Urban Public Transport System Research Articles

Evaluation of Space Service Quality for Facilitating Efficient Operations in a Mass Rapid Transit Station

In an urban public transport system, mass rapid transit (MRT) stations play an important role in the concentration and deconcentration of passengers. Spatial conflicts and unclear routes may lead to crowding in MRT stations and reduce their operational efficiency. For this reason, this study proposes a space service quality evaluation method based on agent-based simulation by employing spatial information from building information modeling (BIM) systems as boundary constraints. Moreover, passengers and trains are simulated as interacting agents with complex behaviors in a limited space. This method comprehensively assesses congestion, noise, and air quality to determine service quality in different spaces. Moreover, the results are visualized in different ways for decision making about space planning. Finally, this research demonstrates and verifies the functions of the proposed system with an actual MRT station. Such simulation results can be used as a reference for management personnel to adjust space/route plans to increase passenger satisfaction environment quality, and operational efficiency in the operation stage of an MRT station. The evaluation method establishes valid and reliable measures of service performance and passenger satisfaction as well as other performance outcomes.

DETERMINATION OF THE THROUGHPUT CAPACITY OF STOP POINTS OF URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Introduction. One of the most important parameters of the transport system is the capacity of line, which in urban public transport system is usually determined by the stop points throughput capacity. When determining the throughput capacity of stop points, it is necessary to consider the random nature of the transport flows at the stop and the process of boarding and alighting passengers. In this work, the stop point is considered as a multi-channel single-phase queuing system (QS). On this basis, an approach to determining the throughput capacity of stop points in urban passenger transport is proposed and justified.Materials and methods. Two mathematical models of a stop point as QS are considered: analytical and simulation. Based on the obtained analysis results from these models, recommendations are offered for calculating the actual throughput capacity of a stop point.Results. In this article, as example a specific stop points are taken, to evaluate the performance of the proposed mathematical models and formulate recommendations to determine its throughput capacity.Discussion and conclusion. The proposed procedure for determining the stop points throughput capacity, consisting of identifying critical stop points with the highest passengers traffic, determining the service process parameters of fleet, and calculating the probability of queue occurrence, allows to set the maximum traffic intensity for the lines of urban public transport.Financial transparency: the authors have no financial interest in the presented materials or methods. There is no conflict of interest.

Exploring the robustness of public transportation for sustainable cities: A double-layered network perspective

The reliable and safe operation of an urban public transportation (UPT) system is of great significance to the sustainable development of a city. In-depth analyses of UPT network by exploring the topological structure and passenger travel features can help explain the mechanisms driving reliable UPT operations. Based on complex network theory, we proposed a robust model for a Bus-Subway double-layered network (B–S DLN) from the structural and functional perspectives. The following indicators were used to quantify the structural robustness of B–S DLN: average path length (APL), relative size of giant component (RSGC) and global network efficiency (GNE). The functional robustness was measured using the ratio of passenger flow loss (R). Using urban traffic data from the Xicheng District of Beijing, we analyzed the cascading failure of B–S DLN based on a nonlinear load-capacity model with two capacity control parameters: α and β. The simulation results show that α and β significantly impact the cascading failure process of B–S DLN. An increase in β or decrease in α can enhance the network’s ability to resist cascading failure. The parameter control method revealed that the B–S DLN achieves strong robustness when α = 0.2 and β = 0.5. Comparing the network robustness under a random attack and intentional attack, the B–S DLN is more robust under an intentional attack than in the random attack mode. This indicates that the robustness of B–S DLN can be significantly improved by rationally increasing station capacities.

Application Of A Template Matching Algorithm In The Detection Of The Railroad Track

As the most important part of urban public transportation system, railway and subway are undertaking extremely important tasks. Manual inspection is sometimes difficult to detect track damage in time. Based on the impulse excitation of the rail, the undamaged rail and the damaged rail are distinguished according to the characteristics of its vibration signal. In the process of feature extraction, the pulse signal is intercepted, and the threshold is taken after gaussian smoothing filter. After multiple processing, the feature template is formed. Through the template matching algorithm proposed in this paper, the rail excitation pulse signal can be identified and the rail damage state can be determined. And the simulation display and control platform based on real object is made. After many tests, the method is proved to be effective.

