Public Transport Problems Research Articles

Understanding human mobility and trip demand through sparse trajectories of private e-bikes

Understanding human mobility and trip demand through e-bike trajectories is crucial for urban planning, environmental enhancement, and sustainable development. However, existing studies predominantly focus on shared (e−)bike trips, neglecting private e-bike trips. With the recent availability of sparse trajectory for private e-bikes, we established a novel analysis framework to reveal human mobility and trip demand in Wuhan, China. First, we propose a two-step method for extracting trip behavior from sparse trajectories of private e-bikes, involving the identification of staying areas and the generation of e-bike trips. Second, we establish a spatial random forest method to capture the nonlinear relationship between private e-bike trips and driving factors. Finally, we use the interpretable SHAP method to reveal the driving mechanisms of e-bike trips and explore the impact of various factors on these trips. The results indicate that (1) trip distances of private e-bikes follow a lognormal distribution, with an Adj. R-Square of 0.99, while trip times exhibit a Hill distribution, with an Adj. R-Square of 0.95; (2) Private e-bike trips are not commonly employed to address the first/last mile problem in public transportation and are more frequently used for daily commuting needs, with over 65% of these trips covering distances greater than 1 km or lasting longer than 5 min; (3) private e-bike trips positively correlate with the density of POIs like Hospital, School, and Transportation Station. However, compared to shared (e−)bike trips, Transportation Station Density, especially Metro Station Density, is less important for private e-bike trips; and (4) private e-bike trips are also positively correlated with Congestion Level and House Price, meaning that areas with severe traffic congestion or high housing prices tend to have more private e-bike trips. This study provides a new framework for understanding private e-bike trip patterns, also helping authorities better grasp the factors influencing e-bike trip demand.

Seat Allocation Problem in Public Transportation

Seat Allocation Problem in Public Transportation

THE DETERMINANTS OF ELECTRIC SCOOTER ACCEPTANCE AMONG STUDENTS AS A MANIFESTATION OF ADAPTING TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF E-MOBILITY, USING THE TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE MODEL

One of the biggest challenges for modern metropolises is the problem of public transportation. Barriers to the development of urban transport, the expansion of private vehicles, congestion of beehives, traffic jams, parking problems, and the negative impacts of transport on the environment are causing an increase in interest in shared micromobility. Electric scooters are one of these innovative solutions. This article aims to construct a model for the acceptance of electric scooters among students. The authors employed the technology acceptance model, and used the SmartPLS 4. Program to reconstruct the model. The basis of the model was a CAWI survey on a sample of 442 students. On this basis, the study verified the hypotheses on the relationships between the factors influencing the acceptance of electric scooters: demographic characteristics, perceived usefulness, ease of use, attitudes towards this solution, and behavioral intentions.

Fermatean Fuzzy Group Decision-Making Based CODAS Approach for Taxation of Public Transit Investments

The provision of public goods is always a controversial issue in many aspects. Even some additional financial resources can provide public transit systems, the tax revenues constitute a significant part of the investments in practice. Yet, governments should make an important decision regarding tax schemes. This article focuses on how to identify the best tax scheme to finance public transit investments. A three-phase Fermatean fuzzy group decision-making approach is developed to solve the highlighted problem. Qualifications and experience of experts are considered to distinct their reputations. A Fermatean fuzzy direct rating method is introduced to evaluate criteria importance. A Fermatean fuzzy combinative distance-based assessment method is formulated to assess tax schemes. The study provides valuable policy implications and decision-making guidelines using a real-life case. The results show that beneficiaries of public services should pay more, and tax collectors are encouraged to use progressive tax schemes instead of the equal distribution of the cost to the taxpayers. The sensitivity analysis to changes in the threshold parameter is given. The comparative analysis with all state-of-the-art Fermatean fuzzy set based multicriteria decision-making methods is provided. The Fermatean fuzzy group decision-making approach is highly robust and reliable. The approach can solve other public transportation problems.

