Public Transport Information Research Articles

An impact assessment of a travel behavior change program: A case study of a light rail service in Cagliari, Italy

This paper presents an experimental Voluntary Travel Behavior Change (VTBC) program implemented in Cagliari (Italy) for promoting a light rail service. More specifically (1) Personalized Travel Planning (PTP) and (2) Public Transport Information and Marketing (PTIM) are analyzed both as forming an integral part of a single VTBC program, as well as separately. Further, they are compared in order to evaluate their impact on travel behavior change.In particular, PTP offers personalized and customized travel solutions devised on the basis of individuals’ observed travel behavior, to encourage them to travel more sustainably while the PTIM uses more general information to promote public transit use through advertising campaigns. The results, in both cases, seem to have important policy implications. Specifically, the study confirms the importance of using motivational campaigns, combining PTP and PTIM approaches. In addition, the results indicate that providing car users with tailored travel solutions (PTP) could have a greater positive effect on behavioral change, than the mass communication approach (PTIM). PTIM was found to be useful for behavior change, but it would be more effective if used mostly as a recruitment tool for Personalized Travel Plans (PTP).

Revisión en privacidad en servicios basados en localización

Location services have become popular over the last years due to the global adoption of smartphones and the worldwide availability of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other positioning methods. Location-based services (LBSs) offer relevant information to users based on their location. Some common applications of LBSs are traffic or public transportation information, search of points of interest (restaurants, stores, etc.), navigation, among others. Despite all the desirable features that these services provide, most of them do not provide adequate protection of the geographical location of the users, putting them at risk if their information falls in wrong hands. This paper presents a compendium of techniques to protect the location privacy of the users, and introduces an approach to compare and evaluate the presented mechanisms and their viability to be used in different kinds of LBSs.

Collaborative prediction for bus arrival time based on CPS

To improve the accuracy of real-time public transport information release system, a collaborative prediction model was proposed based on cyber-physical systems architecture. In the model, the total bus travel time was divided into three parts: running time, dwell time and intersection delay time, and the data were divided into three categories of historical data, static data and real-time data. The bus arrival time was obtained by fusion computing the real-time data in perception layer together with historical data and static data in collaborative layer. The validity of the collaborative model was verified by the data of a typical urban bus line in Shanghai, and 1538 sets of data were collected and analyzed from three different perspectives. By comparing the experimental results with the actual results, it is shown that the experimental results are with higher prediction accuracy, and the collaborative prediction model adopted is able to meet the demand for bus arrival prediction.

Visitor users vs. non-users of public transport: The case of Munich, Germany

Abstract Although its importance for sustainable tourism is recognised little research has been conducted on tourist use of public transport. This paper examines the use of public transport by visitors in the city of Munich, Germany. Its objectives are twofold. First, it investigates the motivations for using or not using public transport. It focuses on distinctive characteristics between the users and non-users and how they are different in their demographic and travel profiles as well as their attitude towards public transport. Second, it seeks to understand which factors influence visitor use of public transport. The main reasons for visitor use of public transport are drive-free benefits, traffic reduction, advantages of local public transport, and car unavailability. In contrast, what often discourages public transport use are inconvenience and restrictions, lack of information, disadvantages of public transport and personal preferences. The five most important variables that differentiate visitor user of public transport from a non-user are length of stay, main purpose of trip, age group, frequency of public transport use at place of residence, and valid driving license ownership. The study highlights the importance of public transport information and accessible and conveniently located train stations and bus stops for visitors and locals alike. A significant finding is the extent to which public transport needs to be promoted as part of strategic destination marketing. The use of social marketing techniques to influence behavioural change with respect to public transport use is therefore desirable in the pre-trip decision stage as well as at the destination.

The Price of Strict and Light Robustness in Timetable Information

In timetable information in public transport the goal is to search for a good path between an origin and a destination. Usually, the travel time and the number of transfers will be minimized. In this paper, we consider robust timetable information; i.e., we want to identify a path that will bring the passenger to the planned destination even in the case of delays. The classic notion of strict robustness leads to the problem of identifying those transfer activities that will never break in any of the expected delay scenarios. We show that this is, in general, a strongly NP-hard problem. Therefore, we propose a conservative heuristic which identifies a large subset of these strictly robust transfer activities in polynomial time by dynamic programming and so allows us to efficiently find strictly robust paths. We also transfer the notion of light robustness, originally introduced for timetabling, to timetable information. In computational experiments we then study the price of strict and light robustness: how much longer is the travel time of a robust path than of a shortest one, according to the published schedule? Based on the 2011 train schedule within Germany, we quantitatively explore the trade-off between the level of guaranteed robustness and the increase in travel time. Strict robustness turns out to be too conservative, whereas light robustness is promising: a modest level of guarantees is achievable at a reasonable price for the majority of passengers.

