Transit Travel Research Articles

On the crossroads: Gender and career-transitioning experiences of a young transgender employee

Background: Research in gender and sexuality studies focuses on the experiences of LGBTQI communities and how they are discriminated against in societies. Research on career transitioning has focused on how employees navigate their world of work, with fewer studies focusing on career transitioning with transgender employees in the workplace.Objectives: This article aims to provide a unique perspective by delving into the career transition journey of a young transgender male-to-female employee. By exploring her experiences in the workplace, I hope to shed light on the challenges and triumphs of her journey.Method: This article presents a qualitative, phenomenological case study exploring the lived experiences of Angel (pseudonym), a young transgender employee at an educational space, as she navigates gender identity and career transition crossroads. The study employed a face-to-face semi-structured interview as a data collection method.Results: This article shows how Angel struggled to find and become herself in the workplace while navigating her gender and career transition. It demonstrates her lived experiences, the multiple faces of gender and career transitioning, and her journey of being at the workplace.Conclusion: The findings reveal significant challenges faced by transgender employees, including discrimination, microaggressions, and systemic barriers. Training about transgender people and workplace inclusivity should be a strategic priority for organisations.Contribution: This case study contributes to our understanding of the complex intersections between gender transition and career development, highlighting unique challenges faced by transgender employees through discrimination, identity navigation, and systemic barriers. These insights can inform inclusive workplace policies and practices.

Modeling transit travel times for predicting equity improvements

Modeling transit travel times for predicting equity improvements

Acknowledging the role of loss in facilitating employee transition in a partial business acquisition

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the experience of a cohort of staff who transferred from a medium-sized Irish pharmaceutical company to a US multinational, while remaining in the same building as their original employers and colleagues. It highlights the role of acknowledging loss when facilitating employee transition and the co-development of a communication and integration strategy in transitioning to a new organisation.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory qualitative case study captures the experiences of the senior manager responsible for the business unit transition and a cohort of 32 employees who moved to the US multinational. Conversations between the senior manager (author three) and his academic peers (authors one and two) trace the experience of this team as they transitioned to the new organisation.FindingsInsights are offered through the transition journey – from the unofficial partial-acquisition offer through to the due diligence period and onto the subsequent implementation of the communication and integration strategy. Findings exhibit a co-developed a communication and integration strategy, revealing a largely successful initial integration of the team into the new organisation.Originality/valueThe paper offers a first-hand account of the steps taken in a successful employee transition to a new organisation following a partial acquisition. It describes how acknowledging loss is a valuable first step in the transition process, enabled by the design and adoption of a co-created communication and integration strategy.

City mobility patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic: analysis of a global natural experiment.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, changes were seen in city mobility patterns around the world, including in active transportation (walking, cycling, micromobility, and public transit use), creating a unique opportunity for global public health lessons and action. We aimed to analyse a global natural experiment exploring city mobility patterns during the pandemic and how they related to the implementation of COVID-19-related policies. We obtained data from Apple's Mobility Trends Reports on city mobility indexes for 296 cities from Jan 13, 2020 to Feb 4, 2022. Mobility indexes represented the frequency of Apple Maps queries for driving, walking, and public transit journeys relative to a baseline value of 100 for the pre-pandemic period (defined as Jan 13, 2020). City mobility index trajectories were plotted with stratification by country income level, transportation-related city type, population density, and COVID-19 pandemic severity (SARS-CoV-2 infection rate). We also synthesised global pandemic policies and recovery actions that promoted or restricted city mobility and active transportation (walking, cycling and micromobility, and public transit) using the Shifting Streets dataset. Additionally, a natural experiment on a global scale evaluated the effects of new active transportation policies on walking and public transit use in cities around the world. We used multivariable regression with a difference-in-difference (DID) analysis to explore whether the implementation of walking or public transit promotion policies affected mobility indexes, comparing cities with and without implementation of these policies in the pre-intervention period (Jan 27 to April 12, 2020) and post-intervention period (April 13 to June 28, 2020). Based on city mobility index trajectories, we observed an overall decline in mobility indexes for walking, driving, and public transit at the beginning of the pandemic, but these values began to increase in April, 2020. Cities with lower population densities generally had higher driving and walking indexes than cities with higher population density, while cities with higher population densities had higher public transit indexes. Cities with higher pandemic severity generally had higher driving and walking indexes than cities with lower pandemic severity, while cities with lower pandemic severity had higher public transit indexes than other cities. We identified 587 policies in the dataset that had known implementation dates and were relevant to active transportation, which included 305 policies on walking, 321 on cycling and micromobility, and 143 on public transit, across 230 cities within 33 countries (19 high-income, 11 middle-income, and three low-income countries). In the global natural experiment (including 39 cities), implementation of policy interventions promoting walking was significantly associated with a higher absolute value of the walking index (DID coefficient 20·675 [95% CI 8·778-32·572]), whereas no such effect was seen for public transit-promoting policies (0·600 [-13·293 to 14·494]). Our results suggest that the policies implemented to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic were effective in changing city mobility patterns, especially increasing active transportation. Given the known benefits of active transportation, such policies could be maintained, expanded, and evaluated post pandemic. The discrepancy in the interventions between countries of different incomes highlights that changes to the infrastructure to prioritise safe walking, cycling, and easy access to public transit use could help with the future-proofing of cities in low-income and middle-income countries. None.

