Public Transport Services Research Articles

Study on the Optimization of Urban Traffic and Spatial Structure in the Environment of Low-Carbon Eco-Cities

Under the concept of “dual-carbon development”, optimising the spatial structure of urban life, perfecting the management system of public transport services, realising the spatial optimisation of urban transport, minimising carbon emissions and reducing environmental pollution are the problems that need to be solved urgently. This paper firstly analyses the development status quo of low-carbon cities, clarifies the influencing factors of low-carbon eco-cities, and discusses the correlation between the scale, population density, traffic structure and energy development of low-carbon eco-cities and low-carbon eco-cities. On this basis, the low-carbon ecological development strategy of City C in China is proposed as an example. Therefore, this study argues that low-carbon cities, as a strategic goal of new urbanisation development, should focus on constructing a theoretical system of urban upgrading and optimisation under the environment of green and sustainable ecological development, and introduce corresponding construction guarantee optimisation policies.

Public Transport Delay Prediction using Deep Learning

A system of trains, buses, subways, ferries, and other vehicles that are accessible to the public is referred to as public transportation, also known as public transit or mass transit. These networks are usually run by private or public organisations are made to efficiently transport large numbers of people in urban and suburban areas. It usually operates on set schedules and routes and has a listed fare for each journey. Long wait periods and lengthy travel times resulting from delays are two problems that frequently plague public transportation services. There are several things that can cause a delay in public transport, such as an excess of passengers, heavy traffic, accidents, and other unforeseen circumstances. The availability of a more accurate delay prediction for public transportation might increase users’ confidence and their willingness to pay more for transit services. Over the past two decades, a number of studies on prediction algorithms for transportation data have been proposed. Most of the work is on machine learning model development, focusing on delay prediction and taking into account several factors such as weather conditions and infrastructure issues. This paper proposes a deep learning model to predict public transportation delays using data from public transportation and the weather. The results obtained from this research work are compared with several other existing works. Our experiment has demonstrated that the deep neural network (DNN) is the best model to predict transit delay compared to several other machine learning and deep learning models.

Efektivitas Pelayanan Publik Feeder Wira-Wiri Kota Surabaya

The city of Surabaya is the capital of East Java province which is known as the city of heroes and is the second largest metropolitan city with a dense population after the city of Jakarta. According to data from the official website of the East Java Central Statistics Agency in 2023, the city of Surabaya has a population of approximately 2,893,698 people, with a large population this will result in an increase in the number of private vehicles which will affect comfort in urban areas. In connection with this, the Surabaya city government has provided a program that aims to overcome problems in the transportation sector, namely the provision of public transportation called Feeder Wira-Wiri by bringing the concept of orderly, safe and comfortable driving or transportation behavior. The aim of this research is to measure the effectiveness of the Wira-Wiri Feeder Public Transport Service in the City of Surabaya. This research uses a quantitative approach using simple descriptive analysis techniques. The data collection technique in this research uses a questionnaire technique. The population of this research is people who use wira-wiri feeder services with a sample of 100 respondents. This research produced interesting findings, including: 1) The results of respondents' responses to the twelve effectiveness measurement indicators showed that all indicators still had values ​​that indicated they were quite effective. However, of the twelve effectiveness measurement indicators, the value indicating quite high effectiveness is found in the flexibility of adaptation indicator with a percentage of 23% and in the productivity indicator with a percentage of 16%. 2) The overall results of the respondents' responses showed that the Surabaya City wira-wiri feeder public transport service was said to be effective with a percentage of 53%.

