Researching Transit

In today’s show, Graham turns the tables on Laura, delving in to her research which unpacks the relationship between the built environment and public transport use.

Laura starts by providing some context about the role of land use in influencing travel demand, before defining the term “built environment” in the context of travel behaviour.

Land use is the fundamental unit of demand for transport within cities, and public transport is at its most efficient when it is integrated with the surrounding land use. When it comes to making choices about which mode to use, there are a broader set of built environment characteristics that affects choice; such as

• land use intensity,

• pedestrian permeability and amenity,

• land-use mix and

• the accessibility of destinations.

Laura charts a brief history of transport and land use research and policy. They have in common a goal of understanding – or creating - transit-friendly, walkable neighbourhoods that reduce the need to travel. It’s a topic that has been turbocharged by COVID-19; in the interest of reducing crowding while ensuring people are able to fulfil their daily living necessities and enjoy a high quality of life in their neighbourhood

“Space in cities is at a premium and transport corridors allow for efficient movement of people.”

Despite an abundance of research, or perhaps because of it, there remains a lack of clarity about the importance of different built environment factors for encouraging transit use.

Another gap Laura sought to address was whether there were significant differences in the predictors of transit use by mode. Laura sought to understand whether demand for urban bus use was associated with a different set of urban form features compared to rail. However, exploring this question required first addressing pre-existing bias in the location of different modes in a network. For example, bus, by virtue of its flexible routing, usually provides more coverage in lower density areas away from mixed-use activity centres than rail. The first empirical study in Melbourne addressed this mode location bias and identified that the demand models for individual modes were different (2). This was affirmed by further analysis that drew on an even larger dataset spanning three multimodal transit networks, complementing the Melbourne dataset with rich data for Boston and Amsterdam’s urban form and transit ridership. In fact, few factors are common between modes across the study areas.

“[transit] mode is one of the contextual factors that needs to be taken into account when you are trying to accurately predict demand, or build models for planning”.

This research highlighted that bus demand also shows a significant link to urban form. Better understanding the psychological pathways by which the built environment affects perceptions about bus travel may provide a key to unlock successful bus-oriented development.

Visit the full shownotes on the website for links to Laura's publications: http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/?p=51790

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In this episode of Researching Transit, Professor Graham Currie speaks with Dr John Hultén from K2; the Swedish Knowledge Centre for Public Transport. Directed by Dr Hultén, K2 derives its name from the Swedish words kollektivtrafik (public transportation) and kunskap (knowledge). The centre was formed out of a drive for more comprehensive and integrated public transport research in 2013. It operates under a unique partnership model, bringing together two universities, a research institute and the three metropolitan regions which govern Sweden’s public transport.

K2’s research agenda was defined by Sweden’s public transportation actors. Focus areas include:

• the future of mobility,

• markets for, and funding of, public transport,

• the impact of interventions on public transport performance,

• integrated transport planning and

• public transport for all, which captures the social aspects of public transport.

This interdisciplinary agenda reflects the decision-making focus that Dr Hultén, a political scientist by training, regards as an important and traditionally overlooked research area for public transport. The centre oversees both small, rapid projects; as well as larger projects. A requirement of project funding is a certain level of engagement and co-development of research projects with the public transport industry.

Dr Hultén shares some lessons about the ingredients for successful collaboration between research and practice. Relationships, trust and being able to articulate added value lie at the heart of K2’s success. Their added value is its critical mass of important partners, and its ability to provide a one-stop shop for practitioners to engage with academia.

Current issues for public transport research in Sweden include the future of public transport, sustainable mobility choices outside cities and procurement.

Recent focus on increasing transit’s market share has seen transit concentrated into cities, where there is high ridership demand. Yet in Sweden, a large proportion of the population lives outside the city. New ways must be found to provide sustainable mobility choices for people living outside urban areas.

K2 also has a strong focus on procurement. Their research continues to investigate the effect of incentives in public transport operating contract on ridership performance. So far, no conclusive evidence that incentives promote ridership.

“Incentives are not enough. You also need to have freedom to do things as an operator. If you don’t have that freedom, you can’t change anything in accordance with incentives.”

As in many other countries and cities, Swedish public transport fares are fixed, as are service areas and route alignments. This inhibits operators’ ability to innovate to meet the incentives. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the lack of sensitivity of contracting arrangements to the ridership fluctuation experienced during the COVI-19 pandemic.

To access K2’s research outputs, visit http://www.k2centrum.se/en. Dr Hultén encourages anyone interested in collaborating with K2 to get in touch.

