimise intercity bus corridors for both commuters and tourists.
Veolia Transport Alpes Maritimes also manages an important interurban bus fleet, of which one of the main routes links Nice and Monaco, with 1.5 million passengers per year, including three different kinds of populations: workers living in Nice and working in Monaco, workers living in areas located between Nice and Monaco, and a large number of tourists.
Given this context, the Urban Transport Systems Laboratory (LUTS) has been asked to make an in-depth analysis and evaluation of the present system and the potentials for its future improvement, based on advanced traffic modeling of the three different routes presently used, that present different levels of congestion.
The Northern Corridor, highway A8, presents a medium level of congestion, but only two lines of buses run this line, twice hourly. The Southern Corridor, a suburban two-way road by the Mediterranean Sea, knows quite a few bus lines with frequencies of 6-7 minutes, but is plagued with a high level of congestion.
A possible alternative, the Middle Corridor, is a suburban road that presents a low level of congestion, but for the moment no public transport line goes through this corridor.
The ongoing research project will first make estimations for bus and car travel times for these three routes and will monitor the demand for buses, both for work and leisure-related motives.
Then it will model the performance of the current situation, and will simulate the evaluation of new alternatives, such as the introduction of a new line in the Middle Corridor or the adjustment of the frequencies for the lines in the Northern Corridor.
| Principal investigator | Nikolas Geroliminis |
|---|---|
| Project manager | Nan Zheng |
| Sponsor | Veolia Transport Alpes Maritimes |
| Period | 2010 (6 months) |
| Laboratory | LUTS |
| External collaboration | Conseil Général Alpes Maritimes |
| Collaboration | TRACE |