Smart Timetable Service Based on Crowdsensed Data

The rapid technological development and the introduction of smart services make it possible for modern cities to offer an enhanced perception of city life for their inhabitants. For instance, a smart timetable service of the city’s public transportation lines updated in real-time can decrease unnecessary waiting times at stops and increase the efficiency of travel planning. However, the implementation of such a service in a traditional way requires the deployment and maintenance of some costly sensing and tracking infrastructure. Fortunately, mobile crowdsensing, when the crowd of passengers and their mobile devices are used to gather data, can be a viable and almost free of charge alternative for implementing sensing based smart city services. In this chapter, we put the emphasis on the introduction of a crowdsensing based smart timetable service, which has been developed as a prototype smart city application. The front-end interface of this service is called TrafficInfo. It is a simple and easy-to-use Android application which visualizes public transport information of the given city on Google Maps in real-time. The live updates of transport schedule information rely on the automatic stop event detection of public transport vehicles. TrafficInfo is built upon an Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) based communication framework which was designed to facilitate the development of crowd assisted smart city applications. The chapter introduces this generic framework shortly, then describes the prototype smart timetable service

MOBANA: A distributed stream-based information system for public transit

Abstract: Public transit generates a wide range of diverse data, which include static data and high-velocity data streams from sensors. Integrating and processing this big real-time data is a challenge in developing analytical systems for public transit. We here propose MOBANA (MOBility ANAlyzer), a distributed stream-based system, which provides real-time information to a wide range of users for monitoring and analyzing the performance of public transit. To do so, MOBANA integrates the diverse data sources of public transit, and converts them into standard and exchangeable data formats. In order to manage such diverse data, we propose a layered architecture, where each layer handles a specific kind of data. MOBANA is designed to be efficient. e.g., it identifies the real time position of vehicles by adjusting planned position with real-time data as needed, thus dropping network load. MOBANA is implemented by Distributed Stream Processing Engine (DSPE) and Distributed Messaging System (DMS), which pursue scalable, efficient and reliable real-time processing and analytics. MOBANA was deployed as pilot in Pavia, and tested with real data

Artificial Intelligence for Smart Transportation

There are more than 7,000 public transit agencies in the U.S. (and many more private agencies), and together, they are responsible for serving 60 billion passenger miles each year. A well-functioning transit system fosters the growth and expansion of businesses, distributes social and economic benefits, and links the capabilities of community members, thereby enhancing what they can accomplish as a society. Since affordable public transit services are the backbones of many communities, this work investigates ways in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) can improve efficiency and increase utilization from the perspective of transit agencies. This book chapter discusses the primary requirements, objectives, and challenges related to the design of AI-driven smart transportation systems. We focus on three major topics. First, we discuss data sources and data. Second, we provide an overview of how AI can aid decision-making with a focus on transportation. Lastly, we discuss computational problems in the transportation domain and AI approaches to these problems.Comment: This is a pre-print for a book chapter to appear in Vorobeychik, Yevgeniy., and Mukhopadhyay, Ayan., (Eds.). (2023). Artificial Intelligence and Society. ACM Pres

