Public Transport Areas Research Articles

Heuristic Bike Optimization Algorithm to Improve Usage Efficiency of the Station-Free Bike Sharing System in Shenzhen, China

Station-free bike sharing systems (BSSs) are a new type of public bike system that has been widely deployed in China since 2017. However, rapid growth has vastly outpaced the immediate demand and overwhelmed many cities around the world. This paper proposes a heuristic bike optimization algorithm (HBOA) to determine the optimal supply and distribution of bikes considering the effect of bicycle cycling. In this approach, the different bike trips with separate bikes can be connected in space and time and converted into a continuous trip chain for a single bike. To improve this cycling efficiency, it is important to properly design the bicycle distribution. Taking Shenzhen as an example, we implement the algorithm with OD matrix data from Mobike and Ofo, the two large bike sharing companies which account for 80% of the shared bike market in Shenzhen, over two days. The HBOA results are as follows. 1) Only one-fifth of the bike supply is needed to meet the current usage demand if the bikes are used efficiently, which means a large number of shared bikes in Shenzhen remain in an idle state for long periods. 2) Although the cycling demand is high in many areas, it does not mean that large numbers of bikes are needed because the continuous inflow caused by the cycling effect of bikes will meet most of the demand by itself. 3) The areas with the highest demands for optimal bikes are residential, followed by industrial, public transportation, official and commercial areas, on both working and non-working days. This algorithm can be an objective basis for city related departments to manage station-free BSSs and be applied to design the layout of bikes in small-scale spatial units to help station-free BSSs operate efficiently and minimize the need to relocate the bikes without reducing the level of user satisfaction.

Smart Pooling Service at Public Transport Areas

Smart Pooling Service at Public Transport Areas

Molecular surveillance of respiratory viruses with bioaerosol sampling in an airport

Recognizing that crowded, high-traffic airports and airplanes have been implicated in respiratory disease transmission, we partnered with administrators of Raleigh Durham International Airport (RDU) in conducting a pilot study of aerosol surveillance for respiratory viruses at RDU. From January to March 2018 we used NIOSH 2-stage samplers to collect 150 min aerosol samples in crowded areas at RDU. Four (17%) of the 24 samples were positive for known respiratory pathogens including influenza D virus and adenovirus. These results suggest the feasibility of employing bioaerosol surveillance techniques in public transportation areas, such as airports, as a noninvasive way to detect and characterize novel respiratory viruses.

Proposal of Benchmarking Methodology for the Area of Public Passenger Transport

This paper introduces the concept of benchmarking - the systematic approach that provides to performance assessment and identification of best practice - as a powerful tool for the development of performance, quality, sustainability and economic efficiency of transport services. It summarizes the results and findings of a study conducted to benchmark the performances of selected Slovak urban public transport enterprises. The study was effectuated in close cooperation with the involved passenger transport authorities and transport operators who delivered the necessary data. Based on indicators elaborated in various EU projects a new method of benchmarking applicable in conditions of public passengers services provision was proposed as well as a set of benchmarking indicators, which are enabling the implementation of a comparative study. Pilot benchmarking application was focused on identification of areas with potential of improvement by means of implementation of developed method. Final part of the paper contains recommendations for creation of a functional benchmarking system in a field of public transport services and details the steps that are necessary for the possible extension of benchmarking application to other areas of public passenger transport.

Evolution of the efficiency of metropolitan public transport areas during the financial crisis and recovery in Spain

Abstract Urban dispersion is a phenomenon that has taken place in most European urban areas since the second half of the 20th century. From the point of view of mobility, urban sprawl makes it difficult to provide a quality public transport (PT) service, thus increasing the use of private vehicles. In addition, during the financial crisis that has shaken Europe since 2007, cities have lost population whereas peri-urban areas have grown and there have also been significant economic cuts in the public sector, which has substantially affected the efficiency of PT. This study uses demographic and socioeconomic data from ten Spanish urban areas to assess the evolution of PT systems during the recession and the start of economic recovery. The analysis is carried out through the use of technical indicators (supply and demand) and economic indicators (fares and financing) at both urban and metropolitan level. Based on the calculated indicators and using a cluster analysis, groups of cities with common mobility patterns are obtained. The different patterns observed reflect the main results of different strategies in PT management. In this way we try to extract some lessons from the crisis about PT systems.

