Transportation Systems In Urban Areas Research Articles

Good intentions gone awry: Rail lines and inner‐city development

AbstractThis study explored the impact of transportation systems in urban areas on economic activity. We examined the effect of traditional Chinese railway construction fencing on urban spatial development using nighttime luminance and railway data from prefecture‐level cities. The study found that the fencing effect exacerbated uneven development on either side of the railway, especially in economically underdeveloped areas. These results were supported by different measures of development and a placebo test. The fencing effect was also found to affect the location of newly registered firms and the total factor productivity of industrial firms, leading to unbalanced growth on either side of the railway.

Charging infrastructure assessment for shared autonomous electric vehicles in 374 small and medium-sized urban areas: An agent-based simulation approach

This research examines the use of Shared Autonomous Electric Vehicles (SAEVs) in 374 U.S. small and medium-sized urban areas, focusing on fleet and infrastructure needs through agent-based simulations. It assesses metrics such as fleet size, trips per vehicle, and charging station requirements, considering two charger types: Level 2 and Level 3. The findings show significant spatial differences in SAEV operations and infrastructure across these cities. Statistical analysis links these variations to regional road networks and travel patterns. The study finds Level 3 chargers more efficient, requiring fewer stations and enabling more trips per vehicle compared to Level 2 chargers. Furthermore, Level 3 chargers exhibit a greater number of trips per SAEV and a higher ratio of vehicles to charging stations. These findings highlight the significance of considering charging infrastructure characteristics to optimize SAEV fleet performance and promote sustainable transportation systems in urban areas. This study significantly contributes by identifying the spatial variation and correlates of the SAEVs' operational and charging infrastructural performance. Policymakers, urban planners, and transportation service providers can leverage these insights to design and implement effective charging infrastructure for SAEV fleets, thereby advancing the transition to cleaner and more efficient mobility solutions.

Persepsi Kinerja dan Dampak Transportasi Online terhadap Pendapatan Pengemudi Angkutan Kota (Studi Kasus Trayek R.02 Kota Kendari)

Online-based transportation is rife amidst the condition of the public transportation system in urban areas and in the City of Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, which needs to be better organized. Offering high flexibility and accessibility, affordable costs, multilevel comfort, and even security guaranteed by the company, it is undeniable that people who need to make a switch move under the pretext of consumer freedom to choose better. Social jealousy cannot be contained, especially for conventional transportation (Angkot) already operating. Gradually the number of online-based transport fleets is increasing, and of course, it affects the income of Angkot drivers. Therefore, reviewing the performance from the passengers' perspective tries to see to what extent the Angkot can meet expectations. The analysis used the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) method and Importance Performance Analysis (IPA). In addition, the statistic tests whether public transportation drivers have decreased income due to the increasing prevalence of online-based transportation. Respondents of public transportation passengers (users) were 400 people and 91 public transportation drivers. The results show that Online Transportation's presence hurts public transportation drivers' income levels. A decrease in the level of income of the drivers indicates this difference. The average daily income before online transportation was Rp. 151,000 - Rp. 200,000 and Rp. 51,000 - Rp. 100,000 after. On the other hand, for users, the results of the CSI analysis show that the Fare Variable is considered Satisfied for the user. At the same time, Safety, Comfort, Regularity, Smoothness, and Accuracy are rated Normal/Neutral. The Dissatisfied Variables are Safety and Pollution. In the IPA analysis, seven attributes are in Quadrant II, which means that users rate public transportation as 'Keep Up The Good Work', and six attributes are in Quadrant I, which means they need serious attention and 'improvement'. While the other 16 attributes are in quadrants III and IV, namely 'Low Priority' and 'Possible Overkill'.

Problems of financing urban mobility resilience in Poland

Motivation: The efficient functioning of transportation systems is subject to various types of disruptions and risks. Transportation systems are strongly affected by all kinds of local, regional, national, or global crises. The European Union’s transport policy indicates the need to build sustainable, intelligent, and resilient urban mobility systems based on public mass transit. The paradigm of resilience has gained particular importance in the context of the global crises of the last five years. Resilient urban mobility systems are intended to provide the ability to respond quickly to disruptions that occur, allowing urban organisms to achieve operational stability.Aim: The purpose of the study is to identify the main problems with financing the resilience of public mass transit systems in Polish cities. The specific aims are the identification of the factors determining the resilience of urban mobility systems and tools supporting it, measures of resilience and ways of financing it. The study sought to verify whether the mobility systems of Polish regional cities can be considered resilient from a financial point of view.Results: Financing urban public mass transport in Poland is based on two key sources of income: fees from ticket sales and payments (compensations) made by local governments. The economic and energy crisis contributed to a significant increase in the operating costs of public mass transportation providers. In this context, the key to building resilient public mass transport systems in urban areas is to make changes to existing models to ensure a stable PTA financing system.