Julkisen liikenteen multimodaalisen reitityssysteemin testaus ja laadunvalvonta

During the recent decades, public transportation journey planning has become an increasingly digital process. Journey planning websites and applications are replacing the use of schedules printed on paper. Both proprietary and free license open-source public transportation routing systems have been developed. Typically these systems are used as backend services for the journey planning websites and applications. Multimodality is an important quality of public transportation routing. Car navigators only require the capability to find routes that are accessible by car, and restrictions for when one can drive on a road are limited. On the other hand, multimodal public transportation routing systems need to take into account the available public transportation options, which often operate on schedules, in addition to the other non-transit mobility options. Algorithms used for routing in these systems have improved. As new features have been added to the systems, they have become more complex. Testing and quality assurance (QA) play a key role in the development and maintenance of these systems, but the research focused on that subject, in this context, is scarce. In this thesis, use of known failed routing requests for improving the quality of routing is explored. Additionally, it was studied how benchmarking can be used as a quality assurance tool for public transportation routing systems. From a sample failed requests (N=10000), 90% of requests were filtered out because with varying probabilities they had failed due to known issues. Examination of individual requests showed that the filtering criteria should be improved as only one request from a sample of requests (N=30) was caused by a potentially unknown cause. The usefulness of benchmarking was examined through three use cases. One finding was that certain public transportation modes can be preferred in the Greater Helsinki and it does not significantly affect the durations of the suggested itineraries. OpenTripPlanner was used as a routing system in this thesis, but these approaches should also be applicable to other systems. More research should be done on testing and QA of public transportation routing systems as there are still open questions.Viimeisten vuosikymmenten aikana julkisen liikenteen matkojen suunnittelu on muuttunut digitaalisemmaksi. Matkaopassivustot ja -sovellukset ovat korvaamassa paperiset aikataulut. On kehitetty kaupallisia ja vapaasti käytettäviä avoimen lähdekoodin reitityssysteemeitä. Näitä systeemeitä käytetään matkaoppaissa taustapalveluina. Multimodaalisuus on tärkeä ominaisuus julkisen liikenteen reitityksessä. Autonavigaattoreissa riittää, että autoreititys toimii, ja teiden käyttöön liittyviä aikarajoitteita on vähän. Julkisen liikenteen reitityssysteemeissä pitää taas ottaa huomioon julkisen liikenteen kulkumuodot, jotka usein noudattavat aikatauluja, sekä kävely ja muu liityntäreititys. Näissä systeemeissä käytetyt reitityslgoritmit ovat kehittyneet. Uusien ominaisuuksien myötä systeemeiden kompleksisuus on kasvanut. Testaus ja laadunvalvonta ovat tärkeässä roolissa näiden systeemeiden kehityksessä ja ylläpidossa, mutta aiheeseen liittyvää tutkimusta ei ole tehty laajasti. Tässä tutkielmassa kokeillaan epäonnistuneiden reitityskyselyiden käyttöä reitityksen laadun parantamiseen ja vertailuanalyysin hyödyntämistä laadunvalvonnassa. Epäonnistuneiden kyselyiden otoksesta (N=10000) poistettiin 90% kyselyistä, koska vaihtelevalla todennäköisyydelle ne olivat epäonnistuneet tunnettujen syiden takia. Yksittäisiä kyselyitä pienemmästä otoksesta (N=30) tutkittiin ja vain yksi niistä epäonnistui potentiaalisesti tuntemattomasta syystä, joten kyselyiden suodatuskriteereissä on kehitettävää. Vertailuanalyysin hyötyä tutkittiin kolmen käyttötapauksen kautta. Työssä havaittiin, että pääkaupunkiseudulla voidaan suosia tiettyjä julkisen liikenteen kulkumuotoja ilman, että ehdotettujen reititystulosten kesto kasvaa huomattavasti. Työssä käytettiin OpenTripPlanner-reitityssysteemiä, mutta esitettyjä metodeja voi soveltaa muihin vastaaviin systeemeihin. Reitityksen testaukseen ja laadunvalvontaan liittyy avoimia kysymyksiä, joten tämän osalta tarvitaan lisätutkimusta

Public transit route mapping for large-scale multimodal networks

ABSTRACT: For the simulation of public transport, next to a schedule, knowledge of the public transport routes is required. While the schedules are becoming available, the precise network routes often remain unknown and must be reconstructed. For large-scale networks, however, a manual reconstruction becomes unfeasible. This paper presents a route reconstruction algorithm, which requires only the sequence and positions of the public transport stops and the street network. It uses an abstract graph to calculate the least-cost path from a route's first to its last stop, with the constraint that the path must contain a so-called link candidate for every stop of the route's stop sequence. The proposed algorithm is implemented explicitly for large-scale, real life networks. The algorithm is able to handle multiple lines and modes, to combine them at the same stop location (e.g., train and bus lines coming together at a train station), to automatically reconstruct missing links in the network, and to provide intelligent and efficient feedback if apparent errors occur. GPS or OSM tracks of the lines can be used to improve results, if available. The open-source algorithm has been tested for Zurich for mapping accuracy. In summary, the new algorithm and its MATSim-based implementation is a powerful, tested tool to reconstruct public transport network routes for large-scale systems

Taking the bus to the park? - a study of accessibility to green areas in Gothenburg through different modes of transport