Inclusivity of ICT Based Solutions to Public Transportation Problems: Challenges and Opportunities for Bloemfontein

Promoting information and communication technologies as mobility and transportation accessibility solutions in efforts to achieve sustainable transportation excludes socioeconomic vulnerability. ICT-related efforts do not meet the mobility and accessibility needs of every single group in society, resulting in socioeconomic exclusion for specific groups of people. Social exclusion disadvantages vulnerable social groups in society's mobility, while limited mobility reduces access to activities for disadvantaged groups; travel for job hunting, education, work, and health facilities further increases these groups' physical isolation. The need to travel for activities, services, and basic goods for human consumption such as food, water, and medication must be addressed by developing inclusive transportation systems. Through tele-activities, e-payments, security and surveillance, among other components adaptable to travel and mobility, technological solutions have been at the forefront of prescriptions to transportation problems. However, they remain inaccessible to some of society. The study investigates whether inclusive, sustainable public transportation can be fully realized in developing countries by utilizing technology-based travel behavior solutions. It also investigates the effectiveness of ICT solutions to travel, mobility, and accessibility issues in a South African city with a relatively traditional public transportation system. The study considers socioeconomic travel processes as well as travel behavior constructs to inclusivity in order to weigh the prospects of equitable provision of ICT-enabled public transportation services in the developing world. This study discovered that travelers have smartphone access; however, the purposes of smartphones are not directly related to travel and transportation. Furthermore, public transportation service providers do not have an online presence. Overall, for ICT-enabled public transportation to thrive in developing countries, accessible technologies such as calls and SMS that do not require internet access must be considered.

Barriers and facilitators of receiving prosthetic services in people with lower limb amputation during Covid-19 pandemic: A qualitative study in a developing country.

This study investigated the barriers, challenges, and facilitators in receiving prosthetic services in people with lower limb amputation during Covid-19 pandemic. In this qualitative study, we conducted in-depth semistructured face-to-face interviews with individuals with lower limb amputation who needed prosthetic services during Covid-19 pandemic. We discussed about challenges and barriers that the participants had encountered during this period. The collected data were analyzed using a conceptual framework. Six broad themes of availability, accessibility, acceptability, affordability, accommodation, and awareness emerged from the analysis. Staff shortage, lack of remote services, accommodation, insurance and governmental support, and cost of services were the main concerns. Moreover, long waiting lists, postponed referrals, noncompliance with Covid-19 protocols and preventive measures, and lockdowns were the other important concerns that were noted. In addition, unsatisfactory services in hometown, distance to capital, transportation permit in lockdowns, traffic jam, and public transport problems were other reasons of service not being accessible. The positive aspects were the facilitators such as having home visits, social work and charity, and using private drive services. It seems that after the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic, people with lower limb amputation have faced more drastic challenges in accessing and receiving prosthetic services than in the prepandemic situations.

Perspektif Politik Lingkungan dalam Membangun Transportasi Publik Berkelanjutan

The development of sustainable public transportation is important to overcome environmental problems. In various parts of the world, the development of sustainable public transportation has begun to become a concern. Unfortunately, the development in Depok City has not received serious attention, especially from the government as a policy maker. This article will discuss the low political will of stakeholders in Depok City which will be discussed in the perspective of Environmental Politics. This study uses qualitative descriptive method to describe the political will of actors in Depok City in realizing sustainable development, especially in the field of transportation. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, policy studies, literature studies, and observation which were then analyzed qualitatively using descriptive analysis methods. The results show that the Depok City Government has used the term green transportation in its policies. However, these policies have not been implemented properly, so the problem of green public transportation in Depok City has not been resolved to this day.

Determining lower bound on number of vehicle blocks in multi-depot vehicle scheduling problem with mixed fleet covering electric buses

