Investigating Potential Transit Ridership by Fusing Smartcard and Global System for Mobile Communications Data

The public transport industry faces challenges in catering to the variety of mobility patterns and corresponding needs and preferences of passengers. Travel habit surveys provide information on overall travel demand as well as its spatial variation. However, that information often does not include information on temporal variations. By applying data fusion to smartcard and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) data, researchers were able to examine spatial and temporal patterns of public transport usage versus overall travel demand. The analysis was performed by contrasting different spatial and temporal levels of smartcard and GSM data. The methodology was applied to a case study in Rotterdam, Netherlands, to analyze whether the current service span is adequate. The results suggested that there is potential demand for extending public transport service on both ends. In the early mornings, right before transit operations are resumed, an hourly increase in visitor occupancy of 33% to 88% was observed in several zones, showing potential demand for additional public transport services. The proposed data fusion method was shown to be valuable in supporting tactical transit planning and decision making and can easily be applied to other origin-destination transport data.

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Understanding Users’ Satisfaction Towards Public Transit System in India: A Case-Study of Mumbai

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi10030155 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 155

Author(s):

Rahul Das

Keyword(s):

Service Quality ◽

Public Transport ◽

Travel Demand ◽

Resource Constraints ◽

Public Transit ◽

Sampling Bias ◽

Relevant Information ◽

Transit System ◽

Transport Services ◽

Developing Cities

In this work, we present a novel approach to understand the quality of public transit system in resource constrained regions using user-generated contents. With growing urban population, it is getting difficult to manage travel demand in an effective way. This problem is more prevalent in developing cities due to lack of budget and proper surveillance system. Due to resource constraints, developing cities have limited infrastructure to monitor transport services. To improve the quality and patronage of public transit system, authorities often use manual travel surveys. But manual surveys often suffer from quality issues. For example, respondents may not provide all the detailed travel information in a manual travel survey. The survey may have sampling bias. Due to close-ended design (specific questions in the questionnaire), lots of relevant information may not be captured in a manual survey process. To address these issues, we investigated if user-generated contents, for example, Twitter data, can be used to understand service quality in Greater Mumbai in India, which can complement existing manual survey process. To do this, we assumed that, if a tweet is relevant to public transport system and contains negative sentiment, then that tweet expresses user’s dissatisfaction towards the public transport service. Since most of the tweets do not have any explicit geolocation, we also presented a model that does not only extract users’ dissatisfaction towards public transit system but also retrieves the spatial context of dissatisfaction and the potential causes that affect the service quality. It is observed that a Random Forest-based model outperforms other machine learning models, while yielding 0.97 precision and 0.88 F1-score.

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Gender Inequality in Safety and Security Perceptions in Railway Stations

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13074007 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 4007

Author(s):

Pierluigi Coppola ◽

Fulvio Silvestri

Keyword(s):

Gender Gap ◽

Public Transport ◽

Stated Preference ◽

Revealed Preference ◽

Behavioral Models ◽

Mobility Patterns ◽

Railway Stations ◽

Commercial Activities ◽

Transport Services ◽

Disaggregate Data

Recent studies have shown that gender is the personal aspect that mostly affects mobility patterns and travel behaviors. It has been observed, for instance, that female perception of unsafety and insecurity when traveling using public transport forces them to make unwanted travel choices, such as avoiding traveling at certain times of day and to specific destinations. In order to improve the attractiveness of public transport services, this gender gap must not be overlooked. This paper aims at contributing to research in gendered mobility by investigating differences in safety and security perceptions in railway stations, and by identifying which policies could be effective in bridging any existing gap. The methodology includes the collection of disaggregate data through a mixed Revealed Preference/Stated Preference survey, and the estimation of fixed and random parameters behavioral models. Results from a medium-sized Italian railway station show that female travelers feel safer in the presence of other people; they prefer intermodal infrastructures close to the entrance of the station and commercial activities in the internal premises. Moreover, unlike male travelers, they do not appreciate the presence of hedges and greenery outside stations.