Intelligent Environment-Adaptive GNSS/INS Integrated Positioning with Factor Graph Optimization

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) applied to intelligent transport systems in urban areas suffer from multipath and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) effects due to the signal reflections from high-rise buildings, which seriously degrade the accuracy and reliability of vehicles in real-time applications. Accordingly, the integration between GNSS and inertial navigation systems (INSs) could be utilized to improve positioning performance. However, the fixed GNSS solution uncertainty of the conventional integration method cannot determine the fluctuating GNSS reliability in fast-changing urban environments. This weakness becomes solvable using a deep learning model for sensing the ambient environment intelligently, and it can be further mitigated using factor graph optimization (FGO), which is capable of generating robust solutions based on historical data. This paper mainly develops the adaptive GNSS/INS loosely coupled system on FGO, along with the fixed-gain Kalman filter (KF) and adaptive KF (AKF) being taken as comparisons. The adaptation is aided by a convolutional neural network (CNN), and the feasibility is verified using data from different grades of receivers. Compared with the integration using fixed-gain KF, the proposed adaptive FGO (AFGO) maintains the 100% positioning availability and reduces the overall 2D positioning error by up to 70% in the aspects of both root mean square error (RMSE) and standard deviation (STD).

A three-stage framework for efficient deployment of intelligent transportation systems in urban areas

Rapid urbanization in big cities worldwide leads to severe traffic congestion and damages the urban living environment. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) play a crucial role in addressing the growing challenges of urban transportation, such as congestion, pollution, and safety concerns. However, there is a lack of studies to present an overall framework to deploy ITS efficiently in urban areas considering each city's unique conditions. Therefore, this paper develops a three-stage framework to simplify the process of efficient deployment of ITS application services in a specific city. Three stages include identifying potential ITS services, evaluating and ranking the priority of ITS application services, and analyzing legal requirements as well identifying any gaps or areas where the current legal framework may fall short in accommodating ITS technologies. The three-stage framework considers the specific transportation challenges and requirements of each urban area/city, taking into account factors such as traffic patterns, infrastructure limitations, environmental considerations, and future development plans. A case study in Hai Phong city was presented where expert surveys were conducted to assess the current transport situation, evaluate satisfaction and expectation regarding applying ITS services. By providing a comprehensive framework for the efficient deployment of ITS in urban areas, this paper offers valuable insights and guidance to policymakers, transportation planners, and researchers. The framework can be as reference for other similar cities grappling with transportation challenges, facilitating the implementation of effective ITS solutions to transform advanced and sustainable urban transportation systems.

Urban transport, logistics, and tourism: Review of a cutting-edge socially-oriented approach to industrial development

Motives: Rapid urbanization has increased public awareness about logistics support for urban traffic flows. Given this interest, the relevance of this research is beyond any doubt. Aim: The study aims to identify the most cutting-edge approaches for facilitating traffic and tourism flows using various urban transport modes, and to define the opportunities for their application on the domestic market. Results: The results of the conducted analyses suggest that the development of rail transport is the most promising and vital step in improving urban transport and logistics infrastructure, including in the tourism sector. The study established that intelligent transport systems in urban areas, including public transport, logistics flows, tourist flows, parking, and road traffic control, are complex management systems. A critical examination of several cases supported the identification of regularities in factors that affect the dynamics of urban traffic flows. In view of the rapid development of transport and logistics infrastructure around the world, development opportunities in rural areas bordering large cities were identified. The most effective approaches to resolving logistics problems in a period of war were determined.

Knowledge Development on Urban Public Transportation Concepts: A Literature Study in Bibliometric Analysis

Urban public transportation (UPT) is the development of public transportation systems in urban areas by optimizing resources and infrastructure that are integrated with each other by adopting environmentally friendly technologies to create a sustainable city. Urban public transportation is important to be developed through the differentiation of knowledge and technology which refers to development of metropolitan cities as a benchmark in supporting sustainable development. Qualitative research using bibliometric analysis as a meta-analysis study was developed to analyze the research theme. The scientific literature analyzed came from journal publications published from 1966-2020. The results of analysis state that significant increase the themes studied occurred in the last two periods with priority topics including sustainable transportation, service quality, air pollution, bus rapid transit, and light rail transit. New topics that have not been widely researched need to be strengthened in their analysis through the development of knowledge and technology to produce a sustainable transportation system.