Scheduling buses in public transport systems consists in assigning trips to vehicle blocks. To minimize the cost of fuel and environmental impact of public transport, the number of vehicle blocks used should be as small as possi-ble, but sufficient to cover all trips in a timetable. However, when solving real life transportation problems, it is difficult to decide whether the number of vehicle blocks obtained from an algorithm is minimal, unless the actual minimal number is already known, which is rare, or the theoretical lower bound on the number of vehicles has been determined. The lower bound on the number of vehicle blocks is even more important and useful since it can be used both as a parameter that controls the optimization process and as the minimum expected value of the respective optimization criterion. Therefore, methods for determining the lower bound in transportation optimiza-tion problems have been studied for decades. However, the existing methods for determining the lower bound on the number of vehicle blocks are very limited and do not take multiple depots or heterogeneous fleet of vehicles into account. In this research, we propose a new practical and effective method to assess the lower bound on the number of vehicle blocks in the Multi-Depot Vehicle Scheduling Problem (MDVSP) with a mixed fleet covering electric vehicles (MDVSP-EV). The considered MDVSP-EV reflects a problem of public transport planning encoun-tered in medium-sized cities. The experimental results obtained for a real public transport system show the great potential of the proposed method in determining the fairly strong lower bound on the number of vehicle blocks. The method can generate an estimated distribution of the number of blocks during the day, which may be helpful, for example, in planning duties and crew scheduling. An important advantage of the proposed method is its low calculation time, which is very important when solving real life transportation problems.

Research on Carbon-Trading Model of Urban Public Transport Based on Blockchain Technology

With the realization of the “dual carbon” goal, urban public transport with an increasing proportion of new energy vehicles will become the key subject to achieve the carbon emission reduction goal. Under the new background of deep coupling between transport networks and power grids, it is of great significance to study the carbon-trading mode of urban public transport participation in promoting the development of new energy vehicles and improving the operating efficiency and low-carbon level of the “energy-transport” system. In this paper, based on blockchain technology, a framework for urban public transportation networks to participate in carbon trading is established to solve the current problems of urban public transportation’s insufficient motivation to reduce emissions, lax operation strategy and lack of carbon-trading matching mechanisms. Finally, Hyperledger Fabric was selected as the simulation platform, and we simulated the model through the calculation example. The results show that the proposed scheme can effectively improve the operating efficiency of urban public transport and reduce its operating costs and carbon emissions. In addition, policy recommendations on carbon price, carbon quota and penalties are proposed to improve the institutional system of the carbon-trading market.

The role of public transport in the legitimation of power: regional aspect

The article shows how the transport problems of modern Russian regions can have a direct impact on the legitimacy of the government. Using the structuralist and neoinstitutional method, the author identifies the factors of legitimation/delegitimation of municipal and regional authorities. All the highlighted factors are relevant to the discourse of public transport and are given in special tables. The author focuses on specific examples of the connection of public transport problems with the policy of regional authorities. The dynamics of public trust in the government directly depends on the timeliness of solving these problems. Russian cities are in unequal economic conditions. In this sense, the dependence of the specifics of a single Russian city on the prospects for articulating the protest transport agenda is given. The author believes that such a political situation will continue to be relevant both for the authorities and for society.

The price of symmetric line plans in the Parametric City

We consider the line planning problem in public transport in the Parametric City, an idealized model that captures typical scenarios by a (small) number of parameters. The Parametric City is rotation symmetric, but optimal line plans are not always symmetric. This raises the question to quantify the symmetry gap between the best symmetric and the overall best solution. For our analysis, we formulate the line planning problem as a mixed integer linear program, that can be solved in polynomial time if the solutions are forced to be symmetric. We prove that the symmetry gap is small when a specific Parametric City parameter is fixed, and we give an approximation algorithm for line planning in the Parametric City in this case. While the symmetry gap can be arbitrarily large in general, we show that symmetric line plans are a good choice in most practical situations.

The housing market impacts of bicycle-sharing systems

This study provides the first willingness-to-pay estimate for docked bicycle-sharing systems by identifying these systems’ impacts on rental property values. Using rental listing data in Taiwan and applying a spatial difference-in-differences strategy, we find that the inception of a bicycle-sharing system significantly increases the rental prices of nearby properties. Results also indicate that citizens benefit from the system by solving the first-and-last-mile problem in public transportation but do not value the system as an independent transportation mode. We do not find robust evidence showing that the inception of a bicycle-sharing system improves air quality.