Designing and Implementing a Public Urban Transport Scheduling System Based on Artificial Intelligence for Smart Cities

Many countries encourage their populations to use public urban transport to decrease pollution and traffic congestion. However, this can generate overcrowded routes at certain times and low economic efficiency for public urban transport companies when buses carry few passengers. This article proposes a Public Urban Transport Scheduling System (PUTSS) algorithm for allocating a public urban transport fleet based on the number of passengers waiting for a bus and considering the efficiency of public urban transport companies. The PUTSS algorithm integrates artificial intelligence (AI) methods to identify the number of people waiting at each station through real-time image acquisition. The technique presented is Azure Computer Vision. In a case study, the accuracy of correctly identifying the number of persons in an image was computed using the Microsoft Azure Computer Vision service. The proposed PUTSS algorithm also uses Google Maps Service for congestion-level identification. Employing these modern tools in the algorithm makes improving public urban transport services possible. The algorithm is integrated into a software application developed in C#, simulating a real-world scenario involving two public urban transport vehicles. The global accuracy rate of 89.81% demonstrates the practical applicability of the software product.

Key Factors of Urban Public Transportation Services Implementation in Indonesia: A Knowledge Management Perspectives

It is well-recognized that the availability of public transportation has a significant impact on urban transportation networks. In Indonesia, the government is still having difficulties to establish a reliable public transportation system. One important aspect that can be utilized in establishing a reliable public transportation system is to utilize knowledge management in its services. This study aims to identify key factors from knowledge management perspectives related to the implementation of public transportation services. To achieve this objective, this study conducted qualitative research on 12 users of public transportation services in Indonesia. The results of this study indicate that there are several key factors related to the implementation of public transportation services from knowledge management perspectives, such as Real-Time Information, Digital Accessibility, User Engagement and Trust, Platform Functionality and Quality, Digital Inclusive Strategy, Knowledge Dissemination Method, Help Desk Reliability, and Knowledgeable Officer.

Impact of COVID-19 led transition of work culture and travel to work patterns on society and environment in Delhi

Globally, COVID-19 has led to changes in daily lifestyle and travel behavior. There was a shift from in-person physical jobs to work-from-home culture, even for those jobs that required in-person presence at the job location. However, this was not true for everyone, and a majority continued to travel to work. The limited capacity of public transport services and the fear of exposure to the virus restrained people from practicing their conventional mobility choices. We explore the impact of COVID-19 on the nature of jobs and related changes in work travel patterns by population groups for Delhi using in-person surveys conducted during 2021 in six localities of Delhi. We also estimated the short- and long-term impacts of altered behavior on expenditures and equivalent CO2 emissions.As per the analysis, lower income groups, having no vehicles, with lesser qualifications, and employed as daily wagers, had limited capacity to change to work-from-home during COVID-19. We observed an increased dependency on personal motorized vehicles, leading to increased expenditures and reduced affordability. Adopting work-from-home during COVID-19 helped reduce equivalent CO2 emissions per working member by 39%. However, as the work at the site resumes, the emissions are expected to increase. The study shows that COVID-19 led to short-term benefits, but in the long term, the externalities will likely increase. Working from home during the pandemic provides short-term benefits; the social benefits are not equally distributed, and the transport emissions shall increase in the long term.

Sistem E-Tiket Bus Menggunakan QR-Code Berbasis Website

The land public transportation mode remains the main choice for the community in carrying out mobility, especially in traveling between cities and provinces. However, many users are worried because of the rampant fraud committed by irresponsible people, because of this unrest, the perpetrators of land public transportation service providers have begun to use technology in their transaction system, this aims to minimize the existence of passengers who do not have tickets and unauthorized ticket sellers. This research uses the SDLC (System Development Life Cycle) method because it can provide the approach and structure needed in system planning and development. This system was created using the PHP programming language and the CodeIgniter Framework in the development of the system. the utilization of QR Code technology on the system is as a way to encode the code on the ticket into an E-Ticket without using paper, besides aiming to increase security, the QR Code also provides efficiency in the ticket transaction process. The use of this website is also more structured because it prevents damage or loss of tickets, increases time efficiency and increases sales. The result of this research is the successful design of a bus E-Ticket system that uses a QR Code and is website-based.

Evolutionary game and simulation study of public transport under government incentive and punishment mechanism.

