<p>Traffic congestion in Northern New Jersey imposes a substantial operational and monetary penalty on bus service. The purpose of this project was to quantify the additional time and operational costs due to traffic congestion. A regression model was developed that estimates the travel time rate (in minutes per mile) of a bus as a function of the car travel time rate, the number of passengers boarding per mile, and the number of bus tops per mile. The model was used to estimate the bus travel time rate under free flow conditions; these results were compared with observed bus travel times.</p>