Modern Public Transport Research Articles

Identifying Critical Components of a Public Transit System for Outbreak Control

Modern public transport networks provide an efficient medium for the spread of infectious diseases within a region. The ability to identify components of the public transit system most likely to be carrying infected individuals during an outbreak is critical for public health authorities to be able to plan for outbreaks, and control their spread. In this study we propose a novel network structure, denoted as the vehicle trip network, to capture the dynamic public transit ridership patterns in a compact form, and illustrate how it can be used for efficient detection of the high risk network components. We evaluate a range of network-based statistics for the vehicle trip network, and validate their ability to identify the routes and individual vehicles most likely to spread infection using simulated epidemic scenarios. A variety of outbreak scenarios are simulated, which vary by their set of initially infected individuals and disease parameters. Results from a case study using the public transit network from Twin Cities, MN are presented. The results indicate that the set of transit vehicle trips at highest risk of infection can be efficiently identified, and are relatively robust to the initial conditions of the outbreak. Furthermore, the methods are illustrated to be robust to two types of data uncertainty, those being passenger infection levels and travel patterns of the passengers.

Real-Time Public Transport Operations: Library of Control Strategies

Modern public transport (PT) operations have evolved into a complex multimodal system in which small-scale disorder can propagate. Large-scale disruptions to passengers and PT agencies result. Various studies have been developed to model PT control at the operational level; however, the main downside of possible real-time control actions is the lack of intelligent modeling and a systematic process that can activate such actions immediately. This study presents a real-time control procedure to increase service reliability and to improve successful coordinated transfers in a complex PT system. The developed method aims at minimizing total travel time for passengers and reducing the uncertainty of meetings between PT vehicles. A library of operational tactics is first built to serve as a basis of the real-time decision-making process. The methodology developed is applied to a real-life case study in Auckland, New Zealand. The results showed improvements in system performance and confirmed the use of real-time control actions to maintain reliable PT service.

Organizational structures of urban public transport - a diagrammatic comparison with UML

Abstract Research presented in this paper aims to develop a methodology to depict organizational structures of urban public transport diagrammatically, and to depict organizational structures with this methodology. The goal is to make it possible to compare different organizational structures of public transport services diagrammatically and to analyze the role of the organizational structure in association with usability of public transport. With various business modeling methodologies reviewed, the methodology used in this paper is based on UML (Unified Modeling Language) because this provides a powerful analytical method to create diagrams from various data and information sources. With data and information collected from literature and visits, as a first attempt, five generic diagrams are created to depict developments of public transport organizations from one representing fairly simple collective transport undertakings to another representing typical modern public transport undertaking. Several city-specific diagrams are created to represent various complex organizational structures of urban public transport with a focus set on users’ points of view. The method based on UML enables simple and easy-to-understand diagrammatic comparison of various organizational structures with a large extent of flexibility. It enables successful depiction of evolution of the organizational structure of urban public transport. The user-focused city-specific depictions and a comparison of them highlights that the organizational structure, especially whether there is a system integrator from users’ points of view, does have a strong influence on usability.

Analysis of Rural Transportation of Agricultural Produce in Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State Nigeria

This research analyzed rural-urban transportation on agricultural produce in Ijebu north local government area of Ogun State. A well-designed questionnaire, personal observation and descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. The respondents consist of (378) of the total population, while simple random technique was used to select 113 (30%) farmers and 95 (25%) produce transporters were equally selected systematically, 170 (45%) produce traders were purposively selected to gather information on socio-economic, agricultural produce, transportation of produce and challenges of moving agricultural produce. Findings show that combination of food crops, cash crops, tubers, poultry, fruits, vegetables and poultry product dominate Ijebu North Local area in which farmers combined cultivation of those crops. The respondent use the following means of transportation in the study area i.e. walking, motor bike, bus, pick-up van and car. Roads in the study area are in a deplorable condition, the type of vehicle used by farmers and traders depend on the volume of the agricultural produce, while petrol, maintenances, ticketing and extortion are the operating cost of vehicle in the movement of produce by the transporters. The research recommends among others things the provision of good storage facility, massive road rehabilitation, provision of modern public transport, empowering agricultural agency to complement the existing effort and extension of rail services towards enhancing transportation of agricultural produce in Ijebu North Local Government area.