Nutrition and Training Recommendations for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Athletes Involved in Strength Sports and Resistance Training: A Case Series of Nine Athletes Assigned Female at Birth.

Transgender and gender diverse (TGGD) athletes have distinct nutrition and training considerations. Guidance for nutrition and sport professionals working with TGGD athletes is lacking, especially when addressing sex-specific data. The purpose of this case series was to depict nutrition and training assessment approaches and recommendations for TGGD athletes involved in strength sports or resistance training. Six types of data informed each case presentation, including: demographic, anthropometric, health history, and survey data (Eating Competence Scale, Exercise Benefits and Barriers Scale); a 3-day food and physical activity record; and an in-depth interview. Nine TGGD athletes assigned female at birth (AFAB) presented with a range of gender identities, experiences, sport involvement, and transition journeys. Most athletes consumed inadequate energy and fiber, adequate or marginally high levels of saturated fat and added sugars, and high levels of sodium. Most athletes scored low on the Eating Competence Scale and high on the Exercise Benefits and Barriers Scale. Nutrition and sports professionals can individualize the care they provide for TGGD athletes when addressing sex-specific data and help athletes ensure they are meeting their nutrient needs.

Women's expectations for system support for a healthy menopausal transition: A pilot study

BackgroundThis pilot study contributes to the knowledge on healthy menopause by adopting a person-centric, lifelong approach to support a healthy menopausal transition. It focuses on women's expectations of system support for this transition. MethodTwenty-two online in-depth interviews were conducted with women of various ages, experiences, and backgrounds in the United Kingdom, ensuring representation across the menopausal transition journey – before, during and after menopause. The interviews explored perceptions and expectations of healthy menopause and the required support. User journey and systems frameworks guided data collection and analysis. The pilot aimed to verify the feasibility of the developed study approach and protocol. ResultsA healthy menopausal transition is seen as preserving essential capacities to maintain normal daily activities despite bodily changes, a crucial aspect of ageing. Participants outlined a journey of awareness, contemplation of lifestyle adjustments, experimentation with new behaviours, and habit formation. These findings underscore the importance of fostering awareness and support for menopausal transition early in life. Participants also stressed the impact of the broader environment across the ageing journey, including education, research, health services, workplace dynamics, built environment, food industry, technology and innovation, media, advertising, and social networks. ConclusionsThis work highlights person-centric perceptions of healthy menopause, complementing existing biology-centred perspectives. By introducing a co-creation approach at the system level, it offers opportunities to define holistic support for the menopausal transition. The findings informed a knowledge exchange and ideation workshop with forty relevant system stakeholders to advance solution co-creation.

Exploring preparedness transitions in medicine and pharmacy: a qualitative longitudinal study to inform multiprofessional learning opportunities.