COMPARATIVE OF VOTING BEHAVIOUR IN ELITE AND SLUM AREA AT LOCAL ELECTION OF JAKARTA 2017: CASE STUDY POLLING STATION (PS) 06 PEGANGSAAN MENTENG AND POLLING STATION (PS) 52 BUKIT DURI

This paper aims to analyse of comparative of voting behaviour between elite and slum areas at Local Election of Jakarta 2017. How the comparative of voting behaviour in elite and slum areas are the question of this research. The results of this research are: The first, in elite areas polling station (PS) 6 Pegangsaan, the winner of the local election first round are Ahok-Djarot. They are an incumbent who have some issues like blasphemy, relocation inhumane, and any others. But, in other hand many people argue that Ahok-Djarot is best choice for governor and vice governor for Jakarta because of their achievement in last period, like the cleaning of Ciliwung river, public transportation, and relocation slums areas. But, at second round of local election, Ahok – Djarot are loss in there because most of voters AHY (candidate who loss at first round) voted Anies-Sandi. The most of Ahok-Djarot voters in polling station (PS) 6 said that they are not influenced by a variety of negative issues of the candidate. Second, in slum areas Polling station (PS) 52 Bukit Duri, the winner of the local election are Anies-Sandi. Anies- Sandi are Muslim candidate who have many achievement and their character are friendly, polite and have a good manner. Most of Anies-Sandi voters sure that if Anies-Sandi being governor and vice governor of Jakarta, policy of relocation will be held humanity with emphasis on dialogue. By the result of research, the conclusion is most of voters in Jakarta used rational and sociology factor for their reason to choose governor and vice governor.

Embedding Health Equity Strategically within Healthy Built Environments to Improve Walkability ( breakout presentation )

Background Population health promotion approaches have become increasingly focused in recent years on improving walkability in built environments. Communities, health sectors and public leaders alike have recognized that factors such as transportation networks and neighbourhood design have a significant impact on the physical activity levels and health of populations. Despite this attention on healthy built environments and walkability, health equity is often not an explicit strategic focus. Description of Program Recognizing the need for frameworks to prioritize, integrate, and measure health equity within built environments, Saskatoon Health Region Population and Public Health Services (SHR) has embedded health equity within this work. Aligning population-level approaches, a health equity focus, and the overarching goal of better health for all has positive impacts on walkability and other forms of active transportation through healthy built environments. With partners, SHR carried out a Health Equity Impact Assessment of the City of Saskatoon’s Growth Plan, focussing on the areas of active transportation, public transportation and growth along major corridors. This report highlighted the potential negative impacts that can be mitigated as well as the positive impacts that can be enhanced by incorporating health equity into the planning process. Outcomes Walkability, and active transportation overall, has many benefits, including improved health. It also can be a catalyst for building social capital, supporting economic development and providing economical means of supporting people of all income levels to move around their communities. Implications In order to foster better health for all, health equity must be at the forefront within a health promotion strategy, working in partnership with municipal governments and other partners. Deliberate and explicit planning is needed in order to integrate health equity into walkability and how communities are planned and built. Public Health can act as a partner in the work alongside municipalities, to help bring this perspective to facilitate physical and social environments for all to thrive.

