Metropolitan Transport Authority Research Articles

Towards more accessible digital urban public transport for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): a critical incident analysis (CIT)

PurposeThis study empirically and comparatively examines two digital technologies that have been implemented as part of the experience of urban public transport during the COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Barcelona, the digitization of tickets and self-service technology in kiosks in the different operators of the metropolitan transport authority (ATM) environment. The study gives a voice to people with ASD and makes a theoretical and practical contribution to making urban transport increasingly digitized after the COVID-19 pandemic, more accessible and inclusive for the group, little observed so far.Design/methodology/approachThe data collection consisted of a discussion group, ethnographic techniques and a visit to the Barcelona Metro (2022), and interviews after the visit through a semi-structured questionnaire with 12 participants with ASD. This study uses the critical incident analysis (CIT).FindingsResults provide an extension of the attribute-based Dabholkar model (1996) that applies to the perception of the use of self-service technology, when using digital technologies in urban transport.Originality/valueThis redefinition of the current model of the perception of the use of technology, taking into account the needs of people with ASD, will enable better decision making by transport operators for previously neglected groups.

Henry Beck’s Map Style in New York City

ABSTRACT The success of Beck’s map of underground railways in London led several people, including Beck, to consider applying his techniques to the New York City Subway. The octilinear diagrammatic form, and the symbols for stations and interchanges, have all been adopted in the NYC Subway map at various times. The first attempt, just five years after the launch of Beck’s map in 1933, was a comprehensively Beckian solution by Thomas Stephen, a Glaswegian émigré in New York. That was an evolutionary dead-end, but twenty years later the Transit Authority adopted a Beck-inspired map by German émigré George Salomon, who visited London in the 1930s while studying under Eric Gill. Salomon ushered in two decades of diagrammatic subway maps, ending in 1979 with the jettisoning of Vignelli’s design, which the Metropolitan Transport Authority has been tentatively reintroducing since 2012. The author uses primary sources to chronicle these episodes of Beckism in New York.

The impact of mobility characteristics on public transport and road safety performance in selected European cities

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of mobility characteristics on Public Transport (PT) and road safety performance. For this purpose, data for several large European cities on population, road network, traffic, mobility and road fatalities were collected from the European Metropolitan Transport Authorities’ reports and the European CARE database. Initially, a database was developed containing data for the period 2014–2018 and then, two linear regression models were developed. The results of the first model indicate that more bus and tram stops, increase in GDP, higher population density and PT public operation have a positive impact on PT demand, while the opposite is the case for increases in car ownership and PT fares. Based on the second model, it is revealed that increases in population density, bus and tram stops, modal share of active travelling modes, GDP and tram speed lead to road fatalities’ decrease.

A Feedback Analysis Automation Using Business Intelligence Technology in Companies Organizing Urban Public Transport

In companies organizing urban public transport, passengers’ feedback is usually collected personally, by phone, by e-mail, or via the Internet. Business Intelligence tools enable this process by automating the data flow between systems used to collect, process, and analyse data by applying analytical Business Intelligence tools. The most important advantage resulting from implementing the tool is facilitating contact between the company and passengers, which allows for an immediate response to the information reported by passengers by introducing the changes in passenger service offered by the company. Another advantage of the discussed tools is the ability to analyse the collected data quickly and easily. Due to the low implementation costs, the developed tool is dedicated mainly to the companies organizing urban public transport. The article presents an example of the use of Power BI tools in the Metropolitan Transport Authority, a company that is the largest organizer of public transport in Poland.

Correlation of subway turnstile entries and COVID-19 incidence and deaths in New York City.

In this paper, we show a strong correlation between turnstile entries data of the New York City (NYC) subway provided by NYC Metropolitan Transport Authority and COVID-19 deaths and cases reported by the NYC Department of Health from March to May 2020. This correlation is obtained through linear regression and confirmed by the prediction of the number of deaths by a Long Short-Term Memory neural network. The correlation is more significant after considering incubation and symptomatic phases of this disease as experienced by people who died from it. We extend the analysis to each individual NYC borough. We also estimate the dates when the number of COVID-19 deaths and cases would approach zero by using the Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average model on the reported deaths and cases. We also backward forecast the dates when the first cases and deaths might have occurred.