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Creating tools that are capable of engaging the public in the design of local transport and planning has never been more important.

In today’s show, we explore how digital tools can facilitate smarter and more collaborative planning. I spoke to Oliver Lock from the University of New South Wale’s City Analystics and Expanded Perception & Interaction Centred (EPICentre), and 2019 Smart Cities Young Smart Innovator of the year, and Dr Claire Boulangé, transport modeller at KPMG. Oli is currently undertaking a PhD, which explores how we use data and digital tools to help the public and decision makers plan cities, otherwise known as participatory analytics. Claire completed PhD in urban planning and population health at Melbourne University. Through her research she developed the Walkability Planning Support System. In her role as transport modelling consultant, she continues to explore the synergies between transport and health.

The term Planning Support System is often used to collectively describe tools that support planners. These tools have evolved from paper-based to digital maps to immersive visualisations. New tools go beyond description (what’s there?) to diagnosis (why is it there?) to prediction (what happens if it is there?). Decision making can leverage these tools to help prescribe what is needed and where, to achieve societal goals. Smart, digital tools combine traditional information about individual preferences and new forms of passive data about how people move around, with the existing information we have about the city.

Mobility patterns are changing, and they are also diverse. Increasing the efficiency of public transport relies on being able to understand what will make people travel differently. It is also increasingly important to factor in individual preferences to our transport solutions; and to do so by asking people. These digital tools make that process of engagement more replicable, scalable and therefore transcend existing barriers. Greater availability of training material for tools which were once niche; has set the scene for upskilling in these domains.

For a full acount of Oliver and Claire's development and application of digital tools, and their lessons learned, read the full show notes at http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/?p=51766

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Dr Lorelei Schmitt now works as Principal Multimodal Advisor at Waka Kotahi, Māori for ‘travelling together as one’(1), and the name of the New Zealand Transport Agency. In today’s show, Lorelei discusses the importance of first impressions on public transport and the collaborative ways NZTA is building the agency’s capability to integrate different modes of transport.

Lorelei completed a PhD as a member of the Public Transport Research Group. Her research focused on unfamiliar travel, among new users, visitors or users changing routes or modes in public transport networks. Leveraging her psychology training, Lorelei explored the ways in which unfamiliar trips differ from familiar trips. Unfamiliar travel has a primacy effect, conjuring more vivid recollections than for habitual trips. The way people perceive a network is important for shaping future behaviours. Visitors also form opinions about cities based on their unfamiliar journeys. In addition, new users have a higher cognitive load. She highlights the importance of providing clear signage and real-time information, since not all travellers have access to smart devices. Interventions can be targeted around locations or times when unfamiliar journeys often occur, such as sporting events or university semesters to ensure new users have a positive and efficient experience.

As a multi-modal planner in New Zealand, Lorelei’s responsibilities include developing national public transport design guidelines collaboratively with local and regional agencies who deliver transit. The first iteration of the Public Transport Design Guidelines (2) provides advice on public transport infrastructure, including bus stop design and corridor clearance. They are designed to promote national consistency in the delivery of public transport, tailored to the New Zealand regulatory environment. Developing a tool that is useful for a wide range of stakeholders with different expertise was an unexpectedly complicated process.

“Trying to get solutions that are really passenger-centric, user-friendly, but also meet all the different requirements of different transport planners of different modes hasn’t been a simple exercise”

Multi-modal integration inherently complicates the transport planning process. A key challenge is enabling people to realise that what’s good for one mode isn’t necessarily best for the system as a whole. Much of the formal training for transport planning has a vehicle throughput focus. In the interest of achieving better multi-modal integration, Lorelei’s team explored the project funding and delivery Lifecyle to identify key stakeholders pivotal in shaping projects. Training modules developed by Waka Kotahi is provided to these stakeholders to lift the multimodal capability and unlock multimodal potential of projects.

One key area that has benefited from collaboration between planners with different modal expertise is that of safety. Interestingly, Lorelei’s multi-modal responsibilities extend to that of Te Araroa, a 3000km walking trail that runs the length of New Zealand (3). Working with the road engineers improved the safety outcome for walkers at an intersection where Te Araroa crossed a major highway. Lorelei stresses the need for empathy, patience and collaboration when challenging status quo for modes. Multi-modal planning also fosters consideration of a wider range of access and mobility needs across the community. The process of collaborative planning therefore allows for accessibility to be provided more equitably.

Visit our website for the full notes from today's show.