Implementation on real time public transportation information using GSM query response system

Buses transportation system is one of the busiest systems in the world. Transportation of goods and people is essential to fiscal and human progress and the accessibility of secure and unswerving transportation can have wide implications. Bus schedules notify user of a civic bus scheme when the buses are believed to depart terminals and when they are supposed to arrive at significant stops, but actual arrival and departure times show a discrepancy from the planned times. This may be due to various reasons like traffic jams, traffic lights, and outsized numbers of people travelling on the bus. In addition to having a admittance to the schedules, users akin to be conversant of the real circumstances so that they can plan around deviations from the schedule. Various technologies like GPS, GSM and embedded system in order to provide the user more comprehensive information about the real time location of buses and prediction of the travel time in accurate.

A decision support system for public logistics information service management and optimization

Transportation optimization usually aims at minimizing the empty load ratios (ELRs) of vehicles. Most Chinese vehicles for logistics are owned by individual entrepreneurs. Because China is very large, transport distances are typically long, and thus the ELR is very high. The ELR is the primary reason for high transport costs, considerable pollution, and high energy consumption. Many Chinese local governments try to build public transport information services that decrease the ELR. This work proposes a decision support system (DSS) for public logistics information service management and optimization (PLISMO) for vehicle drivers and owners, logistics customers and related logistics service providers and management institutes. The dynamic and real-time matching model between goods and vehicles, and the enabling technologies are important issues for the DSS for PLISMO. Therefore, intelligent positioning technologies are employed to acquire and manage the vehicle status. A model matching vehicles with goods is developed based on an assessment model of transport capability and service priority criteria. A multi-objective real-time scheduling model is devised to minimize the ELR. Based on the concepts and decision-making models for PLISMO, a DSS is created and the architecture of the system is investigated. The effectiveness of the DSS and decision-making models is demonstrated by a case of finished vehicle logistics (FVL). Analytical results show that the proposed DSS can reduce the ELR and logistics cost. This system helps governments construct DSSs for general PLISMO.

Benchmarking and Assessment of Good Practices in Public Transport Information Systems

Abstract The development of the Public Transport (PT) services in the last decade is characterized by wide implementation of various information systems and technologies, which cover different transport services, such as traffic planning, traffic network monitoring, management of operation of PT fleets, providing information to the passengers, ticketing payment, etc. The article considers the research part of a large EU-funded project POLITE aimed at public transport sector and increasing the awareness of infomobility services and PT attractiveness through the application of identified Good Practices and Best Practices. The objective of this paper is presentation of the methodology of benchmarking and assessment of Good Practices and choice of the best one on the basis of the multi-criteria comparative analysis. For assessment of Good Practices the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method is applied.

The Emerging Importance of a Mobility Strategy for South African Cities with GoMetro as a Case-Study

South Africa has an unsustainably high level of private vehicles and vehicle-kilometres, yet there is still no real visible shift to public transport in the urban areas. Public transport does not appear to be an attractive option for private vehicle users, as operations are perceived to be unreliable and not on-par with the experience of private vehicle users. Even when a mode is both comfortable and reliable, private vehicle users exhibit extreme inertia to transfer to public transport. At the same time that our transport systems are moving in unsustainable directions, there has been a significant adoption of mobile phones by the general populace. Tracking this proliferation of mobile devices has been an exponential improvement in the processing power, user experience and sensing abilities of mobile phones. We are starting to see transport systems being impacted by this massive increase in the collective processing power of a city. It is thus now worth considering a paradigm shift as to how public transport systems are configured to incorporate the potential that mobile phones and their mass adoption present to urban transport systems.“Mobility” is defined in this paper as the use of mobile technology in order to create an Informational Decision-Making Layer above the Hard Infrastructure of transport systems, as well as the Operational Layer of vehicles and operations. As part of this “Mobility” paradigm shift, the author has conceptualized, designed, developed, implemented and operates GoMetro, a large-scale mobile web-based public transport information system for Metrorail operations in South Africa. The paper the author would like to submit will seek to answer the following questions:•With the increase in mobile phone penetration, and the collective processing power of an urban environment – is it time to rethink the traditional transport model consisting of a Way and a Vehicle?•What is Mobility? And what is a Mobility Strategy?•How does Mobility compare to traditional communication channels?•How do commuters interact with their mobile devices while commuting?•Is there a Business Case for operators and agencies to implement a Mobility Strategy? If implemented, what are some lessons learnt from GoMetro?•What is the social benefit of Mobility to an urban transport system?