Measuring City-Level Transit Accessibility Based on the Weight of Residential Land Area: A Case of Nanning City, China

A large body of research on transit accessibility emphasizes the importance of methods to simulating the real-world travel process. Few efforts have been made to conduct empirical research and comparative analysis of overall city-level transit accessibility. In addition, most of literatures utilize census tracts combined with the buffer method to estimate transit travel demand or available service areas, failing to take into account the reality that different land-uses have their own population. This research aims to develop an overall index of city-level transit accessibility based on the weight of residential land area. We integrated five types of destinations and the coverage of residential area within the transit stop service area to evaluate the overall structural problems of land use and public transportation in the process of urban development. Based on a case study on Nanning City, it was found that the weighted average travel distance is increased by 5.42 km, but the overall weighted travel time of the city is shortened by 7.65 min. In addition, an increase in coverage within the stop threshold and a decrease in the number of residential communities outside the threshold indicate that transit accessibility facilitates urban expansion. The empirical results show that the overall transit accessibility index can provide a reasonable measure criterion for the compact spatial structure and support urban strategic planning and address the problem of land use and public transport in the process of urban development.

Intelligent Bus Operation Optimization by Integrating Cases and Data Driven Based on Business Chain and Enhanced Quantum Genetic Algorithm

Intelligent public transport systems are a key direction for the study of intelligent transportation systems (ITSs), and they perform the following functions: location and tracking, aided navigation, dispatch and command, and dynamic information release; these systems also help travelers determine optimal routes. This paper mainly studies intelligent bus operation optimization by integrating cases and data from business chains, including the optimization of public transport vehicle scheduling according to the characteristics of vehicle scheduling, considers the interests of passengers and public transport companies, and adopts a true-value encoding method with the departure time as the variable goal optimization. In addition, this paper builds a model for the intelligent scheduling problem in public transport based on an enhanced quantum genetic algorithm (EQGA) to find the optimal timetable. This model sets the minimum waiting time cost of passengers and the maximum interests of public transport companies as the goals, restricts the departure interval and two adjacent intervals, and constrains the load factor of passengers. Moreover, based on the analysis of public transport travel characteristics and passenger flow data, this paper evaluates the efficiency of public transport operation, reasonably analyzes the utilization of public transport resources and the travel time of public transport passengers, and thoroughly studies the public transport operation system. This paper selects actual bus line data for empirical analysis, and the empirical results show that the proposed algorithm and model can meet the requirements of many aspects and provides good intelligence, applicability, and optimization.

MARKETING COMMUNICATION POLICY OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES AS A TOOL FOR FORMING THE IMAGE OF MUNICIPAL SERVICE PROVIDERS

A part of research results concerning the state of the effectiveness of marketing activities of local authorities of Ukraine, in which authors took part and prepared the analyst report, and also their own researches are presented in the paper. The study found that marketing communication activities for forming the image of urban transport service providers in the studied regions were carried out mainly in the form of information campaigns and weren’t aimed at target audiences. The study discovered that in 2017—2020 in Ukraine (except for the temporarily occupied territories) there were some measures to increase awareness of the responsibility and important role of urban transport service providers. It is established that citizens of Ukraine are informed about the problems of urban public transport at three levels. First, at the national level, the most popular were information and educational activities, image social advertising in national media, Internet portals, information and educational programs and publications, reproduction and distribution of printed materials (booklets, leaflets, posters, academic literature). Secondly, at the regional level (oblast level) were popular publications and videos on the Internet, manuals, radio and television programs, social advertising on regional state television and radio, outdoor advertising (billboards, city lights, posters), conference organization were disseminated and seminars, flash mobs and social events. Third, lectures, classes, role-playing games, business games, workshops, booklets, leaflets and conference materials were organized at the local level. At the same time, the system in conducting marketing communication activities for forming the image of urban transport service providers during the study could not be found. The study identified shortcomings in the communication process of public services with target social groups. An analysis of marketing communication activities implemented and planned for implementation by local authorities. On the basis of research results and conclusions some recommendations are offered in the article.