Sustainable urban transit network design

Sustainability is a requirement for modern public transportation networks, as these are expected to play a critical role in environment-friendly transportation systems. This paper focuses on developing an efficient model for solving a sustainable oriented variant of the Transit Route Network Design Problem. The model incorporates sustainable design objectives, considers emission-free (electric) vehicles and introduces a direct route design approach with route structure and directness control. An application in a real world case, highlights the performance and benefits of the proposed model.

Willingness to Pay for Surabaya Mass Rapid Transit (SMART) Options

Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) is modern public transportation modes has been adopted in some the big cities. Many experts believe that MRT mode can reduce congestion, improve quality of life by pollution reductions and reduce fuel consumptions for private vehicles. Understanding the willingness to pay (WTP) for several design options for MRT is essential to be conducted for decision maker of MRT projects including the Surabaya Mass Rapid Transportation (SMART) project that will be built in Surabaya City-Indonesia on 2016. The objective of this research is a measuring the willingness to pay (WTP) for SMART options that consists Surotrem (tram mode) and Boyorail (MRT mode) in order support design attributes of Surotrem and Boyorail project. Willingness to pay (WTP) method using Random Utility Model (RUM) model is used to measure and analysis three options of SMART project. The model is calibrated by the collected data from direct surveys to 264 respondents at 31 regions in Surabaya City. Some findings of this study were reached by WTP method and statistical analysis. Firstly, Surabaya's people more prefer to choice transportation options for Boyorial and Surotrem that have more flexible attributes than the assumed based attributes. Secondly, the SMART project manager should pay attention for some transportation attributes such as inter-arrival operation hours for Surotrem. Finally, most of respondents more prefer to select transportation option 1 than option 2 and 3 for Surotrem and Boyorail.

Passengers information in public transport and privacy: Can anonymous tickets prevent tracking?

Modern public transportation companies often record large amounts of information. Privacy can be safeguarded by discarding nominal tickets, or introducing anonymization techniques. But is anonymity at all possible when everything is recorded? In this paper we discuss travel information management in the public transport scenario and we present a revealing case study (relative to the city of Cesena, Italy), showing that even anonymous 10-ride bus tickets may betray a user's privacy expectations. We also propose a number of recommendations for the design and management of public transport information systems, aimed at preserving the users’ privacy, while retaining the useful analysis features enabled by the e-ticketing technology.

Comparison of Conventional and Modern Urban Public Transport Systems

The aim of this study is to compare the conventional and modern public transport systems for urban areas. Conventional public transport systems have been implemented in many metropolises and the cities with substantially large population but there are remarkable complications and disadvantages related to such systems which lead to lower level of efficiency and eventually lower capability to attract the citizens. Modern world can offer an advanced technology based public transport system which can be competitive with conventional systems. Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is a public transport system which could be among the several systems proposed for a particular urban area in planning and decision making process. An analytical tool is required to compare the characteristics of the conventional systems and the modern system in order to make the most suitable decision in selection of a public transport system for the area under consideration. A model considering social, technical and economical aspects of public transport based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is given that describes the necessary factors which must be checked and considered in planning process of public transport in highly populated cities.

