Analysis of public transit operation efficiency based on multi-source data: A case study in Brisbane, Australia

Abstract

The development of public transit (PT), as an important part of integrated transportation systems (ITSs), can improve transport structure and relieve urban traffic problems. PT operation performance has great practical significance for the control and management of PT systems. In recent years, the implementation of ITSs has brought new opportunities and challenges. A large number of real-time traffic data such as smart card data, Global Position System data and Automatic Vehicle Location data are now available. However, such data have not been fully exploited, especially in the area of analyzing PT operation performance.Multi-source traffic data have become the new basis for the analysis of PT operation efficiency due to their advantages in accuracy, time and labor cost aspects compared with the traditional data sources such as manually collected passenger survey data. How to scientifically and efficiently utilize the massive multi-source PT data and how to accurately identify the operation status of PT systems have become a key issue in PT evaluation and management. Methodologically, this research proposes a framework for evaluating the PT operation performance at criteria tier and at indicator tier. Four criteria consisting of various indicators were selected and weighted to evaluate PT operation performance. A case study on a public bus system in Brisbane, Australia was carried out to demonstrate the usefulness of the framework. Multi-source data such as smart card data, bus basic operation information, traditional survey data and geographical data were cleaned and fused to obtain effective features. The results demonstrated that the framework can identify the deficiencies in the PT system and provide the basis for further operation enhancement.