Despite extensive preparedness literature, existing studies fail to adequately explore healthcare graduates' feelings of preparedness longitudinally across new graduate transition journeys, nor do they compare different healthcare professions to ascertain what opportunities exist for multiprofessional transition interventions. Therefore, this Australian study, underpinned by temporal theory, explores the preparedness transitions of medicine and pharmacy graduates. Our 6-month qualitative longitudinal study involved 12 medicine and 7 pharmacy learners after purposive sampling. They participated in an entrance interview before starting internship, longitudinal audio-diaries during their first three months of internship, and an exit interview. Framework analysis explored patterns in the data cross-sectionally and longitudinally for the whole cohort (thinking over time), with pen portraits illustrating individuals' journeys (thinking through time). Preparedness and unpreparedness narratives involved practical skills and tasks, interpersonal skills, knowledge, and professional practice for medicine and pharmacy. However, narratives for practical skills and tasks, and professional practice were dominant amongst medicine graduates, while narratives for interpersonal skills and knowledge were dominant amongst pharmacy graduates. We found numerous cohort changes in feelings of preparedness over time, but the illustrative pen portraits demonstrated the complexities and nuances through time, including feelings of preparedness before internship becoming unpreparedness during internship (e.g., cannulas), improving preparedness through time (e.g., cover shifts), and persistent feelings of unpreparedness (e.g., patient interactions). While our cross-sectional findings are reasonably consistent with existing research, our comparative and longitudinal findings are novel. We recommend that educators build learners' preparedness through uniprofessional transition interventions involving practical skills and tasks, and professional practice in medicine, and interpersonal skills and knowledge in pharmacy. More importantly, we recommend multiprofessional transition interventions for medicine and pharmacy learners before internship focusing on knowledge, and during internship focusing on practical skills and tasks.

Bus travel feature inference with small samples based on multi-clustering topic model over Internet of Things

With the widespread application of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, there has been a shift from a broad-brush to a more refined approach in traffic optimization. An increasing amount of IoT data is being utilized in trajectory mining and inference, offering more precise characteristic information for optimizing public transportation. Services that optimize public transit based on inferred travel characteristics can enhance the appeal of public transport, increase its likelihood as a travel choice, alleviate traffic congestion, and reduce carbon emissions. However, the inherent complexities of disorganized and unstructured public transportation data pose significant challenges to extracting travel features. This study explores the enhancement of bus travel by integrating advanced technologies like positioning systems, IoT, and AI to infer features in public transportation data. It introduces the MK-LDA (MeanShift Kmeans Latent Dirichlet Allocation), a novel thematic modeling technique for deducing characteristics of public transit travel using limited travel trajectory data. The model employs a segmented inference methodology, initially leveraging the Mean-shift clustering algorithm to create POI seeds, followed by the P-K-means algorithm for discerning patterns in user travel behavior and extracting travel modalities. Additionally, a P-LDA (POI-Latent Dirichlet Allocation) inference algorithm is proposed to examine the interplay between travel characteristics and behaviors, specifically targeting attributes significantly correlated with public transit usage, including age, occupation, gender, activity levels, cost, safety, and personality traits. Empirical validation highlights the efficacy of this thematic modeling-based inference technique in identifying and predicting travel characteristics and patterns, boasting enhanced interpretability and outperforming conventional benchmarks.

Diverging destinies: How children are faring under demographic transition

India reached the replacement level of fertility in 2020. However, the journey of fertility transition is unconventional and heterogeneous within the country and across the different socio-economic groups. The fertility transition is considered to be faster than its socio-economic and health transition in several states. Thus, it has been presumed that the returns to fertility decline are heterogeneous across the states and population sub-groups. Our specific hypothesis is that although rich and poor, and educated and un-educated, everyone had significantly contributed to the fertility decline in response to family planning policies, only those socio-economically better-off have been investing relatively more in their children compared to the poor, and this has led to diverging destinies for children. We tested this supposition using a macro-level panel dataset (1992–2021), fixed and random effects, and IV regression models. The results confirm that child health care and outcomes have diverged while fertility declined from 1992 to 2021. These results are sustained in multiple robustness checks. While fertility is declining with highly state-sponsored family planning programmes, the persistent socio-economic inequalities are leading to unequal progress in health outcomes for children in India.

Human-centered design approach to building a transition readiness mHealth intervention for early adolescents.

Mobile health (mHealth) interventions may be an efficacious strategy for promoting health behaviors among pediatric populations, but their success at the implementation stage has proven challenging. The purpose of this article is to provide a blueprint for using human-centered design (HCD) methods to maximize the potential for implementation, by sharing the example of a youth-, family-, and clinician-engaged process of creating an mHealth intervention aimed at promoting healthcare transition readiness. Following HCD methods in partnership with three advisory councils, we conducted semistructured interviews with 13- to 15-year-old patients and their caregivers in two phases. In Phase 1, participants described challenges during the transition journey, and generated ideas regarding the format, content, and other qualities of the mHealth tool. For Phase 2, early adolescents and caregivers provided iterative feedback on two sequential intervention prototypes. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis in Phase 1 and the rapid assessment process for Phase 2. We interviewed 11 youth and 8 caregivers. The sample included adolescents with a range of chronic health conditions. In Phase 1, participants supported the idea of developing an autonomy-building tool, delivering transition readiness education via social media style videos. In Phase 2, participants responded positively to the successive prototypes and provided suggestions to make information accessible, relatable, and engaging. The procedures shared in this article could inform other researchers' plans to apply HCD in collaboration with implementation partners to develop mHealth interventions. Our future directions include iteratively developing more videos to promote transition readiness and implementing the intervention in clinical care.