Public transport plays an indispensable role in the whole public transport system. This paper makes an in-depth study on how public transport can provide passengers with higher service quality while meeting the needs of passengers. In order to achieve this research goal, this paper organically incorporates the three key subjects of government supervision, public transport and passengers into the research framework. Evolutionary game theory is used to construct the corresponding research model. It has been found that the decision-making behaviours of government regulators, public transport and passengers are intricately intertwined to influence each other in the evolutionary process. It is particularly noteworthy that the incentive or punishment measures adopted by the government have a great impact on the quality of public transport services. In addition, timely supervision and inspection of government regulatory authorities by higher authorities proved to be crucial for buses to provide stable and high-quality services. This study reveals the mechanisms of interaction between different subjects in the public transport system, particularly the government-guided incentive measures and supervision mechanism to promote the overall service level. To further support the research conclusions, this paper carries on the simulation analysis, and puts forward the countermeasures and suggestions for the bus to provide high-quality service according to the simulation results. These recommendations will help guide the government, public transport and passengers to make better decisions in the synergistic development process, thereby improving the overall level of service.

Preference for Public Transportation Service Levels in Makassar City Towards Female Passenger Satisfaction

Basic services are government affairs that are mandatory and entitled to be obtained by every citizen, one of which is public transportation services. Although it has been regulated by Minimum Service Standards (SPM), the quality of public transportation services in Makassar City is still low and has not met expectations and satisfaction, especially for female passengers. The purpose of this study was to determine the satisfaction of female passengers with the quality of public transportation services in Makassar City. The respondents of this study were 96 female passengers of public transportation in Makassar City. This research is descriptive qualitative study that refers to the Regulation of the Minister of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia Number PM 29 of 2015. This regulation outlines criteria such as security, safety, comfort, affordability, equality, and regularity for assessing the quality of public transportation services in Makassar City. The data analysis technique in this study uses descriptive analysis employing the Community Satisfaction Indicator (SMI) analysis method. Based on the results of calculations using the public satisfaction index method, it is known that the total number of service elements has a score of 43.86. Although this indicates that the overall quality of service is quite good, it is considered that women are not satisfied with the service provided. The relationship between the level of satisfaction with the quality of service affects women's preferences in choosing the mode they want to use.

Retracted: The Geographical Location Of Nursing Homes: How Accessible Is Care In Our Ageing Society

Abstract Background With ageing demographics, the demand for residential nursing care is increasing. Some evidence and anecdotal experience suggests that nursing home care is often not available locally, resulting in individuals moving from their homes, communities and psychosocial support systems. Methods To evaluate if residential care in Ireland meets demand the number of residential care beds per 1000 adults>65years were estimated from publicly available data. Persons who sought access to the nursing home support scheme over a 6month period were reviewed. Their home location and nursing home location were analysed with respect to locality (city/suburban/town/rural), distance (km), travel time (minutes) and public service networks. Ethically approved. Results Nationally, the lowest availability of nursing home beds was Wicklow and highest Longford. Galway has 0.90 nursing home beds per1000 adults >65years. Of 262 consecutive cases presented to one local placement forum between July–December2023, 133 availed of the scheme and were resident in a nursing home at 3month follow-up. Exclusions included remained at home, deceased, or unknown. Nursing home location was city 6%(n=8), suburb 21%(n=28), town 16.5%(n=22) or rural 56%(n=75). All city placements were public. Drving distance from home to nursing home was 15km (IQR7,31) with a car driving time of 18mins (IQR11,35). No public transport service link from home to nursing home for visiting purposes was available to 38%(n=51), and when available incurred more than one bus change in 65.2%. City dweller was residing in a city located nursing home in 13%(n=5). Of the 87%(n=33) relocated out of the city, over half (n=19) were to rural locations (p<0.001). Conclusion Nursing home availability is insufficient to meet demands. The location of public and private nursing homes is creating deficits in accessing care close to home and community. Current public transport services to nursing home locations is poor.