Harassment of Women in University and Public Transport

The present study was conducted to find out the existing problems of university and public transport from the perspective of females in Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, KP, Pakistan. The study examines the issue of harassment in university and public transport the female faces every day. The study uses the quantitative method and random sampling, which belongs to probability sampling—the data collected from the study area through the questionnaire. The study shows that students and employees were 18 to 31 years old in which majority of the female's faces problems in public transport and few were faced problems in university transport. The study shows that the female passenger was unwilling to use public transport. They found it the most unattractive mode of transportation. Moreover, the study shows that most females reported facing the misbehaviour of drivers and co-passengers. The female passengers do not want to use public transport to avoid unpleasant situations. They also feel unsafe from drivers because they make rude remarks behind them, harass them, and miss their behaviour. Most of them want to act against the harassers, but they are afraid, and those who are harassed do not complain to the higher authorities because they think it can affect their selfrespect and reputation. Further studies need to be conducted to get more information about public and university transport harassment.

The Cheapest Ticket Problem in Public Transport

Route choice models in public transport have been discussed for a long time. The main reason why a passenger chooses a specific path is usually based on its length or travel time. However, also the ticket price that passengers have to pay may influence their decision because passengers prefer cheaper paths over more expensive ones. In this paper, we deal with the cheapest ticket problem, which asks for a cheapest ticket to travel between a pair of stations. The complexity and the algorithmic approach to solve this problem depend crucially on the underlying fare structure; for example, it is easy if the ticket price is proportional to the distance traveled (as in distance tariff fare structures), but may become NP-complete in zone tariff fare structures. We hence discuss the cheapest ticket problem for different variations of distance- and zone-based fare structures. We start by modeling the respective fare structure mathematically, then identify its main properties, and finally provide a polynomial algorithm, or prove NP-completeness of the cheapest ticket problem. We also provide general results on the combination of two fare structures, which is often observed in practice.

First Mile/Last Mile Problems in Smart and Sustainable Cities: A Case Study in Stockholm County

ABSTRACT The first mile/last mile (FM/LM) problem in public transport refers to the spatial accessibility of public transport and is the most important factor determining whether an individual will choose public transport. The FM/LM problem in Stockholm County, Sweden, was evaluated using a Geographic Information System estimating distances to public transport for the years 2019 and 2035. Overall, the population in Stockholm County, have good access to public transport. However, access varies with abilities, with elderly having 50 percent and elderly impaired 15 percent of their area within walking distance to public transport compared with the average citizen. Planned developments can provide good access to public transport, with extensive improvements for the elderly. However, inadequate planning for population increase will likely decrease the perceived public transport accessibility. Apartments and commercial buildings in the study area have high access to public transport. Elderly people have good access within city and regional centers, while access could be improved in other areas. Inclusion of FM/LM in the planning support system used in Stockholm could help mitigate FM/LM problems and extend access to public transport to all people of different abilities. This is vital in creating sustainable mobility networks and achieving sustainable development in smart cities.

A Two-Stage Approach With a Departure Time Based Solution Representation for Electric Bus Vehicle Scheduling

Vehicle scheduling problem (VSP) in public transit refers to arranging a fleet of vehicles to make vehicles’ departure times coincide with the times in given bus timetables. It is vital for bus enterprises to ensure the service quality and save operational cost. Due to the limited driving range and charging requirements of electric vehicles, how to efficiently schedule electric vehicles is a challenging task with the popularization of electric bus vehicles. In this paper, we propose a two-stage solution approach (SA-LS) combining a simulated annealing (SA) and a local search (LS) for an electric vehicle scheduling problem (EVSP) in public transport. This approach is based on a novel solution coding that represents a scheduling solution by departure times of a fleet of vehicles. The decoding procedure considers limited driving range and recharging time of electric vehicles. The SA is used to find a set of solutions able to be potentially improved by LS. The LS combined with a departure-time adjustment procedure (DTAP) is devised to improve the solutions found by SA. Evaluation functions are devised separately for SA and LS to guide their search. The proposed approach is applied to real world vehicle scheduling problem of three bus lines in Qingdao city, China. Experiments show that SA-LS is able to generate high-quality scheduling solutions within short computational time.

Public Transport in Developing Countries

The changes and challenges in public transport in developing countries are need to be address with the right policy, yet to make the right policy, we need to identify the main problem and characteristics of public transport in developing countries itself. This article explain the characteristics of public transportation in developing countries using literature review. In general, it is based on its organization, multimodal transport planning and finance, fare control, fare exemptions and social obligations, vehicle specifications, competition and regulation and finally ownership and investment.