Nursing Experience Applying Transition Theory to Assist the Family of an Infant With Complex Congenital Gastroschisis

This article describes the application of transition theory to assist a family with an infant with congenital complex gastroschisis. The nursing period, from March 3, 2023 to May 9, 2023, encompassed care from hospitalization to discharge. The author employed transition theory as a guide and used physical assessments, observations, and interviews for data collection as well as behavioral processes records. The primary nursing problem was identified as "preparation for family operation process enhancement/child's congenital disease and complex care needs, and the family's response to the challenges of the disease and care adaptation." The three phases of nursing care were summarized as: (1) the family adjustment to uncertainty, (2) undertaking caregiving roles and responsibilities, and (3) role development and family reconnection. The author established specific goals for each phase and provided corresponding interventions for the family. In the first phase, the author guided the family in expressing their concerns, and offered personalized health education information as well as psychological support to help them understand the progression of their child's disease and alleviate related anxiety and confusion. In the second phase, the author offered sleep guidance and customized home care schedules to support coping skill development and role functioning. In the third phase, the family was encouraged to explore the meaning of life while accompanying their child's growth in order to achieve spiritual growth and deepen the reconnection within the family. Ultimately, the family strengthened their confidence and capabilities in caregiving and embraced optimism and expectations for the future, enabling them to adapt smoothly to life after their child's return home. When families are confronted with their child's diagnosis with a congenital disease, they often find themselves in a state of self-doubt and faced with continuous challenges. Nurses may employ transition theory throughout the nursing process to better understand and address the evolving needs of both children and their families during the transition phase. Furthermore, transition theory may be applied to help nurses better assess, plan, and care for their patients, which can enhance the capabilities of families and facilitate their successful navigation through the challenging transition journey.

Potential Strategies for Overcoming Barriers to Career Transition among Students with Visual Impairments

The visually impaired group remains among the most unemployed despite laws designed to facilitate employment opportunities for the disabled population. This review article presents potential strategies for overcoming barriers experienced by students with visual impairments (VIs) during their career transition. An integrative literature review was employed by the authors. The integrative literature review allows authors to produce new frameworks and perspectives on a topic from a range of existing research data and ideas in a significant manner. Results of the literature review suggest that public education, adequate transportation and mobility skills, proper assessment of the students' skill development, the acquisition of relevant social and independent-living skills, adequate training for rehabilitation service providers, adequate access to prints, collaboration among professionals, and early career education and work experience are some of the strategies that can be adopted to help students with VIs overcome most of the challenges they experience in their career transition journey. Adopting the strategies discussed in this article may lead to a successful career transition for these students. One of the implications of this paper is that visually impaired students should be able to adapt to the career environment by acquiring relevant skills and being open to opportunities. Also, specialized job training and placement might make it easier for visually impaired students to find competitive work after earning an academic degree and raise their chances of embarking on a successful career path.

Exploring the spatial relationship between urban built environment and green travel: An improved semi-parametric GWR approach

Public transit and non-motorized travel offer numerous environmental, social and public health benefits. Existing literature focuses on the correlation between the built environment and green travel in metropolitan centers, with limited studies on suburban new towns, essential for comprehensive urban expansion and sustainable development. This paper examines the effect of the built environment on public transit and non-motorized travel by using point of interest data and household economic data from Jiading District, Shanghai. An innovative framework is introduced, based on the geographically weighted regression model, which captures spatial heterogeneity while balancing the inequality and directionality of different areas in the transportation network. The results demonstrate that the proposed improved semi-parametric geographically weighted regression outperforms the traditional geographically weighted regression model in evaluation capabilities. A distinct spatial heterogeneity in travel patterns is identified between central and peripheral areas. The densely populated central zones exhibit a preference for intra-district travel, often opting for non-motorized modes due to their convenience and health benefits while peripheral areas serve as crucial connectors, facilitating long-distance travel within the metropolitan area through public transit and multimodal transportation. Regional transportation infrastructure construction and socioeconomic factors also affect the choice of green travel. The findings could provide theoretical references and policy implications to the development of green transportation and urban sustainability.