RIGHT TO SAFETY AND SECURITY FOR PASSENGERS TRAVELING BY THE PUBLIC ROAD TRANSPORTATION

<p align="center"><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p>This article aimed to observe the safety protection of public road transportation and some public areas in Yogyakarta and Surakarta. The Road and urban public transport terminals, station, and transshipment centres were mainly established at the meeting points of different traffic lines. If we compare the terror-threat against infrastructure, building, and vehicles, then we can see that much more terrorist attacks were directed against the vehicles, than against bridges or tunnels. Safety protection on public road transportation and its public areas is one of the efforts to enforce right to life and right to sustain life in line with article 28A of Indonesian Constitution of 1945. This issue is important to be observed because two cities are prone to be attacked by terrorist and sometimes passengers or visitors are not responsive to disasters as long as they are on public road transportation and public areas. This article have two important problem to be observed, first problem is how already passengers or visitors of public road transportation and its public areas understand safety procedures of those areas?; second problem is how policy of safety protection need to be enforced on two public road transportation and public areas in order to protect right to life safely of passengers? The normative and empirical legal research is used to this research by using interviews and field observation. The result of this research concisely state that at this time the bus station and rail station is still not implemented maximum safety and security procedures to passengers and passengers or visitors do not understand about safety procedures and are not responsive to dangerous circumtances surrounded them. Maximum safety protection is important to prevent terrorism crime, narcoticss crime, and prevent any casualties due disasters. Security officers should check the condition of bags and luggage of passengers or visitors in order to prevent any threats there. Safety briefing is also implemented to keep a passengers concer. </p><p><strong>Keywords: <em>safety procedure, right to life, public area</em></strong></p>

Internet of Things and the economics of smart sustainable cities

The major objective of this article is to analyze the potentials of information and communications technology (ICT) for the evolution of smart cities, with a particular focus on the challenges faced by traditional public utilities in the areas of public transportation, energy, water supply, and wastewater management due to the entry of new players originating from ICT organizations and industries. The character of virtual networks for smart cities is demonstrated based on three pillars: (1) All-IP–based real-time and adaptive broadband communication networks, (2) global navigation satellite systems and their overlay position correction networks, and (3) the interoperability of ubiquitous sensor network applications, as they form the ICT basis for a multitude of applications that are important in smart cities. The heterogeneity of virtual networks for different smart city physical network services is based on these pillars, taking into account the different requirements for the quality of service (QoS) of data packet transmission, geopositioning, and sensor networks. It can be expected that prosumer activities and resultant networked commons become increasingly relevant for the smart city of the future. However, the increasing role of prosumer activities cannot replace the role of markets in solving scarcity problems within ICT networks as well as physical networks. The role of congestion pricing and QoS differentiation for network capacities in transportation and electricity markets as well as ICT is indicated. If, due to non-rivalry in usage, efficient congestion prices are pointless, the future role of subsidies from the state is considered.

Smart-technologies in Public Transport and their Perception by the Youth Audience

Objectives: The aim of this paper is to identify the activity of use and the perception of existing smart-technologies by the youth audience in the area of public transport in Moscow. Method: The perception of smart-decisions as regards public transport, realized to date by the young audience, should be investigated for the development and adjustment of city policy in this area. The study is an online survey of young audience, who live in the Moscow region; the number of respondents was 439 people aged 18-25 years. Findings: The proportion of respondents who use the smart-technology capabilities to plan their trips and payment for them has been found. The main differences in the behavior of young respondents of those who use and those who do not use smart-technology capabilities in public transport in Moscow also have been identified. Using the smart-technologies in public transport by young consumers is intense; with the use of technologies users solve problems of various types. Problems of receiving information and optimization are solved more actively, while those concerning performing actions on the fare are dealt a little less actively. Improvements: Using smart-technologies allows partially solving the problems arising from the use of public transport.