Factorial Design with Simulation for the Optimization of the Level of Service in the Platform-Train Interface of Metro Stations—A Pilot Study

Metro stations are considered complex areas of pedestrian mobility due to the increasing congestion, due to the a high level of demand of different circulation spaces. Given this situation and the limited physical spaces remaining to develop transport systems in urban areas, railways acquire greater relevance given the need to mobilize pedestrians. Within the stations, the most problematic area is the platform-train interface (PTI) due to the high number of interactions between passengers boarding and alighting. The objective of this study is to identify the PTI configuration that maximizes the level of service for passengers, safeguards the operational continuity of the system and improves user experience by reducing dissatisfaction and delay times. For this, a pedestrian microsimulation model is used in order to recreate the reality of a generic metro station and its different scenarios given the combinations of two factors: the platform configurations (topology) and the traffic control elements. Subsequently, these scenarios are analyzed through a factorial design, looking for the situation that optimizes the combination of metrics chosen in a weighted way. Finally, it is found that the PTI configuration that maximizes the level of service for users is the mixed station with signaling. It is this which includes the factors with the greatest positive effect on the chosen metrics.

The disturbance of urban mobility in the context of COVID-19 pandemic

Since the COVID-19 outbreaks, extensive studies have focused on mobility changes to demonstrate the pandemic effect; some studies identified remarkable mobility declines and revealed a negative relationship between mobility and the number of COVID-19 cases. However, counter-arguments have been raised, exemplifying insignificant variations, recuperated travel frequency, and transitory decline effect. This paper copes with this contentious issue, analyzing time series mobility data in comprehensive timelines. The assessment of the pandemic effect builds on significant change rate (SCR) ceilings and the density of the semantic outliers derived from the kernel-based approach. The comparison between pre- and post-pandemic periods indicated that mobility decline pervaded Australia, Europe, New York, New Zealand, and Seoul. However, the degree of the effect was alleviated over time, showing decreased/increased SCR ceilings of negative/positive outliers. The changes in resulting outlier density and SCR ceilings corroborated that the pandemic outbreaks did not lead to persistent mobility decline. The findings provide useful insights for predicting epidemics and setting appropriate restrictions and transportation systems in urban areas.

Influence of analog barrier type and impact velocity on the energy dissipation of simulant saprolitic rock particles colliding rigid and deformable barrier systems

The analysis of the collision problem of solid objects is of interest in the fundamental study and design of barrier systems protecting infrastructures against debris flows, which can be particularly useful in the sustainable design of transportation systems in urban areas with hilly terrain or extended railway/highway lines which pose additional hazards in relation to landslide and granular flow problems. However, many times debris flows encounter weathered materials in which the formed coating of microparticles on the surfaces of sand grains and fragmented rock alter significantly their contact response. In the present study, we examined with grain-scale tests the impact problem of particle – analog barrier systems encountering natural sand particles in their original form and also in the presence of a laboratory-created soft coating of microparticles, representing simulant saprolitic rock grains. Different types of analog barriers were examined including brittle and ductile rigid blocks and also analog deformable buffering and the data were analyzed in terms of the coefficient of restitution and percentage energy loss expressing the energy dissipation during collision. For impacts on analog rigid barriers, brittle to elastoplastic deformation of micro-asperities comprised a major influencing factor for uncoated sand particles on the energy dissipation during collision, however, additional (and somehow competitive) mechanisms were introduced when coated particles were encountered in the collision tests. Due to the highly hysteretic behavior of the analog deformable barrier, the results converged between uncoated and coated particles in terms of coefficient of restitution and percentage energy loss during collision. For all the combinations of particles and analog barriers, transformation of the translational (input) kinetic energy into different forms also contributed to the dissipation of energy, more prominently for the analog deformable buffering as the deviating angles from the experiments suggested. Additional comparisons were made between 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional analyses of the experiments using one and two high speed cameras, respectively, revealing small differences in the resultant energy dissipation from the two approaches. The results from the present study offer some fundamental insights into the impact problem of particle-block systems and also input parameters which can be further utilized in discrete-based numerical simulations of debris flow – barrier interaction problems.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF RAILWAY STOPS AND STATIONS IN TERMS OF LAND USE STRUCTURE IN THEIR SURROUNDINGS

Ensuring the high accessibility of railway stops and stations is essential to effective transport systems in urban areas. There are different ways to analyze accessibility at the station level. In this paper, it has been assumed that railway stops and stations should be located in places with significant demand for passenger rail transport characterized by a highly dense and diversity-rich land use structure. Therefore, the presented classification uses data on the built environment in the surroundings of these elements of the railway infrastructure, with particular attention to the type of each building. The analysis was performed for the Metropolis GZM area. Based on the gathered spatial data, railway stops and stations in the aspect of the density and diversity of the built environment in their vicinity were classified. This classification can be applied to the assessment of accessibility.