Accessibility Dynamics and Regional Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) Perspectives in the Portuguese—Spanish Borderland

Accessibility plays a major role in achieving sustainable transport, and therefore urban and regional sustainability. The urban public transport system promotes mobility and realizes a large part of urban movements. Moreover, improving accessibility in order to promote sustainable transport requires the application of new concepts and indicators as a powerful tool in the process of creating a balanced urban transport system. In this regard, one of the main goals of this research is to present an overview of the relevant accessibility indicators and assessment of accessibility in regional Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) in order to transcendence challenges and obstacles for sustainable transportation in these regions along of Portuguese-Spanish border. This paper focuses on the accessibility of cross-border cooperation scenarios along the border regions of Alto Alentejo (Portugal) and Badajoz (Spain) where the Case Study Research Method (CSR) made it possible to recognize accessibility as a key factor in territorial success. Also, accessibility analysis can assess improvements as well as regional imbalances. In addition, this methodology can be used to identify missing links, which requires new investments enabling long-term sustainability.

Evaluation Indexes and Correlation Analysis of Origination–Destination Travel Time of Nanjing Metro Based on Complex Network Method

The information level of the urban public transport system is constantly improving, which promotes the use of smart cards by passengers. The OD (origination–destination) travel time of passengers reflects the temporal and spatial distribution of passenger flow. It is helpful to improve the flow efficiency of passengers and the sustainable development of the city. It is an urgent problem to select appropriate indexes to evaluate OD travel time and analyze the correlation of these indexes. More than one million OD records are generated by the AFC (Auto Fare Collection) system of Nanjing metro every day. A complex network method is proposed to evaluate and analyze OD travel time. Five working days swiping data of Nanjing metro are selected. Firstly, inappropriate data are filtered through data preprocessing. Then, the OD travel time indexes can be divided into three categories: time index, complex network index, and composite index. Time index includes use time probability, passenger flow between stations, average time between stations, and time variance between stations. The complex network index is based on two models: Space P and ride time, including the minimum number of rides, and the shortest ride time. Composite indicators include inter site flow efficiency and network flow efficiency. Based on the complex network model, this research quantitatively analyzes the Pearson correlation of the indexes of OD travel time. This research can be applied to other public transport modes in combination with big data of public smart cards. This will improve the flow efficiency of passengers and optimize the layout of the subway network and urban space.

Spatial Variation of Taxi Demand Using GPS Trajectories and POI Data

Taxi as a door-to-door, all-weather way of travel is an important part of the urban transportation system. A fundamental understanding of temporal-spatial variation and its related influential factors are essential for taxi regulation and urban planning. In this paper, we explore the correlation between taxi demand and socio-economic, transport system and land use patterns based on taxi GPS trajectory and POI (point of interest) data of Qingdao City. The geographically weighted regression (GWR) model is used to describe the influence factors of spatial heterogeneity of the taxi demand and visualize the spatial distributions of parameter estimations. Results indicate that during the peak hours, there are some differences in taxi demand between workdays and weekends. Residential density and housing prices increase the number of taxi trips. Road density, parking lot density and bus station density are positively associated with the taxi demand. It is also found that the higher of the proportion of commercial area and public service area, the greater of the taxi demand, while the proportion of residential area and the land use mix have a negative impact on taxi demand. This paper provides some references for understanding the internal urban environmental factors generating from the taxi travel demand, and provides insights for reducing the taxi vacancy rate, forecasting taxi temporal-spatial demand and urban public transportation system planning.

Do businesses expect benefits from the existence of metro stations in their area? A case study in Thessaloniki, Greece

There is a great number of studies which have proved that a new or improved transport system has an important impact on land uses and real estate prices. While there are many studies which examine the effect of a new urban public transport system on the values of neighbouring properties, the number of researches which focus on the identification of the benefits that businesses can expect is rather limited. The objective of the present paper is to identify parameters which have a significant impact on the business revenue, as well as to quantify that impact, focusing on the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, where a metro system is under construction A questionnaire-based survey took place, addressed to business enterprise owners and professionals in the surrounding area of ten of the planned locations of Thessaloniki metro stations. The data collected by this survey were reinforced with additional attributes of the businesses, such as their distance from the nearest metro station, and a statistical analysis has been conducted, utilizing also regression modelling techniques The results indicate that more benefits can be expected for businesses which are located closer to the metro stations, especially in areas with limited parking availability. The benefits are estimated to be higher for the land use category that includes restaurants/café/bars. Models of that type can be very useful in cases of implementing alternative funding/financing methods, such as Value Capture. For the implementation of such methods it is very important to accurately estimate the benefits that all the parties involved in an investment will gain.