Analysis for Changes of Mode Choice Behavior from Providing Real-time Schedule for Public Transportation by Smartphone Application

Public Transport Information Service which use smartphone Apps has received attention as the way of solution that reduced transport problem. Smartphone can offer real-time information because of a LBS(Location Based Service) system. This study try to find out which factor affect mode choice ratio of public transport, especially smartphone Apps. The result shows that rising oil price, traffic congestion, public information service with smartphone apps, BIS(Bus Information System) factors get 0.39, 0.27, 0.18, 0.16 scores with paired comparison. Younger and student respondents prefer smart phone public information service. Decision Tree shows that the most important decision factor is smartphone information service factor.

Factors affecting modal choice in urban mobility

This paper addresses the urban transit sector investigating variables affecting the habitual modal choices of commuters aiming to gain insight into the key factors affecting these choices and the reasons that discourage them from using public transport services. Probit and structural equation models have been estimated, while additional statistical analysis was performed to gain better insight of the commuters’ mobility behavior. The analysis showed that the main factor affecting the preference of commuters toward passenger car is the availability of parking space. A preference of female respondents towards public transport was also evident, while, compared to the other age groups, respondents between the ages of 35 and 44 show a higher preference for car. Furthermore, crowding is the factor that most discourages respondents from the use of public transport. High fare, lack of public transport information and bad accessibility to the transit network do not seem to discourage respondents’ use of public transport in the particular situation that was analyzed in this research. The paper demonstrated how the results drawn from the analysis can be used for tactical and strategic planning. For example, the fact that high fare levels do not discourage commuters from using public transport, may allow policy makers to slightly increase fares and redirect additional revenue to improve other public transport services. Therefore, such findings may be quite useful for policy makers to better tackle commuters’ perception and to define the appropriate urban mobility management actions and policies.

Architecture Design of Urban Intelligent Transportation Using Cloud Computing

This article does a further research on the technologies of cloud computing and intelligent public transportation, designs a human-centered intelligent public transportation system, improves the connection between passengers and vehicles, vehicles and vehicles. Technologies of BeiDou messaging, capacity sensor, RFID and Web are used to improve the intelligence of public transportation information platform. This article makes an architecture design in intelligent transportation based on cloud computing and uses the embedded system as the core. The architecture allows passengers to obtain needed vehicles’ information through various services whenever and wherever, and strongly supports intelligent control and schedule of multi-vehicles and multi-lines. The system lays a good foundation for the intelligent city.

An Empirical Evaluation of Web System Access for Smartphone Clients

As smartphone clients are restricted in computational power and bandwidth, it is important to minimise the overhead of transmitted messages. This paper identifies and studies methods that reduce the amount of data being transferred via wireless links between a web service client and a web service. Measurements were performed in a real environment based on a web service prototype providing public transport information for the city of Hamburg in Germany, using actual wireless links with a mobile smartphone device. REST based web services using the data exchange formats JSON, XML and Fast Infoset were evaluated against the existing SOAP based web service.

Transport-related CO2 effects of online and brick-and-mortar shopping: A comparison and sensitivity analysis of clothing retailing

This paper compares transport-related CO2 emissions of online and brick-and-mortar shopping based on supply, delivery, order and travel data related to one multi-channel clothing retailer. A sensitivity analysis sheds more light on how situational factors, such as the customers’ travel distances, returns, the use of public transport modes and information behavior via different channels influence the outcome of this comparison. The results show that online retailing causes lower CO2 emissions under many conditions. Nevertheless, the brick-and-mortar channel is more environmentally friendly when travel distances are small. The radius for which brick-and-mortar shopping has an advantage increases when returns, shifts in the use of public transport and information behavior are also considered.

An Interactive Web-Based Public Transport Enquiry System With Real-Time Optimal Route Computation

A comprehensive and presentable public transport information system is deemed invaluable for local residents and tourists all over the world. This is particularly necessary in view of the complex city structure and transportation system in Hong Kong. There are more than ten public transportation modes available, all with different operation schedules, fare structures, and routing characteristics. To assist commuters in making better use of public transport, the system needs to be not only user friendly and informative but intelligent enough to provide optimal route choices in terms of users' travelling behavior or preference as well. The web-map public transport enquiry system, as described in this paper, gives a good example of providing bilingual (English and Chinese) information on all public transports run in Hong Kong in the form of interactive maps and texts, as well as real-time derivation of optimal travelling routes for users in terms of multiple criteria, i.e., preferred mode, least changes, shortest travelling time, or lowest fare.