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In this episode of Researching Transit, Professor Graham Currie speaks with innovators Dr. Velvet Basemera-Fitzpatrick and Dr. Drew Dara-Abrams. Dr. Fitzpatrick is a Senior Program Officer for the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. TRB, host of the world’s largest annual meeting for transportation research, plays an immense role in both generating and disseminating transport research.

Dr. Fitzpatrick discusses her work with novel technology projects through TRB’s Transit IDEA program. The Transit IDEA program – Transit Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis - was founded in 1992 with the aim of funding unproven early-stage research; projects that are too risky for other institutions to invest in. Each year, a call for proposals is developed which reflects needs in the field of transportation. An expert panel evaluates proposals and selects eligible projects. To date, 99 projects have received funding through the program.

Transit projects funded through the program are diverse in scope. Examples include drone technologies that make parking at Commuter Rail stations safer; and bus sensor technology that identifies riders in need of extra assistance for boarding and alighting. Dr. Drew Dara-Abrams of Interline Technologies has been involved in a recent IDEA-funded project. Drew works with transit agencies realise the value of high quality real-time transit data (through general transit feed specifications, or gtfs). Funding from the IDEA program has spurred incorporation of this real-time data into the Transit.Land open access platform, that provides an interface for agencies to query their timetable data. Learn more about Interline Technologies’ work by visiting www.interline.io.

Dr. Fitzpatrick speaks about the complexity, partnerships, risks and dedication that go into developing implemenetation-ready technologies in transport. One challenge is the longer-term payoff associated with early-stage innovation; which means projects require sustained effort and investment beyond the life of Transit IDEA funding. This is why Transit IDEA works with project teams to grow their networks and attract funding. She highlights two key lessons for innovators in transportation should be:

1. Project goals should be sustainable, beyond the life and modality of the project

2. Project teams must be flexible; accepting of risk and unexpected events

Want to learn more about transit innovations?

• Visit project descriptions on the Transit IDEA website: http://www.trb.org/IDEAProgram/IDEATransit.aspx

• Innovation in Action is the Transit IDEA Program’s first ever innovation report. Released in January 2020, the report highlights the impact of the program to date: http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/IDEA/FinalReports/Transit/TransitJ04A.pdf

• The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) first received funding in 1991 after Willim (Bill) Millar and APTA highlighted the importance of research in public transportation. Since then, over $10 million has been invested in over 500 projects under the TRB banner. Source: Bill Millar’s Exit Interview: APTA’s Chief Signs Off (Metro Magazine, 2011)

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Dr Zhenliang Ma is a researcher and lecturer at Monash University and co-director of the graduate transport program jointly run by Monash University and Southeast University in China. Dr Ma moved to Monash after working at MIT, to join its interdisciplinary public research team.

This episode addresses the potential for data analytics to help transit agencies diagnose problems and identify opportunities to improve operations and customer satisfaction. Dr Ma provides some examples of problems that are suited to a data-driven solution, and some that aren’t.

“[Data analytics] is used to try to transform data into information to derive insights, and from those insights, make better decisions.”

He characterises three particular applications of data analysis to transit problems:

1. Inferences problems, which leverage descriptive and diagnostic problems, which use travel data to understand system performance, and passenger decision making

2. Prediction problems, which use predictive analysis to improve real time control of vehicles based on traffic conditions and disruption

3. Long-term demand management problems, which use prescriptive analysis to test how users would respond to different incentives designed to change travel behaviour.

We discuss the application of prescriptive data analysis to address severe crowding in Hong Kong’s metro system (a similar solution to peak crowding is discussed in the Singapore context by Dr Waiyan Leong in Episode 7). This project sought to improve the payoff for demand management interventions by identifying users most likely to respond.

Dr Ma mentions a trial of a personalised incentive system for San Francisco’s Bay Area Transportation Authority (BART). The success rate of demand management improved for incentives targeted toward individuals rather than the station. Data analysis was used to understand behavioural responses to incentives, and to design the final demand management strategy to optimise success.

“The transportation system is very complex. By changing a small portion of the passengers behaviour, congestion will be solved”

Dr Ma defines three steps to tackle constrained public transport capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Highlighting this very deliberate approach to thinking about data science problems, he does so in the language of data science, proposing first to use data to describe usage patterns, diagnose problematic times, and predict what response might occur under different policy scenarios. Being deliberate in the way you approach the problem is key.

“We really need to think about how to represent our data, to tell the story or to understand the problem, and then we can develop new insights from that”

However, although data analysis is useful for exploring a problem, it cannot explain why. Data-driven solutions alone are not enough to understand why human make decisions.