Establishing a metropolitan transport authority in Istanbul: A new institutional economics framework for institutional change in urban transport

Rapid urban growth and resulting urban transport problems in developing cities trigger major transformative reform attempts. However, these attempts might fail due to ignoring the role of the institutional environment. Changing the governance structure from a fragmented governance structure to a centralized transport authority is such an institutional change that should take into account the surrounding institutional arrangements. In this paper, drawing from new institutional economics (NIE) literature, a new framework for institutional change in urban transport is proposed to guide those institutional initiatives. To materialize the theoretical considerations regarding this institutional change framework, attempts to establish a metropolitan transport authority (MTA) in Istanbul constitute the case study of this paper. Having a population of nearly 15 million people with radically increasing urban transport problems, city of Istanbul has considerable amount of the urban transport governance problems due to its fragmented and weak institutional setting. Based on the developed framework and lessons drawn from the Istanbul case, our results highlight the importance of examining the institutional environment of urban transport systems by identifying the institutional levels in institutional transformation initiatives.

The Metropolitan Transport Authority in Europe. Towards a Methodology for Defining Objectives, Responsibilities and Tasks

The paper presents the concept of European Metropolitan Transport Authorities (MTAs) and outlines main aspects for the creation or the restructuring of an MTA. The parameters that should be considered during the design stage are identified and the way in which they influence an MTA's configuration is described. This analysis aims at designing a simple and easily understandable methodology to support the work of experts that are involved in MTA reform projects. Finally, the identified design aspects are applied to the case of Greece in order to define the fundamental attributes of an ideal MTA model that could be applied at regional level in the Greek context.

Choice of Metropolitan Transport Planning Process and Transport Authority Organization (Case of Bandung Metropolitan Area, Indonesia)

Choice of Metropolitan Transport Planning Process and Transport Authority Organization (Case of Bandung Metropolitan Area, Indonesia)

Business strategies and technology for access by transit in lower density environments

Providing access via public transport in relatively low density suburban environments has been a difficult business challenge for transit operators for the past 40 years. A family of services approach to this problem, a key element of which is providing demand-responsive services, has proven effective for some metropolitan public transport authorities in the USA, of which the Denver authority is notable. The Denver agency has devised innovative service delivery modalities for its DRT services—which range from many to many dial-a-ride operations to structured DRT services to flex-route services—and has also sponsored the development of a technology platform that enables these services to be delivered with appropriate levels of automation and functionality. A set of business principles that linked technology enablement to cost-effective flexible transport services guided these developments. The Denver public transport authority's experiences are used to illustrate the relevance and viability of this approach to supporting transit accessibility.

Toward Coordinated Urban Transport Planning in India

Management of transport is highly fragmented in cities in India. Several agencies of the government are involved with some aspects of urban transport planning and often do not interact adequately to ensure that they are not working at cross-purposes. The government of India has, therefore, recommended that every city with a population of more than one million should set up a unified metropolitan transport authority (UMTA) to ensure proper coordination and integration of transport plans. This paper reviews the early initiatives taken in some cities and presents the strengths and weaknesses of the approach adopted. The focus of these early initiatives has been guided by the need to bring all concerned agencies together rather than set up new entities or carry out any major restructuring of existing institutions. This initial move seems to be a good one in the context of the well-established governance and administrative system in India. However, there is a need to ensure that the UMTA is not dependent on the interests of a single individual and is not weakened by change of personnel. For this to happen, the UMTA needs to be given a definite role in some matters, one of which would be the final authority to approve large projects and allocate funds for them. Subsequent efforts should be toward converting the UMTA into a full-fledged agency to take charge of all urban transport matters.