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COVID-19 impacts on passenger rail transport in Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Romania

Prace Komisji Geografii Komunikacji PTG ◽

10.4467/2543859xpkg.20.001.12099 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 7-13

Author(s):

Vilmos Oszter

Keyword(s):

Public Transport ◽

The Novel ◽

Mobility Patterns ◽

East European ◽

Passenger Rail ◽

Transport Services ◽

Emergency Transport ◽

Huge Impact ◽

Novel Coronavirus ◽

National Governments

The spread of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has urged to take special actions to limit the level of contagion. The unprecedented scale of measures declared by the national governments in nearly every country ot the world would have a huge impact on public transport services and in general, on the citizens travel behaviours. This paper endeavours to give an overview of the emerged epidemic situation caused by COVID-19 in Hungary and some of its neighbouring Central and South-East European countries. It identifies the most important public transport service changes together with their interrelated impacts on the mobility patterns. The responses vary country per country so an overall comparison shows novel findings on emergency transport management policies.

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A Trial-and-Error Toll Design Method for Traffic Congestion Mitigation on Large River-Crossing Channels in a Megacity

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052749 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2749

Author(s):

Xinyuan Chen ◽

Yiran Wang ◽

Yuan Zhang

Keyword(s):

Public Transport ◽

Traffic Congestion ◽

Travel Demand ◽

Design Method ◽

Optimal Solution ◽

High Volume ◽

Large River ◽

Urban Transport ◽

Trial And Error ◽

Transport Services

In this study, we addresse traffic congestion on river-crossing channels in a megacity which is divided into several subareas by trunk rivers. With the development of urbanization, cross-river travel demand is continuously increasing. To deal with the increasing challenge, the urban transport authority may build more river-crossing channels and provide more high-volume public transport services to alleviate traffic congestion. However, it is widely accepted that even though these strategies can mitigate traffic congestion to a certain level, they are not essential approaches to address traffic congestion. In this study, we consider a channel toll scheme for addressing this issue. Additional fares are applied to private vehicles, that an appropriate number of private vehicle drivers are motivated to take public transport or switch to neighboring uncongested river-crossing channels. To minimize the toll surcharge on both neighboring channels, while alleviating the traffic flow to a certain level, in this study, we provide a bi-objective mathematical model. Some properties of this model are discussed, including the existence and uniqueness of the Pareto optimal solution. To address this problem, a trial-and-error method is applied. Numerical experiments are provided to validate the proposed solution method.

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Proximity Indexing of Public Transport Terminals in Metro Manila

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13084216 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 4216

Author(s):

Krister Ian Daniel Roquel ◽

Raymund Paolo Abad ◽

Alexis Fillone

Keyword(s):

Spatial Distribution ◽

Public Transport ◽

Public Transportation ◽

Travel Demand ◽

Supply And Demand ◽

Transportation Services ◽

Transport Services ◽

Multimodal Transport ◽

Metro Manila ◽

Public Transport Services

Despite the extensive transit network in Metro Manila, intermodal connections between public transportation services are still fragmented. In response, authorities proposed various multimodal transport terminals around the periphery of the metropolis. However, there is a need to understand how these proposed terminals will impact existing transportation infrastructure and services as well as the current travel demand. This paper proposes a method that quantifies the nearness of any subject to any metric of interest, or in this case, the location of the terminal based on its proximity to existing transit supply and demand at different points in the transport network. It involves a simple methodology that requires only the spatial distribution of relevant transport planning data (e.g., public transport services, public transport passenger activity). It was found that the spatial distribution of the transport terminals in the study area is more closely related to the transit supply. Using the same methodology, several potential locations in Metro Manila (e.g., central terminal, terminal along a major junction) were assessed to see whether these are viable sites for a multimodal terminal. One scenario configuration was found to be better integrated with where trips start and/or end, while another seemed to improve integration of the existing railways.