Androgen transition and management of hereditary angioedema long-term prophylaxis in real life: a single-center case series

BackgroundHereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare and potentially life-threatening disease that manifests clinically as recurrent episodes of swelling affecting multiple anatomical locations. Long-term prophylaxis (LTP) aims to control the disease by preventing HAE attacks. Previously, treatments such as attenuated androgens have been used for LTP, but they have an unfavorable adverse effect profile. Today, these limitations may be overcome by patients transitioning to newer, targeted therapies including oral berotralstat and subcutaneous lanadelumab. This case series reports the transition process between different prophylactic therapies in a family with HAE in a real-world setting.ResultsFour adult patient cases from the same family who underwent transitions in HAE prophylaxis are presented. Three were female and one male. Two patients who transitioned to berotralstat were initially prescribed attenuated androgens. Two patients were not taking LTP at the time of initiating targeted treatment but had previously been prescribed tranexamic acid. The length of transition varied between the patients, with the longest time taken to stabilize on new therapy being 26 months. All patients received regular follow-up in person or by telephone and all four required an adjustment from their initial treatment plan.ConclusionsTransitioning between LTP in HAE may help improve control of attacks, avoid unwanted adverse effects, or better cater to individual patient preferences. Newer targeted therapies have been shown to be effective and should be discussed with patients. Shared decision-making is a tool that can aid these discussions. The transition journey between LTP therapies in HAE may not be straightforward and is specific to each patient. Physicians should consider complicating factors such as patient anxieties around changing treatment, adverse effects, preferred routes of administration, and speed of transition. Following patients closely during the transition period helps identify any issues, including difficulties with treatment adherence, and may allow the transition plan to be adapted when necessary.

The cost of climate change: A generalized cost function approach for incorporating extreme weather exposure into public transit accessibility

Public transit offers urban populations physical accessibility to resources and opportunities. However, at the same time, transit trips often expose users to extreme environmental conditions, such as extreme heat and cold since transit journeys usually include out-of-vehicle trip segments including walking and waiting. Such exposure can be considered as environmental health costs because exposure to weather extremes can lead to adverse health outcomes. Even worse, climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. In this context, how can we make public transit accessibility measures ready for climate change? This paper attempts to answer this question by developing a generalized cost function approach combining travel time and environmental health costs into an integrated measure of dual accessibility: a measure of the travel costs of accessing a fixed number of destinations. We synthesize transport science, environmental health, remote sensing, and urban climatology to empower the proposed framework. To demonstrate the utility of the proposed method, we carry out an example study that incorporates transit passengers' extreme cold exposure into accessibility measures in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Further, we perform a social equity analysis to investigate whether the increase in total integrated costs (i.e., decrease in accessibility) due to the inclusion of environmental health costs disproportionately affects socially disadvantaged population groups. The proposed method enables a more realistic and practical measurement of public transit accessibility under climate change; thereby, improving the readiness and resilience of our society and transport systems for future challenges.

Identities in Transition from Africa to Canada: Becoming Students

Students studying abroad are faced with challenges that impact their cultural, social, and economic identities, and this varies greatly depending on their home country and study destination. The transition and inter-cultural learning experiences of international tertiary students from African countries are currently under-examined. Afrocentric theory was employed to interpret the data derived from this qualitative study, which drew upon participatory action research and Photovoice methods to explore how African students navigate transitions to studying in Canada and the strategies they use for creating supportive social resources. As authors, co-researchers, and participants, we identified unique insights on how students build and maintain senses of connections, familiarity, and comfort when away from home, and how they conceptualize, create, and sustain community. These accounts provide insight for mentors, faculty, and policymakers in North American institutions on how they can offer opportunities for holistic learning, cultural integration, and access to valuable mentorship to help students navigate the complex journey of transition.