Changing public transport governance in Dutch metropoles: To tender or not to tender

With winds of change from the European Commission reaching the Netherlands, the national government altered the Law on Passenger Transport in 2000 to best reflect European demands. This new law meant competitive tendering became obligatory. At first, the metropolitan transport authorities in the three largest cities (Amsterdam, The Hague, and Rotterdam) were granted an extended deadline for tendering. However, due to shifting winds from Brussels, in 2007 the Dutch national government dropped the obligation to tender for the three cities. Suddenly the authorities had to decide for themselves whether or not to tender. This article describes the different routes and outcomes of the three metropolitan authorities. Where the metropolitan authority in Rotterdam aimed at conservation of their existing model, the authorities of Amsterdam and The Hague embraced change. In The Hague conformation to the letter of the law seemed an important driver, whereas confrontation between different interests in the region was the starting point for change in Amsterdam.

What Local Policy Makers Should Know about Urban Road Charging: Lessons from Worldwide Experience

Congestion costs are emerging as one of the most important challenges faced by metropolitan planners and transport authorities in developed economies. In the United States, these costs were as high as $78 billion in 2005 and are growing as a result of rapid increases in travel delays. In order to solve the current and severe levels of congestion, the U.S. Department of Transportation has recently started a program to initiate congestion pricing in five metropolitan areas. In this context, it is important to identify factors that influence successful implementation, as well as the problems or difficulties associated with charging projects. The authors review, synthesize, and analyze worldwide experience with urban road charging in order to extract lessons for policy makers who are considering the implementation of congestion pricing projects and for those who are interested in the introduction of traffic management tools to regulate entrance to city centers.

Goods transport in large European cities: Difficult to organize, difficult to modernize

In this article, I wish to present three characteristics of urban goods movements in major European cities: (1) Goods movements are largely indifferent to the internal structure of cities. (2) Urban policies targeted on freight mobility appear to be quite inefficient. (3) The provision of appropriate urban logistic services is slow in emerging despite growing needs. These features have been observed over the last five or six years through working with large metropolitan transport authorities, as well as with the French national research program on “Goods in Cities” and the “Best Urban Freight Solutions” European network. These observations draw a picture of the urban freight industry, which can appear quite critical. Indeed, many initiatives have emerged to make this industry less routine and more efficient, especially regarding its environmental impacts as well as its level of quality of service. However, changes are slow, and on the whole, it appears as though none of the stakeholders are willing to make fast progress: on the one side, city governments expect business to set up new logistic services fit to the emerging needs of the customers and retailers as well as beneficial to the environment; on the other side, logisticians are waiting for municipalities to initiate (and subsidize) new services before starting businesses which could prove poorly profitable and highly risky. Despite this tendency for status quo in the urban freight industry, some solutions can be identified, which I present in the concluding chapter of this paper.

A sense of security [urban transport vulnerability

New York is leading the way in making its public transport system safe from terrorist attack. The Metropolitan Transport Authority is boosting security by using the Lockheed Martin IESS/C3 system. This paper mentions access control systems, CCTV monitoring and other features of this system.

MULTI-FLEET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES BY ROAD IN THE BARCELONA METROPOLITAN AREA. MULTIMODE INFORMATION MANAGER ASSISTANT FOR INTERCHANGE TRANSPORTATION MODES

Fleet Management Systems (FMS) manage the network and, with the aid of Global Positioning Systems (GPS), are able to locate the 27 operators of buses and interurban bus lines in the Barcelona (Spain) metropolitan area. The most notable features of the system are providing the operating companies with more efficient management tools, allowing for real-time information regarding bus location, and integrating the data with other bus FMS and railway traffic control centers. This would help the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) better coordinate management of the interchanges where bus and railway lines intersect. It would also help transport users of these lines stay informed of incidents affecting service. This can be accomplished through installation of displays inside buses as well as at bus stops, stations, and transfer points. The information would also be availalble on the MTA website.