Determinants of paratransit feeder service provision using AI-synthesized revealed preference data: a paratransit drivers’ perspective on PT reform using machine learning

ABSTRACT Although there is a wealth of research on passengers’ perception of public transport services and their willingness to use them, only a few have examined paratransit drivers’ intention to provide service. In this study, we have proposed using combined forward sequential feature selection with random forest classifier (FSFS-RFC) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to investigate the factors influencing drivers’ intention to provide feeder services to a dedicated bus lane system in Freetown. Focus group discussion was held with heads of various public transport unions, and a questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of 1124 paratransit drivers. The proposed FSFS-RFC and ANN algorithms revealed consistent results with schemes for fleet renewal, provision of coordinated paratransit feeder terminals, guaranteed hours of bus operation and increase in daily profit as the most significant determinants. The results imply that the algorithms can learn from AI-synthesized data on paratransit drivers’ operations for efficient planning.

RideChain: A Blockchain-Based Decentralized Public Transportation Smart Wallet

The transportation industry has been recognized as one of the industries that can benefit from investment in blockchain-based systems and services that enable distributed data management and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the transportation sector. However, the literature needs a guiding framework for integrating blockchain in issuing and preserving public transportation transactions in a technical environment that is secure, efficient, and transparent. This study proposes a blockchain-based transportation wallet (BTW) framework that facilitates the main digital transactions across diverse public transportation services. BTW embodies leveraging blockchain technology, which provides a decentralized and immutable ledger that records and verifies transactions, ensuring trust and reducing the risk of fraud. The framework has been validated by developing a blockchain-based public transportation smart wallet named “RideChain”. This serves as a single decentralized point for making public transportation transactions and payments, as well as identity authorizations and management. RideChain enhances passengers’ and service providers’ experience through a secure and authentic platform for offering several reliable public transportation transactions efficiently. In this study, we implemented a smart contract to establish a protocol between passengers and journey services. The testing methodologies used in this study comprise unit testing, integration testing, performance testing, and user acceptance testing. The findings suggest that BTW has been successfully verified to demonstrate its capability for secure transactions, authenticity of monetary transactions, automated smart contracts, decentralized identity authentication, and effortless payments.

Exploring Journey Experiences of Disabled Passengers in Using Public Transport

This study aims to enhance the understanding of disabled passengers' experiences with public transport by addressing the challenges in measuring their satisfaction and service quality. The central problem is the difficulty in accurately assessing and improving the service quality for disabled passengers, given the diverse needs and barriers they face. Utilizing the SERVQUAL model, which focuses on Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy, the study identifies and evaluates these key dimensions in the context of public transport services. Findings reveal both unique needs and commonalities among different disability groups: hearing-impaired passengers require visual signals and nonverbal communication, visually impaired passengers need clear auditory announcements and staff assistance, and physically disabled passengers require accessible infrastructure and supportive services. Commonalities include the appreciation for reliable train schedules, cleanliness, and the need for empathetic and responsive staff. Based on these insights, recommendations are provided to enhance service quality by improving physical accessibility features, enhancing communication methods, and providing targeted staff training. Implementing these recommendations will address specific needs and improve the overall satisfaction of disabled passengers, contributing to a more inclusive and effective public transport system. Future work should focus on integrating additional models and exploring other key variables to uncover further insights into service quality and passenger satisfaction. This approach will offer a more comprehensive understanding of how various factors interact and contribute to a more inclusive and effective public transport system.

Characteristics and Effects of the Last Kilometre of the Tourist City from the Dynamic and Static Perspectives