Towards a sustainable road transportation system in urban areas: A case study of Owerri, Nigeria

Urban Areas in almost all cases develop outwards from the centre. Public facilities (schools, offices, markets) are usually located at about the centre while residential abodes radiate outwards. Such development pattern necessitates road transportation movement to the centre. This paper examines strategies that can be adopted to achieve the necessary movement in a sustainable manner for these urban areas, with Owerri Nigeria as a case study. A field study was conducted to ascertain the total passenger requirement, number and mix of passenger vehicles as well as measure three main road transport-induced air pollutants. The result of the field work showed existing commuter vehicles mix of 56.2:63.7: 19.6:1.6:1 for salons, wagons, mini-buses, coaster buses and big buses respectively, of a total of 85,950 vehicles. The survey also revealed ambient air pollutants level higher than the recommended standards. A new model was developed to achieve a vehicles remix of 10:33:53: 14:1 of same vehicle types and reduction in traffic volume and target air pollutants. The analyses showed that mini-buses and coaster buses have advantage over salon cars, wagon vehicles and big buses in terms of traffic congestions and pollutants release into the environment. The two bus types have least pollutants release per passenger carried. An optimal vehicle remix, which gives higher priority to these buses has been shown to reduce congestion by 40%, Carbon monoxide by 40%, Nitrogen Dioxide by 50% and Methane by 50%. Based on the findings, it is recommended that vehicular remix of 10:33:53:14:1, for salon: wagon: mini-buses: coaster buses: big buses be adopted for Owerri commuters’ transportation need. Some policy measures were put forward to help achieve this. The measures include an outright ban on use of low-passenger-carrying vehicles for commercial purposes.

Catching the bus in Barcelona

In our study, we seek to identify the basic factors in citizens’ decisions to regularly use public transportation, especially the decision to ride a bus in Barcelona, Spain. Our survey reveals that, contrary to other recent results, income is not a statistically significant factor in those decisions, whereas level of education and occupation are. Moreover, the effects of congestion emerge as a key factor in the decision to ride the bus regularly. Considering congestion’s impact on the likelihood of regularly using the bus transport system, regular commuters in the urban area and riders with a high level of education are more responsive to reductions in congestion. Those findings contribute to an important discussion about implementing public policies that support citizens’ use of public transportation systems in urban areas.

An analysis of the influence of travel time on access time in public transport

Sustainable mobility is a priority for transport systems in urban areas. Contemporary planning of transport systems assumes an increase in the role of public transport in everyday trips. To increase the share of trips using public transport, it is essential to improve the accessibility of public transport stops. The accessibility of such stops depends primarily on the distance between the trip origin and the stop. Many factors influence the distance that passengers are willing to travel. This paper discusses the relationship between the access time to the bus stop and travel time. To study such a relationship, various statistical methods may be applied. This paper presents the results of the analysis performed based on the data on trips made by inhabitants of Bielsko-Biała, gathered during the building of its transport model.

CRAFT: Comprehensive Resilience Assessment Framework for Transportation Systems in Urban Areas

Urban areas in the US and around the globe are facing increasingly complex resilience challenges. Among the components of the “urban system,” transportation networks are among the most critical facilitators that support the lives, interactions, and dynamics of urban dwellers. They are essential to the well-being of the society not only under business-as-usual conditions, but also during times of disaster for the entire response and recovery timeline. This paper introduces CRAFT (Comprehensive Resilience Assessment Framework for Transportation Systems in Urban Areas), which is designed to achieve holistic analyses of transportation disruptions by addressing the many shortcomings and research gaps in this domain. The framework couples a novel structure-specific modeling methodology with a high-fidelity metropolis-scale travel demand model based on real socioeconomic data, and produces results, which, in turn, serve as input for a state-of-the-art socioeconomic impact analysis methodology that is based on computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis. By the virtues of its data-intensive, model-based, and cross-disciplinary nature, CRAFT aims to capture and incorporate many details that are usually neglected in traditional approaches, and generates resilience insights at 3 levels: (1) system component level (e.g., damages to bridges, tunnels and information on component recovery), (2) system level (e.g., road network disruptions, reconfiguration of traffic and network level functionality) and (3) regional economic level (e.g., impacts on regional GDP, employment, economic resilience). The objective of this paper is to introduce CRAFT and to demonstrate the workings of its first coupling between the hazard and transportation modules through a case study on the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Relationship between eye-level greenness and cycling frequency around metro stations in Shenzhen, China: A big data approach