“Data science is just one of the tools, out of the set of tool that we can use to solve transport problems”

What makes a great public transport data analyst? First, is an interest in data, and and open and sceptical mind (prepared to challenge results). Skills in programming, statistics and visualisation will give the aspiring data analyst a toolbox for their work. Finally and most importantly, is domain knowledge.

Find Dr Ma’s publications and recommendations for upskilling in the full shownotes on our website: http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/?p=51742

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In this episode of Researching Transit, Angel Cantillo from the Catholic University of Santiago explains the impacts of fare evasion, and new approaches to understanding and addressing the motivations of fare evaders

Fare evasion impacts the operating costs of transit network around the world. It can create negative perceptions toward the public transport network, of insecurity and unfairness, which in turn impacts transit use.

However, traditional approaches to enforcing fare compliance, including physical barriers or fines, are no longer regarded as effective. Facebook groups and other ‘out in the open’ anti-fare groups demonstrate the limits of physical barriers when enforceability is limited. Conversely, such approaches may have unintended consequences for certain users.

“When the same person fare evades many times, something is not working”

Can understanding the nuanced motivations unlock more effective solutions than the traditional enforcement approach? According to Angel, when it comes to understanding and addressing fare evasion, obtaining good evidence is key.

“Your solution will be as good as your data is”

Fare evaders are different, and motivated by different factors. The actions of fare evaders often signpost opportunities to improve our transit systems.

In this episode, Angel refers to work by PTRG to understand fare evaders ' motivations. Learn more: http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/?p=16705

See also:

Delbosc, A., & Currie, G. (2019). Why do people fare evade? A global shift in fare evasion research. Transport Reviews, 39(3), 376-391. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2018.1482382

Researching Transit is brought to you by the Public Transport Research Group in the Monash University Department of Civil Engineering.

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

Car share is a subscription service for cars. It allows users to drive a car, without owning a car. The city of Melbourne, Australia, plays host to over 1,500 shared vehicles which operate as part of commercial fleets or peer-to-peer (privately owned) vehicles. But the benefits of car share go beyond those to the individual (flexibility and cost savings from registration, fuel and the capital cost of cars). At a societal level, car share also benefits cities by reducing parking demand and congestion.

But what is the role of car share in the transport system? How does it serve the mobility needs of its users and provide an alternative to car ownership?

Taru’s research aimed to help different levels of Government in Victoria understand how car share was affecting mobility choices and thus its role in supporting the State’s transport and sustainability objectives.

“Public transport is great, but not having a car on weekends when you want to travel different places can be frustrating, and that’s what the role of car share was.”

To gain this understanding, Taru’s project pursued three objectives: exploring trends in usage and availability of care share, understanding car share impacts on travel behaviour; and gaining an understanding of the psycho-social motives and barriers for care share use.

Interviews of car share users also revealed five types of users. Importantly, two of the user groups – the car aspirers and car sellers – were characterised by changes in their car usage and ownership over the course of their car share membership. Taru emphasises the importance of major life events – a detail that often goes overlooked in purely quantitative studies. By limiting unnecessary trips, and limiting the acquisition of new cars, car share also contributes to a more efficient transport network.

Taru’s research also identified an important role for Local Government in maximising uptake, retention of car share subscribers and stemming car ownership. Dr Jain emphasises the need for clear regulation and supportive policies so that operators can ensure widespread availability of car share vehicles, emphasising the importance of providing car share proximity to public transport. In doing so, governments will help maximise retention of car share subscribers and stem car ownership. Her work suggests that rather than being seen as a silver bullet to private car related problems, car share should be seen as part of a mobility ecosystem which encourages sustainable travel practices.

This research has introduced Dr Jain to some useful frameworks for understanding behavioural motivations and enablers, which she explains with reference to the developing Corona virus pandemic and the behavioural responses seen in its midst.

Taru’s publications can be accessed at the links below

Jain, T., Johnson, M., & Rose, G. (2020). Exploring the process of travel behaviour change and mobility trajectories associated with car share adoption. Travel Behaviour and Society, 18, 117–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tbs.2019.10.006

Jain, T., Wang, X., Rose, G., & Johnson, M. (2018). Does the role of a bicycle share system in a city change over time? A longitudinal analysis of casual users and long-term subscribers. Journal of Transport Geography, 71, 45–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2018.06.023

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Singapore is a leading force in railway reliability and service quality. In this episode of researching transit, Professor Graham Currie speaks with George Sun of Singapore’s Land Transport Authority’s (LTA), to find out how research contributes to Singapore’s rail transit success.

