[sumo-user] Inquiry about Traffic Delay as a Performance Measure

[Lorain Salufu <lcs0041@xxxxxxx>]

Good morning,

I am a student using SUMO to evaluate the operational impacts of implementing Business Access and Transit (BAT) lanes along an urban arterial corridor. I would appreciate some guidance regarding the interpretation and calculation of traffic delay in my study.

My current methodology uses the timeloss attribute from tripinfo.xml as a measure of vehicle delay. For each simulation seed, I calculate the average timeLoss for buses and general traffic separately, then average these values across seeds.

However, I am encountering a result that I am struggling to interpret.

The BAT lane scenario was expected to improve transit performance by providing a dedicated curb lane shared only by buses and right-turning vehicles. When comparing the Build and No-Build scenarios, I observe the following:

• Bus travel times improve in some corridor segments, particularly within the BAT treatment area.
• Bus progression plots show fewer stops in certain locations.
• However, average trip-level timeLoss increases for both buses and general traffic in several sections of the corridor.
• The increase is observed consistently across multiple simulation seeds.

My questions are:

1. Is tripinfo.timeLoss generally considered an appropriate measure of traffic delay for corridor-level performance evaluation in SUMO?
2. Would you recommend using another metric (e.g., waiting time, travel time relative to free-flow travel time, edge-based delay, queue measures, or another output) when assessing the operational impacts of transit-priority treatments?

Any guidance, references, or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Best regards,

Lorain.