Using data envelopment analysis as a public transport project appraisal tool

The provision of a fast, frequent and modern public transport service operating from Dublin city centre to the airport has been a topic of great interest in recent times, in Ireland. Due to Ireland's poor financial situation, the choice of infrastructure investment has become more important than ever and hence, large expensive projects such as an underground Metro line called Metro North have been widely criticised. The main objective of this research is to investigate and identify the most efficient transport solution for the Dublin city centre-airport route. The Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) (over ground heavy rail) spur and Metro North are explored along with a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route and a Luas (tram) line. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was employed to identify the most efficient solution for the city centre-airport route and to establish the reasons for inefficiency.The findings of this research indicate that, when costs are included in the analysis, the BRT Airport is the most efficient option for the airport route providing the greatest value for money. Metro North and Luas Airport, at present, do not provide enough transportation benefits to justify their excessive cost over the BRT solution. The DART Spur is found to be the cheapest rail option but also the one with the fewest benefits. The findings and methods used in this research could be used in other public transport investment cases to ascertain the best case for investment and could be used in conjunction to cost benefit analysis. This research adds to the field of implementing DEA in the field of public transport investment analysis. While DEA has been applied to other areas of transport analysis few have compared different investment and mode options on one route.

Workshop 2: Bus rapid transit as part of enhanced service provision

Workshop 2 focused on the role of BRT as part of enhanced public transport service provision. Discussion topics included case studies around the world; improved performance and operations; and better contracts, institutional settings and enhanced policies. BRT was identified as a vital component of modern public transport systems due to its ability to provide high performance and rapid implementation at a lower cost than comparable rail transit. The participants concluded that on top of improving trunk transit corridors, it is important to look to the first and last kilometers and the connections among transport modes. In addition, it is important to consider all dimensions, not just the technical issues. The workshop identified the desirable ingredients for BRT success, created a table of bus based options for different applications and a list of research topics.

Networking of Public Passenger Transport Modes, a Step Towards Sustainable Mobility in Ljubljana Urban Region

Ljubljana urban region (LUR) with the capital Ljubljana is located in the central part of Slovenia and represents a strategically important traffic hub, where two major Trans-European corridors meet. LUR is the biggest Slovene region and because of Ljubljana, also an administrative centre of the country. Spatial development of the region over the recent years has been characterized by suburbanization and the intensive development of road infrastructure, which additionally stimulated and promoted the use of cars. On the other hand, public transportation in the capital and in the whole region has not been effectively adapting to the rising demand for mobility. This has created a great gap between public and personal transport, which is difficult to overcome. Having the above mentioned situation in mind, a modern, efficient and high-quality public transportation plan for LUR has been elaborated. The proposed system consists of intermodal hubs with the P+R services and high capacity public transport lanes that interconnect into a high performance regional public transportation network. A new public transport regime would benefit LUR residents as well as residents of the neighbouring regions by considerably improving the sustainability of their mobility. At the same time, the number of cars on the roads would decrease; having positive sustainable impacts on the environment and everybody who lives, works, studies or visits Ljubljana and the LUR region.

The generalized sousveillance society

This article is based on the notion of ‘sousveillance’, which was invented by Steve Mann to describe the present state of modern technological societies where anybody may take photos or videos of any person or event, and then diffuse the information freely all over the world. The article shows how sousveillance can be generalized both to the real world and to the virtual world of the Infosphere using modern information technologies. As a consequence, the separation between public and private spheres tends to disappear. We believe that generalized sousveillance may transform the overall society, e.g. modern public transportation like the Paris subway might have to change the way it disseminates information due to the impossibility of managing the flow of information coming from its infrastructures.To attempt to elucidate a society based on generalized sousveillance, the article introduces the notion of the ‘Catopticon’, derived from Bentham’s Panopticon: while the architecture of the Panopticon was designed to facilitate surveillance by prohibiting communication and by installing surveyors in a watchtower, the architecture of the ‘Catopticon’ allows everybody to communicate with everybody and removes surveyors from the watchtower. The article goes on to explore the opportunities the Catopticon might offer if extended to the whole planet. It also shows the limitations of the extended Catopticon; some are extrinsic: they consist of various resistances which restrict access to the Internet; others are intrinsic: for instance, we can exchange simultaneously only with a few people, while we may have millions of contacts. As a consequence, the various new ‘regimes of distinction’ mentioned above play a key role in modern societies.

