Performance study for the bus infrastructure at Schiphol Plaza
One of the highest rated aspects of Schiphol Airport is accessibility. Practically nowhere else in Europe the intermodal connections and vicinity of public transportation are as good as at Schiphol. The public bus connections are an important factor for this, since Schiphol Plaza is an important bus station for transferring passengers, air travelers and employees around Schiphol.
The bus lane here is a so-called ‘dedicated lane’ that is only to be used by public transportation buses of the local Sternet, regional Connexxion and high-class Zuidtangent lines. Considering the increase of both the number of passengers and number of employees around Schiphol, as well as the planned introduction of new (high class) bus lines stopping at Plaza the amount of traffic on the bus lane is expected to increase. To investigate the influence of this growth on the traffic situations on and around the bus lane at Plaza a study is performed on the capacity, quality (as perceived by the user) and safety for current and future situations.
Approach
There will be looked into both bus traffic and crossing pedestrians at the zebra crossings heading towards and from buses (or further). The latter can be of major influence on the flow of the buses and could thus be a bottleneck. The goal is to find this or other bottlenecks by simulating current and future situations on both the bus lane and the zebra crossings. Various scenarios will be used as input for the simulation so that the effects of certain changes can be measured as well.
Expected results
The results of the analysis will provide insight into the performance of the bus infrastructure at Schiphol Plaza on capacity, quality and safety. Later in the research a proposal will be developed that should eliminate the appearing future bottlenecks. This should finally give guidance in the 2025 Masterplan proposal for Schiphol on the bus infrastructure near Schiphol Plaza.