Better bicycle-transit integration improves the efficiency and sustainability of public transportation systems in urban areas. Urban greenness around metro stations may affect the use of cycling to or from metro stations. However, the evidence for the association between urban greenness and cycling behaviors is inconclusive. In addition, few studies have been conducted in developing countries, such as China, which enjoyed the reputation of cycling nation until the late 1990s and witness a big comeback of cycling in the last several years. This study aimed to explore the relationship between eye-level greenness and cycling behaviors around metro stations in Shenzhen, China, based on free-floating bicycle data and street-view image data. The results indicate that eye-level greenness was positively associated with cycling frequency on weekdays and on weekends within three buffer sizes around metro stations (500-m, 1000-m, and 1500-m). The effect of eye-level greenness on cycling frequency was greater on weekends than on weekdays. Our findings suggest that providing sufficient and visible greenery along streets and cycling lanes around metro stations may promote cycling use and bicycle-transit integration.

Urban Economic Activities and Livelihood: A Case of Autowalas

The basic needs like food, shelter, cloth, and other secured necessities are the gross root level requirements of every human being. And even it drives to do economic activities for their livelihood. In India, urbanization characterized by employment argument, and it deals with different sectarian economic activities like infrastructure, service, hospital, education, industries, and transportation. In an urban transportation system, the auto has a centric position because of its coverage network in cities. So the present study attempts to investigate the centric transportation system in urban areas, i.e., auto-rickshaw service, by analyzing the socio-economic lifestyle of auto drivers and economics of auto wallas. The main objective of the study is to explore the socio-economic condition of auto wallas. The study also highlights the educational qualification, marital status, residence, and type of family, savings, borrowings, and economic position of auto wallas in Davangere city.

Birds using tram tracks in Poznań (Poland): Species, infrastructure use and behaviour

Transport infrastructures, mainly roads and railways, influence many aspects of bird life. The use of trams in urban areas for mass transit has been suggested as having a lower impact on the environment. However, to date, the impact of tram tracks and the surrounding infrastructure on birds has not been directly tested. Therefore, we posed two questions during a study of tramways in Poznań (western Poland): (1) which bird species use tram tracks and their infrastructure; and (2) how does their behaviour respond to moving trams. Tram tracks were recorded as used by 11 species, with four corvids (jackdaw Corvus monedula, rook Corvus frugilegus, magpie Pica pica and hooded crow Corvus cornix) totalling 66% of records and feral pigeon Columba livia contributing a further 24%. Species showed different usage patterns of the tram infrastructure. In the case of rook during winter, significantly more birds were observed further from a tram stop. In summer, a higher density of jackdaws occurred where track surroundings were vegetated, and both hooded crows in winter and magpies in winter were more abundant where track geometry was more complex. During our field work only two dead birds on tram tracks were observed. The results of this study, and a literature survey of other transport options, suggest that tram tracks are not very dangerous for birds, and at least from this point of view, can be recommended as an environmentally friendly transport system in urban areas.

A Comprehensive Methodology for Comparative Performance Evaluation of Public Transport Systems in Urban Areas

The implementation of a new public transport system requires a huge amount of funds mainly in infrastructure, construction and maintenance. Hence, prior to making investment in transport technologies, poor economic condition and limitation of the infrastructure facilities, there is a continued need to improve the performance of public transport system in urban areas in developing countries. However, the performance improvement of public transport system is a complicated process because it can be viewed through three different perspectives i.e. user, operator and city perspectives. Hence, for efficient operation and sustainability, the requirements of these three perspectives should be met with. The performance evaluation process is useful for monitoring, controlling and improving the facilities of public transport systems in relation to different aspects from different perspectives. However, most of the studies are not structured considering all three perspectives in a simple manner so that cannot find significant comparative information for performance evaluation of public transport systems in urban areas. Therefore, this study presents a comprehensive methodology for comparative performance evaluation of public transport system from user, city and operator perspective as well as combined in urban areas. The methodology proposed in this study is also illustrated using BCLL bus system and Mini bus system in Bhopal city. It is expected that this study will be useful to take significant decisions before implementation of new system or alteration in existing system and performance improvement of existing urban transport system in developing countries.