Travel behaviour and health: A conceptual model and research agenda

Objectives This paper proposes a conceptual model of the complex relationships between travel behaviour and health. In addition it gives a research agenda providing an overview of challenges for future research. Methods We review the relevant literature in the areas of public health, land use and transportation that address issues related to health and travel and their underlying mechanisms. We do not aim to give a full review of the literature but to underpin the conceptual model. Results and conclusions We conclude that research can easily come to the ‘wrong’ conclusions if the complex causal relationships that exist between relevant factors are overlooked. In particular, ignoring contradictory effects for specific socio-demographic groups, (residential) self-selection effects, substitutions of different forms of activity, and reverse causalities may lead to overestimation of the effect of policies. For example, travel-related physical activity might interact with other physical activity, self-selection effects may influence the complex relationships between travel behaviour and health, and people׳s health may influence their walking or cycling behaviour. Based on the conceptual model we present a research agenda. A first research challenge is to explore the combined effect of travel behaviour related determinants for health effects (physical activity, air pollution intake, injuries, and subjective well-being) on health. A second challenge is exploring the interactions between travel-related physical activity and other physical activity. Thirdly, the importance of attitudes and attitude formation, specifically health-related attitudes and self-selection processes related to travel behaviour, is an important research topic. Fourthly, it is important to explore the relationship between cycling levels and injury risks, because risks seem to be correlated with cycling levels: the more people cycle, the lower the injury risks. Fifthly, we think it is important to study the relevance of walking and cycling related self-selection effects. A sixth challenge relates to transport innovations.

Byproducts of Urban Infrastructure Interfaces: Evidence from Parking Compliance

The increased levels of urbanization have resulted in the demand for developing urban technologies that can realize the vision of smart cities, i.e., urban environments that are sustainable, livable and resilient. Electromechanical infrastructure is substituted by intelligent, cyber-physical infrastructure (e.g., coin-based ticket fare collectors are substituted by smart cards) in an effort to both reduce costs, increase efficiency as well as improve the user-friendliness of the system. Significant efforts and resources have been allocated in the area of public transportation, including the modernization of subway and bus networks. However, one of the most-discussed aspects of public transportation in our automobile-dominated cities is that of parking infrastructure. While research has concluded that appropriate pricing of metered parking zones is essential to allow local businesses to flourish and even reduce congestion, there is still a lot of hesitance on implementing the appropriate policies. Hence, parking zones are still significantly underpriced. The problem is further pronounced by poor enforcement. However, during the last years, most of the coin-based parking meters are being substituted by “smart” meters that accept various types of payments (e.g., credit cards, mobile etc.). While these meters have been installed to mainly make parking payments more convenient to drivers, they appear to have important indirect benefits. In particular, in this study we use quasi-experimental techniques to analyze parking citation information from the city of Pittsburgh and we find that the installation of the new parking meters leads to increased compliance with parking rules. This can further have significant implication for the design of the urban infrastructure interfaces of the upcoming smart technology.

Supporting a Design Driven Approach to Social Inclusion and Accessibility in Transport

This paper presents research into the area of public transport and accessibility, addressing the support of practitioners in achieving socially inclusive solutions to the mobility issues of diverse populations. For decades, social policy has been underpinned by a stereotyping of populations into simplified sub groups: old, young, disabled, etc. and thus solutions often fail to properly address the richness of human variability. These shortcomings are often ‘managed’ through the ability for people to adapt, however, this is not a sustainable way in which to build a socially inclusive transport infrastructure. A software design tool called HADRIAN is presented. This tool provides a means to evaluate designs for their physical inclusiveness through the use of a virtual user group. This virtual user group is the embodiment of over 100 people that can be used to assess an existing or proposed design and to gain an understanding of what may be done to improve its accommodation. A case study exploring the use of the tool is described together with work in exploring the correlation of the individuals within the HADRIAN system with data on the UK population as a whole and how the inclusion or exclusion of individuals with specific characteristics can be used to inform a more representative view of the inclusiveness of a design.

The 2015 China Adult Tobacco Survey: exposure to second-hand smoke among adults aged 15 and above and their support to policy on banning smoking in public places