Determining passenger traffic as important factor in urban public transport system

Studies of passenger flows in planning the development of the large cities’ transportation system are of great importance. It is not possible to design an urban transportation network or improve the existing one without accurate and objective data obtained from field studies. The article describes a method for conducting a passenger traffic study.

Proposing Major BRT Routes for Rajshahi City Towards Increasing Public Transport Demand and Alleviation of Congestion Level to Achieve A Sustainable Urban Public Transport System

Rajshahi is the fourth largest city of Bangladesh having a population of around 8 lakhs with a high urbanization rate of 32.93%. The transportation system of Rajshahi is comprising of motorized transport (bus, mini-bus, truck, car, auto-rickshaw, auto-tempo, motorcycle, etc.) and nonmotorized transports (viz. rickshaw, rickshaw van, bicycle, pushcart, etc.). The rapidly increasing population along with the diversified land-use patterns generating considerable transport demands on the transportation system and the higher number of transport vehicles causes numerous problems in the city such as traffic congestion, road accidents, less effective and inefficient traffic movement, inadequate traffic management, environmental pollution, sound pollution and so on. The number of private vehicles is increasing day by day because there is no public transport system with an effective public transport network within the city. As a result, major shares of the roads are occupied by the small vehicles make complexities for efficient traffic movement. According to a recent analysis of RCC (Rajshahi City Corporation) the annual average growth rate of these traffics is motorized (8.50%), auto-rickshaw (12.30%), motorcycle (12.60%), truck (5.30%) and car (5.70%). So, the upcoming future of the transport sector in Rajshahi city is going to face an uncertain challenge through the increasing population and rapidly growing motorized traffics which will affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the transport systems. In view of the worsening traffic congestion and deterioration inaccessibility, level of service, safety, and operational efficiency, it is time to introduce the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). In this paper, an attempt has been made to provide an overview of the public transportation system of Rajshahi city and five major BRT routes have been proposed for ever-increasing public transport demand towards alleviation of congestion level and achieving a sustainable urban public transport system.

A Study on the Differences in Driving Skills of Chinese Bus and Taxi Drivers

Professional drivers constitute an important group of drivers who shoulder the responsibility of safely transporting passengers and cargo. Bus drivers and taxi drivers are an important part of the urban public transport system, and their driving safety affects road traffic safety. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the differences between bus drivers and taxi drivers in their driving behaviors and driving skills and to predict their traffic accident involvement based on these behaviors and skills. We conducted a field survey of 274 bus drivers and 178 taxi drivers in Hefei, China. The results revealed significant differences between bus drivers and taxi drivers in terms of violations, lack of concentration and technical driving skills. Aggression and violations had significant predictive effects on bus drivers’ traffic accident involvement, and memory lapses and a lack of safety consciousness had significant predictive effects on taxi drivers’ accident involvement.

Crime prevention of bus pickpocketing in Beijing, China: does air quality affect crime?

In recent years, along with the development of the urban public transport system, bus pickpocketing crimes have garnered increasing attention. In this paper, a complete and clear structure including finding patterns based on data, applying criminological theory to explain patterns, and using empirical investigation method to verify theoretical explanation are presented. We found that temperature and season are not clearly correlated with bus pickpocketing. The AQI and PM2.5 indices, however, demonstrated significant correlations with daily bus pickpocketing incidents: the worse the air quality, the more bus pickpocketing occurred. Then two empirical investigations were carried out to verified that crime pattern theory and rational choice theory can be used to explain the impact of air quality on bus pickpocketing crime. Furthermore, we utilized the SVM method to predict daily bus pickpocketing crime risk with an accuracy rate of 81%. The results of this paper can provide early warnings of urban bus pickpocketing and help police reduce crimes.