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COVID-19 and public transport demand trends in Sicily: analyzing external factors and governmental recommendations

European Transport/Trasporti Europei ◽

10.48295/et.2021.83.9 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Socrates Basbas

Keyword(s):

Public Transport ◽

Travel Demand ◽

Southern Italy ◽

National Government ◽

Point Of View ◽

External Factors ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Transport Services ◽

Restricted Mobility ◽

Hierarchical Scale

The year 2020 has brought changes in transport services and travel demand globally due to restrictions related to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in public transport. The present work focuses on Sicily (Southern Italy). Through the elaboration and administration of an online questionnaire, a sample of 700 regular public transport users was characterized from a socio-demographic point of view, identifying their travel habits, and their opinion on governmental and public transport company initiatives. Eight (8) national government strategies were evaluated on a Likert scale, and ten (10) pandemic mitigation factors were assessed in different phases of the pandemic, highlighting which of these factors were most preferred by the sample on a hierarchical scale. The results lay the groundwork for identifying critical challenges when dealing with such severely restricted mobility conditions and suggesting improvements for public transport agencies and local authorities.

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Mobility Patterns of Students: Evidence from Tricity Area, Poland

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11020522 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 522

Author(s):

Agnieszka Szmelter-Jarosz ◽

Michał Suchanek

Keyword(s):

Factor Analysis ◽

Young Adults ◽

Public Transport ◽

Travel Behavior ◽

Online Survey ◽

Complex Analysis ◽

Travel Demand ◽

Future Research ◽

Mobility Patterns ◽

Active Commute

Generational change is one of the vital socioeconomic forces affecting the global economic environment. In many studies, the youngest generations are presented as the ones changing the market trends. This can also be observed in areas of travel demand and mobility patterns. However, research on those topics in many countries, for many societies, is scarce. This study aimed to examine the travel behavior of Polish young adults, namely students living in the Tricity area. Factor analysis and ANOVA were used to analyze the data gathered via an online survey assessing the characteristics of mobility patterns of students born between 1981 and 1999. Factor analysis allowed grouping the attitudes towards traveling among those young adults (Y Generation, Y’s, Y Gen). Three factors were identified, and they were associated with luxury and self-expression, freedom and comfort, safety and environmental friendliness. The driver’s characteristics were the least consistent with the classic image of typical Y’s, and those using the active commute—the most. In turn, the largest group were people using public transport, which partially presented convergent opinions with drivers and users of the active commute. It turned out that the car drivers, active commuters and respondents utilizing public transport differed not only in their behavior and presentation of Y Gen characteristics but also in their attitude towards categories such as comfort, desire for luxury, economy or ecology. This study is a complex analysis of the mobility patterns of students in the Tricity area. It presents the set of variables influencing the travel demand of the chosen age group. The study also compares the presented travel choices with those declared by representatives of other nations. Finally, it indicates the next research problems to be addressed in future research.

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THE DEVELOPMENT AND SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE PROGRAM OF MEASURES ON IMPROVEMENT OF ORGANIZATION OF TRANSPORT SERVICE OF THE POPULATION IN THE METROPOLIS

the System analysis and logistics ◽

10.31799/2007-5687-2020-4-91-95 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (26) ◽

pp. 91-95

Author(s):

D. A. Smirnov ◽

Keyword(s):

Transport System ◽

Systematic Study ◽

Public Transport ◽

Road Network ◽

System Development ◽

Transport Service ◽

Transport Services ◽

The City

The article reveals the content of measures to improve the organization of transport services in the metropolis. The key directions of the city transport system development are considered. The analysis of the offered offers is carried out. Keywords: metropolis, transport development, public transport, street and road network.