To understand the situation on exposure to second-hand smoke among Chinese adults aged 15 and above and their support to policy on banning smoking in public places in 2015. A cross-sectional survey was conducted based on the protocol on Global Adult Tobacco Survey. Stratified multi-stage cluster sampling was used to select 16 800 households in China. Data were collected through household survey, using the electronic devices. One eligible respondent was selected by random sampling in each household. Standardized questionnaire was used from Global Tobacco Surveillance System. Data were weighted and analyzed by SAS 9.3 and SUDAAN 10.0.1 complex survey data analysis program. 93.1% (60 128×10(3)/64 575×10(3)), 76.3% (455 473×10(3)/596 782×10(3)), 57.1% (621 793×10(3)/1 089 582×10(3)), 54.3% (218 792×10(3)/402 732×10(3)), 38.1% (61 208×10(3)/160 574×10(3)), 26.9% (119 783×10(3)/444 679×10(3)), 23.8%(17 598×10(3)/73 993×10(3)), 17.2% (41 099×10(3)/239 022×10(3)) and 16.4% (102 153×10(3)/623 015×10(3)) of the respondents reported that smoking did exsit in the following places as: inside of bars or night clubs, in the restaurants, households homes, working places, government buildings, health care facilities, universities, primary and high schools (both indoor and outdoor areas), and on public transportation, respectively. Compared with those data in 2010, the proportions of exposure to indoor areas of restaurants, government buildings, health care facilities, primary and high schools (both indoor and outdoor areas), public transportation, and homes all significantly decreased after standardization of data. RESULTS also showed that most respondents were supportive to the policy on banning smoking in public and working places. However, the proportions of exposure to indoor areas of restaurants were still high but almost 70% of the respondents thought smoking should not be allowed in indoor areas of restaurants. From 2010 to 2015, proportions of exposure to indoor areas of public places, working places, public transportation and homes were obviously declining in China. The Chinese public seemed supportive to the policy on banning smoking in public places.

Fear of Crime in Public Spaces: From the View of Women Living in Cities

This paper relates to “fear of crime” in public open spaces from the point of women living in cities. Fear of crime, in general terms, can be described as a feeling of “fear” and “insecurity” derived from a feeling of a person who senses his/her personal security to be under the threat. This fear of crime is a fact which has a considerable impact of the daily lifes of urban dwellers directly or indirectly by causing urban open spaces such as public parks, squares, plazas, streets not be used; causing routes preferred to travel between working places and dwelling places be changed; and causing roads and streets chosen for commerce be altered. According to the scientific researches, it has been detected that elders and women are more exposed to fear of crime in cities. Consequently, women have to prefer to stay closed and safeguarded places and to avoid urban streets, parks, plazas, public transportation vehicles and areas, especially in the evenings; they feel insecure while walking on the streets and even at their homes; they restrict the right to freedom of movement of their children in the city; and they have to take measures in public open spaces for the reason of this anxiety. This situation restrains the personal involvements of women in public life of the city.Discussing the reasons for fear of crime in public open spaces, in this paper, it is aimed to focus this fact from the point of women. To conclude, it is examined the reasons and degrees of fear of crime; measures taken due to this fact; and handicaps which restrains the personal involvements of women in public life of the city.

Revealing Curitiba's flawed sustainability: How discourse can prevent institutional change

The city of Curitiba, Brazil, is considered an exceptional model of sustainable urban planning. It has received praise for its invention of the Bus Rapid Transit System and numerous awards identify Curitiba as one of the world's greenest cities. Controversial elements have, however, been left out of this hegemonic city discourse, along with inevitable new challenges. The aim of this article is two-fold. First, we assess whether Curitiba is living up to its reputation as a leading sustainable city by analyzing three areas of urban sustainable development: green spaces, water bodies and public transportation. We show how Curitiba experiences problems ranging from social exclusion resulting from green space policies, to polluted water bodies and hampered planning in the area of public transportation. Second, we examine how the Curitiba discourse as a leading sustainable city is able to endure in this changed material context. We demonstrate how this hegemonic discourse prevents institutional transformations: the discourse becomes reproduced by powerful networks and propaganda, masking new unsustainable realities and by the same token preventing fast and successful institutional renewal.

Mining open datasets for transparency in taxi transport in metropolitan environments.