Development of a model of the service system of batch arrivals in the passengers flow of public transport

A mathematical model of the queuing system for the passenger flow of urban public transport is proposed. The resulting model differs from canonical models of queuing theory by taking into account the fundamental features of real systems. Firstly, the service process is divided into different successive service sessions. Secondly, arrival and departures are batch. Thirdly, the arrival rates vary in different service sessions. Fourthly, the laws of distribution of the number of jobs in batch arrivals for different sessions are different. Fifth, the laws of distribution of the number of batch arrivals and departures are also different.A criterion of efficiency of the service system is developed. The criterion is based on the calculation of the probability distribution of the service system states at the input and similar distribution at the output. These distributions are determined independently for each service session, into which the entire service cycle is divided. The numerical value of the criterion is set by the ratio of the average number of service rejections to the average number of jobs in the batch arrival for the entire service cycle. It can be used to assess the efficiency of the service system at any selected time interval during the day, because the value of the proposed criterion depends on the length of the interval between sessions, determined by the number of vehicles on the route.The resulting models adequately reflect the functioning of the system, which makes it possible to predict many different situations and evaluate the consequences of proposed solutions. Thus, it becomes possible to predict the provision of the population with public transport and determine quantitative values of efficiency of the urban public transport system

Smart City-Wide Package Distribution Using Crowdsourced Public Transportation Systems

The demand for package delivery services is extremely huge every day, because of the rapid development on online retailers. This leads to huge traffic congestion, resource consumption, and environmental pollution (e.g., carbon emission). However, the urban public transport system offers a large amount of under-utilized capacity outside the peak hours. In this paper, we present the city-wide package distribution problem using crowdsourced public transportation systems (CPTSs). That is, packages are delivered by carefully utilizing the considerable amount of idle capacity of the CPTS. Specifically, given a number of packages and the timetable of available CPTS trips, we optimize the package delivering scheme by determining the four identified states of any package at any time slot (waiting, riding, rewaiting, and being unloaded). The delivering scheme can be modeled as an instance of the multicommodity flow problem, and formulated by the integer linear programming techniques. We then propose an efficient heuristic solution for this NP-hard problem. Finally, this paper is validated via comprehensive emulations with a real bus transportation network.

Kajian Penentuan Tarif Bus Trans Koetaradja berdasarkan Ability to Pay (ATP) dan Willingness to Pay (WTP)

Trans Koetaradja bus is managed by the government of Aceh Province to improve the urban public transport system. In order to appeal people to use this bus, the local government provides subsidy and applies the free fare, until today. It is expected that, when the subsidy is revoked in a few years ahead, people will get accustomed to use this bus. This research was conducted to observe public perceptions on the desired fare through ability to pay (ATP) and willingness to pay (WTP) analysis. Primary data was collected by doing survey over distributing questionnaires to the citizen. The bus corridors observed were on corridors I, III, and IV. The results showed that, the ATP-WTP of students were above the operator’s proposed tariff for all corridors. However, to attract those students to use the bus, it is recommended that the operator's proposed tariff (IDR 2,000 for each corridor) should be applied. For the general public category (PNS/TNI/Polri, Private Employees, Housewives, and other communities), the proposed tariff for each corridors were in between the average value of ATP-WTP. In that sense, tariff determination can be applied based on the average WTP value. However, the operator's proposed tariff for the public is still also feasible, subject to improving the level of services.

Effects of Free-Floating Shared Bicycles on Urban Public Transportation

As a product of the development of the Internet and the sharing economy, shared bicycles are beneficial in solving the last mile problem of public transportation for urban residents and expanding the service area of urban public transportation to a certain extent. This paper analyses the spatial-temporal characteristics of shared bicycles in the city of Beijing by using kernel density estimation and statistical analysis methods. The maximum coverage location problem model is used to quantify the effects of shared bicycles on the subway and bus urban public transportation systems. The analysis results are of great importance to identify the effects of shared bicycle usage on an urban bus public transportation system from the view of space-time. The results show that (1) shared bicycles are largely located within 1.5 km from the subway station and 500 m from the bus stations; (2) the number of the shared bicycle usage changes along with the distance from the subway and bus stations; (3) subway and bus stations are divided into six types based on the sink-source characteristics of shared bicycles; (4) the service areas of subway and bus stations are expanded by approximately 2.34 and 1.33 times, respectively, after the implementation of shared bicycles.