The accessibility of the “last kilometre” of a tourist city has a profound impact on the travelling experience of tourists. In-depth understanding of the characteristics and spatial effects of the “last-kilometre” traffic accessibility in tourist cities is conducive to further enhancing the accessibility of traffic travel and forming a new industry development pattern of deep integration of traffic and tourism. The results show that: (1) Private transport accessibility is significantly better than public transport accessibility, and the strong economic strength of large cities such as Peking, Shanghai, and Nanjing support a wider coverage of public transport compared with cities such as Qinhuangdao, Dalian, Ningbo, etc. Even for the middle-income and high-income groups of the large cities, the advantage of the broader travelling cost of public transport is still significant. (2) The average values of the fluctuation coefficients of travel time of public transport in tourist cities are all smaller than those of private transport, and public transport is less sensitive to traffic congestion, making it a more reliable choice for tourist travel. The higher number of public transport grids with more anomalous fluctuations and much larger fluctuations than private transport grids suggests that there is an urgent need to strengthen the standardisation of public transport services in the corresponding areas. (3) Urban tourism development has been moving from single-line to network development, and the impact of urban transport on urban–regional tourism development has been manifested in the place fission effect, corridor diffusion effect, and regional equilibrium effect. In general, our findings have been useful in understanding the accessibility characteristics of the “last kilometre” in tourist cities, optimizing the efficiency of inter-regional and intra-city transport connections, constructing a fast and convenient travel transport system, improving the accessibility of transport trips, and forming a new development pattern for the deep integration of transport and tourism.

Predicting costs of local public bus transport services through machine learning methods

The present study developed several machine learning-based cost models to predict an efficient total economic cost per vehicle revenue-mile of urban public bus transport. The models were trained on a built-in dataset from 269 transit agencies providing urban services in the United States from 2015 to 2019. A feature selection strategy was implemented, finding that, for each proposed model, a subset of features determined a large impact on unit cost. These “core” features included commercial speed, average salary expenses per employee, vehicle productivity, and fleet ownership cost per vehicle. Machine learning techniques outperformed the linear regression method in terms of predictive power and robustness (understood as the dispersion of predictive power measures over the training sets). Based on SHAP values, the sensitivity analyses showed that the proposed models could be used to predict the impact of changes in some critical features on corresponding unit costs. The results may be useful for: (i) introducing regulatory constraints to the allocation of national public resources to local public bus transport services, aimed at minimizing the resources needed to provide a given level of service; (ii) defining the maximum economic compensation required by firms involved in competitive tendering for the allotment of service concessions, or firms with monopoly rights (by political choice and/or local public ownership); and (iii) improving service contract management and design by identifying key cost drivers of transit services.

Smarter but more unequal transport? How socioeconomic and digital inequalities hinder adoption of mobility apps in the Global South

All over the world, cities are becoming “smarter.” The improved use of data generated by the transport system (e.g. smart cards data), combined with GPS trackers and citizens’ mobile data enabled the development of a new generation of smarter mobile apps (e.g., Waze) and several local real-time public transport services and trip planners. These technologies have the potential to reduce transport inequalities via two mechanisms. First, governments can develop more efficient and evidence-based public transport plans. Second, citizens have access to better, real-time information about public transport for trip planning and, thus, can make better—i.e., more efficient or cheaper—decisions regarding their everyday mobility. To assess whether citizens’ appropriation of smart mobility—as with their appropriation of any other digital service—depends strongly on having a certain set of socioeconomic and digital attributes, we analyzed both a mobility survey and a digital inequalities survey based on representative samples of adult Uruguayans living in the capital Montevideo. We find that while the use of mobility apps increased in the second half of the 2010s, the adoption of these tools was stratified by traditional digital inequalities, such as type of internet access and digital literacy, and by variables that predict inequalities in both digital and transport fields, such as age, gender and education. As a result, mobility continues to be stratified in favor of those who are more knowledgeable (i.e., tech-savvy) and have greater access to digital technology. Thus, “smart mobility” has failed to ameliorate—and may even exacerbate—transport inequality. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.

