Cycle Time Lab

Every bus schedule is the same equation: how long one round trip takes, divided by how often you want a bus. Change the route, the speed, or the frequency, and watch the buses and the budget respond.

Start from

Define the route by

Running time, one way

Layover + recovery, per round trip

Time at the ends of the line for the driver's break and to absorb delays.

What do you hold fixed?

Buses on the route

Cost assumptions

Service span

Cost per bus-hour ($)

An assumption. Swap in your agency's operating cost per revenue hour from the National Transit Database.

Service days per year

Round trip (cycle)

Average wait

Half the time between buses

Bus-hours per day

Operating cost

One round trip, to scale

OutboundInboundLayover you setExtra slack from rounding up

The buses, moving

Buses run out along the top, lay over at the far end, return along the bottom, and lay over again. Spacing between buses is the headway.

Walker: “Route distance, frequency, and span all cost, but speed saves.” Operating cost is mostly driver time, so it follows hours, not miles. A faster round trip needs fewer buses for the same frequency.

One round trip, to scale

The buses, moving

Burdellville