Optimizing bikeshare service to connect affordable housing units with transit service

Affordable housing and transit accessibility have long been focal points for housing and urban development agencies at all levels, from national to regional. However, these elements are often considered and planned for independently, leading over time to an expanding spatial gap between affordable housing and transit services. This separation creates issues of mobility equity. Fortunately, bikeshare, an emerging mobility solution, provides the potential to bridge this spatial gap between affordable housing communities and transit services. To leverage this, we designed a bikeshare station (BSS) location optimization tool that aims to alleviate the impacts of this spatial divide through bikeshare services. Specifically, we developed a multimodal agent-based modeling (ABM) and simulation framework aimed at enhancing accessibility to a variety of destinations. To solve this optimization problem, we developed a genetic algorithm to determine the optimal locations for BSS. There are three main conclusions from this research. First, the strategic positioning of BSS will enhance accessibility for affordable housing community (AHC) residents by reducing average transit travel time and walk distance, or increasing the number of destinations accessible by transit. This underscores the advantages of combining bikeshare and transit systems to cater to the mobility requirements of AHC residents, especially for non-work-related trips in suburban areas. Second, the relationship between transit and bikeshare is twofold: complementation and substitution. In instances where a lengthy trip involves multiple transit transfers and significant waiting time, bikeshare could replace some transit trips. Lastly, but most importantly, this study advises a forward-looking approach for governments and operators to avoid the waste of public resources when planning bikeshare systems. The tool developed by this research can facilitate this forward-looking approach in practice.

Stepping into the just transition journey: The energy transition in petrostates

With the transition towards a low carbon economy underway, the notion of ensuring that it is a just transition – one that is fair and equitable – has captured significant attention in recent decades. Although petrostates are a central part of the fossil fuel-based global economy, they have been largely ignored in discussions of a just transition. This article explores what should characterize a just transition in petrostates, as they face challenges that are distinct from those faced by major producers of other fossil fuels such as coal. We argue that the just transition should be understood comprehensively to cover climate, energy, and environmental justice. Economic reforms, particularly investment diversification, institutional reforms, and the inclusion of women, youth populations and indigenous people are practical steps for achieving a just transition within petrostates. The importance of this research is to highlight that petrostates need to begin their just transition journey. There is limited time for this to happen, and taking steps into the just transition journey will have many benefits as identified in this research such as, socio-economic, impact on public health and an increase in inward-investments. The research involves utilizing the energy justice framework and assessing the five energy justice principles: procedural, distributive, restorative, recognition and cosmopolitan. In order to assess these we utilize data from the United Nations and World Bank to explore the key issues as asset diversification, employment and recognition issues. Finally, a just transition pathway is presented for petrostates to follow on the basis of the results.

Strategic, episodic and truncated orientations to planning in post-redundancy career transitions

This article examines different orientations to planning in the context of the post-redundancy transition of workers in the Swedish steel industry. The aim of the article is to extend our understanding of the role of planning in careers transitions. Drawing on careers transitions theories, the article explores the qualitative experience of the journey between a redundancy event and the employment situation several years later. Within the careers literature planning is regarded as important to transitions, yet there is a tendency to present planning as an ongoing and lifelong process. By going beyond the prevalent focus within the career literature on managerial, professional or creative industries workers, the article raises the question of whether highly agential, ongoing, lifelong approaches to planning apply to everyone. Data are based on working-life biographical interviews conducted several years after redundancy. The findings show that although some participants resembled assumptions within the careers literature, there are key variations relating to ongoing planning, reflecting differences in the expectations of agency and perceptions of structural constraint. The analysis identifies three orientations to planning – strategic, episodic and truncated – and explores these in relation to both post-redundancy transition outcomes and, crucially, the experience of the transition journey.

Unsupervised Learning-Based Exploration of Urban Rail Transit Passenger Flow and Travel Pattern Mining

This study delves into the realm of urban rail transit systems, leveraging unsupervised learning techniques to analyze passenger flow characteristics and unearth travel patterns. Focused on the dynamic and complex nature of urban rail networks, the research utilizes extensive datasets, primarily derived from Automated Fare Collection (AFC) systems, to provide a comprehensive analysis of passenger behaviors and movement trends. Employing advanced algorithms like DBSCAN, the study categorizes passengers into distinct groups, including tourists, shoppers, thieves, commuters, and station staff. These classifications reveal intricate patterns in travel behaviors, significantly contributing to a deeper understanding of urban transit dynamics. The findings offer valuable insights into peak travel times, popular routes, and station congestion, highlighting potential areas for operational improvements and infrastructure development. The study’s application of unsupervised learning in analyzing vast, unstructured data sets a precedent in urban transportation research, showcasing the potential of artificial intelligence in enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of urban transit systems. The insights garnered are pivotal not only for optimizing current operations but also for shaping future expansion and adaptation strategies, ensuring urban rail systems continue to meet the evolving needs of growing urban populations.