A method for evaluating the effectiveness of improving public transport services, parking fee policies, and park-and-ride facilities in order to encourage the use of public transport

Enhancing the quality of public transport services, implementing effective parking fee policies, and developing park-and-ride facilities are common solutions that urban planners and city governments apply to encourage public transport use. However, estimating the impact of these measures on increasing public transport usage during the solution design process is challenging. This article proposes an approach to assess the effects of these measures in the solution design process, which policymakers or city governments can apply to formulate suitable policies and feasible measures aligned with the local context. The approach begins with a survey on travel behaviour, followed by formulating a mode choice model to assess the sensitivity of the mode share to factors affecting mode choice. This approach is applied to Da Lat city, and the research results indicate how to enhance public transport services, determine appropriate parking fee levels, and establish park-and-ride facilities to achieve a public transport share of 5%, 10%, 15%, or higher. One of the main research results shows that the Park and Ride solution is feasible. Additionally, to achieve a growth rate of public transport volume up to 10%, it is necessary to improve public transport quality services combined with an increase in car parking fees in the downtown area

“How much should public transport services be expanded, and who should pay? Experimental evidence from Switzerland”

The twin challenge of increasing capacity to accommodate growing travel demand while simultaneously decarbonizing the transport sector places enormous pressure on public transport (PT) systems globally. Arguably the most fundamental policy choice and trade-off in designing and operating PT systems in the coming years will be service levels versus cost implications. On the presumption that public (citizen and consumer) opinion is crucial to making such choices, we study this question with a focus on Switzerland by using a factorial experiment (n = 1′634) that considers the frequency and geographic coverage of PT services as well as the cost implications for PT users and taxpayers. We find that support for increased frequency of connections and more services to peripheral regions is high as long as such service expansion is funded mainly by the government, rather than PT users. Preferences are generally consistent across subgroups, except in the case of government funding, where preferences differ by political orientation. This suggests that there is substantial demand across the board for PT services expansion funded primarily by the government, but that the question of funding is also potentially politically the most controversial. While our findings are specific to a country with a highly developed PT system, our research provides a template for similar research in other countries that struggle with a similar challenge.

Urban Flood Resilience Evaluation Based on Heterogeneous Data and Group Decision-Making.

In recent years, urban floods have occurred frequently in China. Therefore, there is an urgent need to strengthen urban flood resilience. This paper proposed a hybrid multi-criteria group decision-making method to assess urban flood resilience based on heterogeneous data, group decision-making methodologies, the pressure-state-response model, and social-economic-natural complex ecosystem theory (PSR-SENCE model). A qualitative and quantitative indicator system is formulated using the PSR-SENCE model. Additionally, a new weighting method for indicators, called the synthesis weighting-group analytic hierarchy process (SW-GAHP), is proposed by considering both intrapersonal consistency and interpersonal consistency of decision-makers. Furthermore, an extensional group decision-making technology (EGDMT) based on heterogeneous data is proposed to evaluate qualitative indicators. The flexible parameterized mapping function (FPMF) is introduced for the evaluation of quantitative indicators. The normal cloud model is employed to handle various uncertainties associated with heterogeneous data. The evaluations for Beijing from 2017 to 2021 reveal a consistent annual improvement in urban flood resilience, with a 14.1% increase. Subsequently, optimization recommendations are presented not only for favorable indicators such as regional economic status, drainability, and public transportation service capacity but also for unfavorable indicators like flood risk and population density. This provides a theoretical foundation and a guide for making decisions about the improvement of urban flood resilience. Finally, our proposed method shows superiority and robustness through comparative and sensitivity analyses.

Research On the Design of Public Transit Services for The Elderly in China

As China enters an aging society, the elderly in China are increasingly becoming an important user group of public transportation. This study uses service design thinking to optimize the inclusiveness of Chinese elderly people's travel by bus and subway, and explores the feasibility of applying service design thinking to the field of public transportation. This paper adopts the observation method, with Guangzhou and Beijing as the research areas. The researchers conduct service design research based on the entire process of elderly travel, summarize the travel needs and pain points of elderly passengers, optimize the station guidance system, intelligent interface and service platform, make the public transportation service environment more friendly, and thus make the public transportation service environment more inclusive. Analyze the passenger flow, contact points, and stakeholders of the station, draw character portraits and journey maps, and output service design strategies to improve the travel experience of Chinese elderly passengers. In summary, this study aims to improve the convenience of Chinese elderly passengers taking public transportation and provide theoretical support for the transformation and optimization of China's public transportation services.