Bilevel Programming Model of Urban Public Transport Network under Fairness Constraints

In this paper, the bilevel programming model of the public transport network considering factors such as the per capita occupancy area and travel cost of different groups was established, to alleviate the urban transportation equity and optimize the urban public transport network under fairness constraints. The upper layer minimized the travel cost deprivation coefficient and the road area Gini coefficient as the objective function, to solve the optimization scheme of public transport network considering fairness constraints; the lower layer was a stochastic equilibrium traffic assignment model of multimode and multiuser, used to describe the complex selection behavior of different groups for different traffic modes in the bus optimization scheme given by the upper layer. The model in addition utilised the noninferior sorting genetic algorithm II to validate the model via a simple network. The results showed that (1) the travel cost deprivation coefficient of the three groups declined from 33.42 to 26.51, with a decrease of 20.68%; the Gini coefficient of the road area declined from 0.248 to 0.030, with a decrease of 87.76%; it could be seen that the transportation equity feeling of low-income groups and objective resource allocation improved significantly; (2) before the optimization of public transport network, the sharing rate of cars, buses, and bicycles was 42%, 47%, and 11%, respectively; after the optimization, the sharing rate of each mode was 7%, 82%, and 11%, respectively. Some of the high and middle income users who owned the car were transferred to the public transportation. It could be seen that the overall travel time of the optimized public transport network reduced, enhancing the attraction of the public transport network to various travel groups. The model improves the fairness of the urban public transport system effectively while ensuring the travel demand of the residents. It provides theoretical basis and model foundation for the optimization of public transit network, and it is a new attempt to improve the fairness of the traffic planning scheme.

Parameter Selection and Evaluation of Robustness of Nanjing Metro Network Based on Supernetwork

Metro plays an important role in an urban public transport system. With the use of metro lines, the increasing flow of people has brought tremendous pressure to the operation of metro lines, resulting in different faults, thus affecting the travel of residents. How to qualitatively evaluate the robustness of the metro network after encountering faults is a problem worthy of attention. By 2018, ten metro lines have been opened in Nanjing, forming a radiation structure from the urban center to the surrounding suburbs. In this study, the metro faults in Nanjing in the past three years are counted and classified. The space L and space P models for the metro network are constructed. The robustness of a Nanjing metro network is measured by the three indicators: network connectivity efficiency, largest connected subgraph size, and average subgraph size. The concept of supernetwork is proposed, and the metro line is considered as a whole. The robustness changes of the Nanjing metro network caused by the attacks on the nodes and hyperedges of the metro network are analyzed. The results show that deliberate attack causes more damage than a random attack. When traffic hub stations and trunk lines are attacked, the performance of the metro network will decline sharply. The research conclusion has certain practical value to enhance the anti-fault ability of the metro network.

Merenje tehničke efikasnosti mreže linija sistema javnog gradskog transporta putnika korišćenjem neparametarske DEA analize

The objective of this paper is to present technical efficiency measurement of urban public transport system (UPTS) network. For this purpose, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) successfully applying to measure technical and economic efficiency is used. The results show that public transport network lines can be efficient or inefficient in terms of achieving quality of service from the user's perspective. Thus, in the case of City of Niš, for all inefficient lines on the whole UPTS network, the examples of good practice as well as the quality level of service as imperative for these lines are determined.

Establishment and Analysis of the Supernetwork Model for Nanjing Metro Transportation System

In recent years, many researchers have applied complex network theory to urban public transport network to construct complex network and analyze its network performance. The original analysis method generally uses the Space L and Space R model to establish a simple link between public sites but ignores the organic link between the overall network system and the line subsystem. As an important part of urban public transport system, subway plays an important role in alleviating traffic pressure. In this paper, a supernetwork model of Nanjing metro network is established by using the supernetwork method. Three parameters, node-hyperedge degree, hyperedge-node degree, and hyperedge degree, are proposed to describe the model. The model is compared with the traditional Space L and Space P models. The study on the supernetwork model of Nanjing metro complex network shows that the network density, network centrality, and network clustering coefficient are large, and the average network distance is small, which meets the requirements of traffic planning and design. In this study, the subway line is considered as a subsystem and further simplified as a node, so that the complex network analysis method can be applied to the new supernetwork model, expanding the thinking of complex network research.