Uber has recently been introducing novel practices in urban taxi transport. Journey prices can change dynamically in almost real time and also vary geographically from one area to another in a city, a strategy known as surge pricing. In this paper, we explore the power of the new generation of open datasets towards understanding the impact of the new disruption technologies that emerge in the area of public transport. With our primary goal being a more transparent economic landscape for urban commuters, we provide a direct price comparison between Uber and the Yellow Cab company in New York. We discover that Uber, despite its lower standard pricing rates, effectively charges higher fares on average, especially during short in length, but frequent in occurrence, taxi journeys. Building on this insight, we develop a smartphone application, OpenStreetCab, that offers a personalized consultation to mobile users on which taxi provider is cheaper for their journey. Almost five months after its launch, the app has attracted more than three thousand users in a single city. Their journey queries have provided additional insights on the potential savings similar technologies can have for urban commuters, with a highlight being that on average, a user in New York saves 6 U.S. Dollars per taxi journey if they pick the cheapest taxi provider. We run extensive experiments to show how Uber’s surge pricing is the driving factor of higher journey prices and therefore higher potential savings for our application’s users. Finally, motivated by the observation that Uber’s surge pricing is occurring more frequently that intuitively expected, we formulate a prediction task where the aim becomes to predict a geographic area’s tendency to surge. Using exogenous to Uber data, in particular Yellow Cab and Foursquare data, we show how it is possible to estimate customer demand within an area, and by extension surge pricing, with high accuracy.

Coupling community preferences with hydrologic evaluation of low impact development implementation in an urban watershed

Stormwater runoff, and its associated pollutants, is a major problem in urban watersheds where the runoff is either channeled into surface water bodies or wastewater treatment plants. One emerging Best Management Practice (BMP) to control stormwater runoff is low impact development (LID). The EPA Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) was used to evaluate the hydrologic effectiveness at a watershed scale of five LID technologies (vegetated swales, bioretention cells, porous pavement, rain barrels and tree boxes) in an existing, typical urban watershed. As implementation focused on public transportation areas, hydrologic effectiveness of runoff reduction was assessed as a function of roadway length: and the impacts of LID implementation on traffic flow were modeled using VISSIM and TransCAD. Vegetated swales, the most cost effective option, captured 32% of the runoff with 100% roadway implementation. However, socio-economic factors limit potential mitigation implementation. Transportation modeling demonstrated negative impacts above 4 km of road length (16%), limiting runoff reduction to 2.5%, and non-roadway options such as rain barrels have limited hydrologic effectiveness. While porous pavement can be implemented without impacting transportation, cost is more prohibitive. Combinations of LID features, especially those that do not impact transportation, increase the amount of runoff mitigated. However, socio-economic considerations still limit runoff reduction at the watershed scale to ~15%, less than prior watershed-level evaluations. Our results demonstrate the need to implement LID approaches that account and plan for socio-economic considerations in addition to environmental factors.

Location-Based Services and Privacy Protection under Mobile Cloud Computing

Location-based services can provide personalized services based on location information of moving objects and have already been widely used in public safety services, transportation, entertainment and many other areas. With the rapid development of mobile communication technology and popularization of intelligent terminals, there will be great commercial prospects to provide location-based services under mobile cloud computing environment. However, the high adhesion degree of mobile terminals to users not only brings facility but also results in the risk of privacy leak. The paper introduced the necessities and advantages to provide location-based services under mobile cloud computing environment, stressed the importance to protect location privacy in LBS services, pointed out new security risks brought by mobile cloud computing, and proposed a new framework and implementation method of LBS service. The cloud-based LBS system proposed in this paper is able to achieve privacy protection from the confidentiality of outsourced data and integrity of service results, and can be used as a reference while developing LBS system under mobile cloud computing environment.

Factors affecting tourists' public transport use and areas visited at destinations

Tourist movement patterns and transport mode choice are important topics in tourism research. However, little is known about how tourists at an urban destination make their decision on the areas that they visit and transport modes used. This paper examines tourists' choice of transport mode and areas visited in the Munich region through the use of a bivariate probit model. The findings show that tourists' choice of transport mode and areas visited are closely related and thus should be examined together. Public transport at an urban destination is more likely to be used by well-educated, first time visitors, who are also price-conscious. Travel partner and motivations also affect mode choice. The decision to travel beyond the city is influenced by visitors' country of residence, length of stay, number of previous trips, perception of ease-of-travel, and local attractions.