Mr Sun discusses how Singapore’s rapid network growth is an important factor in creating the environment for research to thrive. LTA has leveraged research to educate and upskill its entire workforce. This has helped the organisation shift away from reactive, to proactive reliability engineering. The emergence of data analytics and automation have helped this effort, though it is with a cautious attitude that LTA is embracing these technologies.

“People thought that data analytics was about building fancy models, but it is far more important to clean the data, to have domain knowledge, to make judgements in] what type of model can deliver a quick solution.”

Mr Sun expresses the role of automation in decoupling rail reliability from human performance. He notes that while Singapore’s rolling stock are embedded with automated capabilities, infrastructure has yet to be upgraded before the rail network (MRT) can become fully automated.

Key to Singapore’s excellent track record in railway reliability (1) is its commitment to an ecosystem of research. Mr Sun discusses LTA’s vision for the future of railway transit reliability in Singapore. He notes a shift toward solutions that are not only research-focused, but also technology and innovation driven, requiring the involvement of stakeholders from start-up companies to operators as well as universities.

To learn more about public transport in Singapore, visit the LTA’s website: https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltagov/en/upcoming_projects.html#technologies_innovations

1 – Professor Currie notes MRt experienced just 20 major delays, referring to figures published in 2018 (https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/singapores-rail-reliability-continues-to-improve-in-first-half-of-2019)

In our tenth show, we explore a variety of topics that showcase Dr Kara Kockelman’s curiosity and the collaboration across disciplines that is a hallmark of her research.

Dr Kockelman provides a refreshing take on the power of statistics as a tool for making sense of information. It has allowed her to probe a range of issues and bridge topics such as transport and land use, welfare and congestion. We speak about her early work at the nexus of transport and land use, when interest was first directed toward the role of planning in affecting traffic outcomes.

Based on extensive research, Dr Kara Kockelman provides a clear picture of shared autonomy and its distinct safety and efficiency advantages. According to Dr Kockelman, designing compact AVs which run on electric power, and operate on a dynamic ridesharing basis, will be essential for keeping congestion down and fostering sustainable mobility.

“Every time we make driving easier, we get more of it. Those downsides were a concern to me… I wanted to think about how we can mitigate those accompanying issues.”

Dr Kockelmam speaks about a model for SAV operation in which they are run by transit operators. SAVs operating in centralised fleets will be nimble, demand-responsive and able to take advantage of existing infrastructure investments. The role of conventional transit, however, will likely diminish, with central SAV fleets offering a more flexible and frequent service. She suggests private ridesharing models will continue to play a role among those wanting the most flexible and individualised service. This new style of publicly-deployed mobility has significant equity advantages; removing the ability to drive as a prerequisite for automobility.

We shift our conversation to one of Dr Kockelman’s co-curricular pursuits; the Bridging Transportation Research virtual conference series. Dr Kockelman gained some valuable experience with virtual conferencing pre-pandemic, with the inaugural BTR in January 2019. With COVID-19 putting a halt on international conference travel, the second BTR has been brought forward to 11-12 August. Kara explains the issues of equity, cost, fatigue and environmental impacts that inspired her to initiate the conference series together with hard working colleagues from around the world. The second BTR sees 70 registrations, up from 18. This uptake reflects an increase in exposure and traction, but is also a sign of COVID-19 changing the game for virtual conferencing both in the short and long term. The pandemic has shone a light on the ease and convenience of conferencing, taking the focus away from those aspects of conferences that are less readily substituted.

Dr Kockelman and her team are committed to keeping the conference free and open and welcome volunteers to help deliver the BTR series. Find out ways to get involved, including registering for future conferences at bridgingtransport.org

Kara closes our conversation with an authentic reflection on the simple approach that guides her impactful research:

“By teaming you really can address a lot more questions than you yourself might be able to… Just keep your eyes open for what’s important.”

Find out more about Dr Kockelman, including contact information, by visiting her website https://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman/. There you’ll find a wealth of open access research sorted by topic, ranging from autonomous vehicles to traffic safety, modelling and pricing.

Chapter eight of The Economics of Transportation Systems: A Reference for Practitioners, co-authored by Dr Kockelman, explores the use econometrics for transportation data analysis. The book is available as an open source resource at https://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman/TransportationEconomics_Website/TranspEconReference.pdf

For information about the Bridging Transportation Research online conference, visit bridgingtransport.org

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