Mesoscopic Modeling of Bus Public Transportation

Analysis of public transport system performance and level of service in urban areas is essential. Dynamic modeling of traffic conditions, passenger demand, and transit operations is important to represent adequately the complexity of and the interactions between these components in modern public transportation systems. This paper presents a transit simulation model designed to support evaluation of operations planning and control, especially in the context of advanced public transportation systems. Unlike most previous efforts in this area, the simulation model is built on a platform of a mesoscopic traffic simulation model, which allows modeling of the operation dynamics of large-scale transit systems, taking into account the main sources of service uncertainty and stochasticity. The capabilities of Mezzo as an evaluation tool of transit operations are demonstrated with an application to a real-world, high-demand bus line in metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel, under various scenarios. The application shows that important phenomena such as bus bunching are reproduced realistically. A comparison of simulated running times and headway distributions with field data shows the model is capable of replicating observed data.

Driving and flying with epilepsy

Transportation issues in industrialized nations play an important role in the lives of most citizens. The acts of flying and driving, especially in the United States, intersect with many peoples' lives on almost a daily basis. Although some larger cities have modern and efficient public transportation systems, many do not, thus placing considerable responsibility on the individual to manage their own transportation needs. A person with epilepsy faces considerable challenges when it comes to transportation. Defining these challenges and understanding how to deal with the person with epilepsy and transportation issues is the focus of this article.

Dynamic at-stop real-time information displays for public transport: effects on customers

Dynamic at-stop real-time information displays are becoming more and more ubiquitous in modern public transport. Reactions and attitudes towards these systems are very positive. But there is a need to provide a comprehensive framework of the possible effects that these kinds of displays can have on customers. The seven main effects described in this paper are: (A) reduced wait time, (B) positive psychological factors, such as reduced uncertainty, increased ease-of-use and a greater feeling of security, (C) increased willingness-to-pay, (D) adjusted travel behaviour such as better use of wait time or more efficient travelling, (E) mode choice effects, (F) higher customer satisfaction and finally (G) better image. Two studies are presented in this paper. Study I supports and proves that perceived wait times can be reduced by 20% by employing a before–after implementation evaluation study with questionnaires on a tramline. Study II shows the effects of real-time displays on behaviour in the form of adjusted walking speeds, by using a behaviour observation method in a subway station. The effect framework does not claim completeness and many effects are related to each other. However, the framework is a useful basis for designing evaluation studies and provides arguments in favour of at-stop real-time information displays.

Partial Discharge Characteristics of Silicone Liquids

New safety and environmental considerations in the design and operation of modern public transportation systems exclude the use of materials that can cause fire and ecological hazards. Therefore, the power transformers in trains and subway stations require new safer insulating liquids. The askarels or polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) liquids have been classified as nonflammable, but recent investigations have indicated that spills of these chlorinated liquids may have adverse ecological effects. The manufacture and use of PCB's in Japan have been prohibited by law. To meet environmental and toxicological requirements, new insulation systems for transformers were developed using silicone insulating liquids. In the evaluation of a high-voltage transformer insulation system, it is important to study partial discharge behavior in the insulating liquid. This paper describes measurements of partial discharge inception voltage and of discharge pulse amplitudes at higher test voltages in silicone liquids. The initial partial discharge inception phenomenon in both silicone liquids and mineral oils is the same and is probably related to the presence of contaminants such as water and particles in the liquids. But the further development and growth of the discharges in the liquids seem to be dependent on the chemical and physical properties of the insulating liquid. During the partial discharge measurements, it was observed that small amounts of solid material were formed on the electrode. Chemical analysis showed the material to be cross-linked polymeric siloxanes. The quantity of gelied material is a function of the partial discharge intensity and the duration of discharges.