BIS 안정화를 위한 버스기반정보 GIS DB 품질 관리 방안 - 실시간 환승교통 종합정보 시스템을 사례로

BIS is an arrival guidance system which is able to supply passengers with bus service condition via Kiosks at a bus stop, internet and mobile service through pinpointing bus location in real time. It is very significant to improve the quality of traffic information by quality control of GIS-based bus network so as to maintain navigational information and to implement reliable BIS. Therefore this study aims to build criteria to quantitatively evaluate data quality of the product in accordance with the process in bus network data and to suggest guideline of quality control. To achieve this, we have categorized geometric and logical errors occurring during constructing bus network database by giving a specific case study on TAGO and set up sectional guideline and procedures to examine database for systematic and coherent quality control management. Proceeding from what has been said above, the outcome of our research leads to quality guarantee for objective and reliable bus network database and is fully expected to bring benefit of providing a more accurate public transportation information and improving reliability of BIS through preventing a variety of errors in system operation in advance.

A Preliminary Study of Just-in-Time Methods for a Seamless Public Transportation Information Framework

A seamless multimodal transit system has been a goal for transportation planners and users. Owing to the developments of advanced public transportation and telecom technologies such as automatic vehicle location (AVL) and real-time passenger information system, key just-in-time (JIT) concepts can now be realized in process design and coordinated scheduling to shape a seamless multimodal transit system. JIT refers to a production system that times both movements of goods during production and delivery from suppliers together. It meets the same logic for seamless multimodal services. Therefore, this study innovatively analyzes possible public transportation technologies for JIT uses; moreover, to layout the possible application frame-work of a transportation technology based JIT multimodal transit system for main station area in Taipei city. With this innovative framework, multimodal transit services can deliver to the right place at right time.

Personalized application for multimodal route guidance for travellers

PurposeStudies about the use of internet-based services and especially those that are related to services on-the-move, reveal that their propagation is rapidly expanding, with high increase probability in the next years. It is about services that are offered through mobile devices (PDAs, mobile phones) where the travelers wish to receive geographically updated information. The present paper aims at the optimization of public transport (PT) information services that are provided on mobile devices, for travelers of PT means, through their personalization.MethodsA specific innovative algorithm is proposed along with the necessary parameters (dynamic and semi-dynamic) that support a holistic personalization. The algorithm is based on each user specific profile, based on the history of his/her previous selections. The proposed algorithm constitutes a ready service, that can be adopted by the appropriate stakeholders in cooperation with content providers such as public transport route providers and dynamic digital maps.ResultsThe developed algorithm was tested by 10 users. In general, it was positively evaluated by the majority of the users, with a varying acceptance and confidence levels. Users evaluated also the personalization parameters, giving to the maximum walking distance between PT means the highest score.ConclusionsThe innovation and limitations of the current algorithm are discussed, followed by proposals for extensions and further research.

Design of Service Supervision and Subsidies Evaluation System for Urban Public Transport

In order to promote the sound development of urban public transport industry, government administration needs to enhance quality supervision of operational service to public transport enterprises, while taking scientific and effective strategy of financial subsidies. So service supervision and subsidies evaluation system for urban public transport are designed. First of all, system construction demand was analyzed based on enterprise operation cost accounting, subsidies evaluation and service quality supervision. And then the idea and workflow of system construction are proposed. Furthermore, public transport enterprises cost accounting, supervision and evaluation of public transport enterprise services, compensation scope and methods of financial subsidies to public transport enterprises, audit and evaluation of compensation mechanisms for financial subsidies are analyzed and researched separately. Based on the above, functional architecture of service supervision and subsidies evaluation system for urban public transport for government sector management is proposed. The system is composed of four function modules: basic database of public transport operation, cost of ticket revenue accounting system, service quality evaluation system, and subsidies compensation evaluation system. The ideas and methods are provided for service supervision and subsidies evaluation system for urban public transport and industry management information platform construction.

To use or not to use? An empirical study of pre-trip public transport information for business and leisure trips and comparison with car travel

This quantitative study provides more insight into the relative strength of various factors affecting the use and non-use of pre-trip Public Transport (PT) information for business and leisure trips. It also illuminates comparing car with public transport and its consequences for mode choice. The factors affecting PT information use most strongly are travel behaviour and sociodemographics, but travel attitudes, information factors, and social surrounding also play a role. Public transport use and PT information use are closely connected, with travel behaviour having a stronger impact on information use than vice versa. Information service providers are recommended to market PT information simultaneously with public transport use.