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Public Transport GPS Probe and Rail Gate Data for Assessing the Pattern of Human Mobility in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Thailand

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13042178 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 2178

Author(s):

Songkorn Siangsuebchart ◽

Sarawut Ninsawat ◽

Apichon Witayangkurn ◽

Surachet Pravinvongvuth

Keyword(s):

Performance Assessment ◽

Public Transport ◽

Human Mobility ◽

Open Data ◽

Capital City ◽

Metropolitan Region ◽

Traffic Information ◽

Mobility Patterns ◽

Transport Planning ◽

Java Program

Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, is one of the most developed and expansive cities. Due to the ongoing development and expansion of Bangkok, urbanization has continued to expand into adjacent provinces, creating the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR). Continuous monitoring of human mobility in BMR aids in public transport planning and design, and efficient performance assessment. The purpose of this study is to design and develop a process to derive human mobility patterns from the real movement of people who use both fixed-route and non-fixed-route public transport modes, including taxis, vans, and electric rail. Taxi GPS open data were collected by the Intelligent Traffic Information Center Foundation (iTIC) from all GPS-equipped taxis of one operator in BMR. GPS probe data of all operating GPS-equipped vans were collected by the Ministry of Transport’s Department of Land Transport for daily speed and driving behavior monitoring. Finally, the ridership data of all electric rail lines were collected from smartcards by the Automated Fare Collection (AFC). None of the previous works on human mobility extraction from multi-sourced big data have used van data; therefore, it is a challenge to use this data with other sources in the study of human mobility. Each public transport mode has traveling characteristics unique to its passengers and, therefore, specific analytical tools. Firstly, the taxi trip extraction process was developed using Hadoop Hive to process a large quantity of data spanning a one-month period to derive the origin and destination (OD) of each trip. Secondly, for van data, a Java program was used to construct the ODs of van trips. Thirdly, another Java program was used to create the ODs of the electric rail lines. All OD locations of these three modes were aggregated into transportation analysis zones (TAZ). The major taxi trip destinations were found to be international airports and provincial bus terminals. The significant trip destinations of vans were provincial bus terminals in Bangkok, electric rail stations, and the industrial estates in other provinces of BMR. In contrast, electric rail destinations were electric rail line interchange stations, the central business district (CBD), and commercial office areas. Therefore, these significant destinations of taxis and vans should be considered in electric rail planning to reduce the air pollution from gasoline vehicles (taxis and vans). Using the designed procedures, the up-to-date dataset of public transport can be processed to derive a time series of human mobility as an input into continuous and sustainable public transport planning and performance assessment. Based on the results of the study, the procedures can benefit other cities in Thailand and other countries.

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A GIS-Based Methodology for Evaluating the Increase in Multimodal Transport between Bicycle and Rail Transport Systems. A Case Study in Palermo

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi10050321 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 321

Author(s):

Alessandro Emilio Capodici ◽

Gabriele D’Orso ◽

Marco Migliore

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Public Transport ◽

Choice Model ◽

Rail Transport ◽

Transport Systems ◽

Sustainable Mobility ◽

Transit System ◽

Modal Choice ◽

Transport Services ◽

Multimodal Transport

Background: In a world where every municipality is pursuing the goals of more sustainable mobility, bicycles play a fundamental role in getting rid of private cars and travelling by an eco-friendly mode of transport. Additionally, private and shared bikes can be used as a feeder transit system, solving the problem of the first- and last-mile trips. Thanks to GIS (Geographic Information System) software, it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of such a sustainable means of transport in future users’ modal choice. Methods: Running an accessibility analysis of cycling and rail transport services, the potential mobility demand attracted by these services and the possible multimodality between bicycle and rail transport systems can be assessed. Moreover, thanks to a modal choice model calibrated for high school students, it could be verified if students will be really motivated to adopt this solution for their home-to-school trips. Results: The GIS-based analysis showed that almost half of the active population in the study area might potentially abandon the use of their private car in favour of a bike and its combination with public transport systems; furthermore, the percentage of the students of one high school of Palermo, the Einstein High School, sharply increases from 1.5% up to 10.1%, thanks also to the combination with the rail transport service. Conclusions: The GIS-based methodology shows that multimodal transport can be an effective way to pursue a more sustainable mobility in cities and efficiently connect suburbs with low-frequent public transport services to the main public transport nodes.

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