Green areas in urban environments can have recreational, environmental and health benefits but for them to be utilized, high accessibility for inhabitants is necessary. In an expanding city like Gothenburg, maintaining geographic accessibility to green areas can be challenging. This study performs an accessibility analysis to assess whether Gothenburg has sufficient accessibility to green areas, and whether any spatial inequality occurs. It also aims to compare the accessibility by public transport to other modes of transport: walking, biking and driving car. Earlier research of accessibility analysis to green areas have rarely included network analysis of public transport. For green areas in Gothenburg, no network analysis of any transport mode has previously been performed. This study found that the accessibility is sufficient for most of the population of Gothenburg. Although the accessibility is not evenly distributed, no spatial inequality with regards to income was found. Compared to other transport modes public transport seems to be preferable primarily in relatively long-distance travels.How do we get to our parks? Most city dwellers of Gothenburg have high accessibility to parks and natural areas, according to a new study. The time it takes to travel to the closest one is well within the goals set by Gothenburg municipality, for most of the population. In the study you can see which areas of the city has the highest accessibility and which has the lowest. The scientific study has analyzed the accessibility to green areas and compared travelling by public transport to travelling by car, bike and by walking. In a policy document from 2014 the municipality of Gothenburg states that parks should be accessible within 15 minutes by walking, and according to this study, this is the case for 93 % of the population. The report also states that natural experiences should be accessible within 30 minutes travel time by public transport, which is the case for 98 %. The results shows that the central areas of Gothenburg has generally high accessibility, along with most districts of the city, but the district of Hisings Backa and some areas in the outskirts of the city do have too long travel time. The results also show, that the travel time to a park or natural area is generally shortest when using a bike, but when travelling long distances driving a car is preferable. Public transport is slower than both car driving and biking. Why is such a study needed? Parks and natural areas in cities are important for many reasons. First, they have several health benefits such as reducing obesity. Secondly, the recreational values are important. Thirdly, they have environmental benefits, e.g. giving less polluted air, providing high biodiversity, captures carbon and cools cities during heat waves. This study might serve as a foundation for future city planning. How can the accessibility to green areas be improved? And how can the city promote choices of transport that is beneficial for the personal health as well as the health of our environment? This study is a step on the way of answering these questions

15-02 Estimating and Enhancing Public Transit Accessibility for People with Mobility Limitations

This two-part study employs fine-scale performance measures and analytical techniques designed to evaluate and improve transit services for people experiencing disability. Part one puts forth a series of time-sensitive, general transit feed system (GTFS)-enhanced employment accessibility models that account for multiple transportation modes, categories of functional limitation and design characteristics of existing public transit infrastructure. Model results shed light on the degree to which a medium-size city’s public transit system addresses the gap between a theoretical continuum of rider capacities and the physical demands required to achieve mobility and access to employment. Our research finds that an individual’s combined physical mobility constraints (e.g., walking speed and maximum walking distance) and public transit infrastructure requirements (e.g., presence/absence of wheelchair boarding platforms and connections to pedestrian access routes) may reduce employment accessibility outcomes by as much as 86 percent. Part two of the study utilizes performance measures developed in part one to model—via spatially explicit structural equations—the degree to which employment accessibility explains variations in public transit ridership and work commute transportation mode share. Here we find that commute share and ridership…(results). Developing a better understanding of relationships between accessibility and transit usage, we reason, will help shed light on how American Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant transit infrastructure affects mode choice decisions among people with considerable functional limitations and across the broader population

Geomatics for Mobility Management. A comprehensive database model for Mobility Management

In urban and metropolitan context, Traffic Operations Centres (TOCs) use technologies as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) to tackling urban mobility issue. Usually in TOCs, various isolated systems are maintained in parallel (stored in different databases), and data comes from different sources: a challenge in transport management is to transfer disparate data into a unified data management system that preserves access to legacy data, allowing multi-thematic analysis. This need of integration between systems is important for a wise policy decisions. This study aims to design a comprehensive and general spatial data model that could allow the integration and visualization of traffic components and measures. The activity is focused on the case study of 5T Agency in Turin, a TOC that manages traffic regulation, public transit fleets and information to users, in the metropolitan area of Turin and Piedmont Region. In particular, the agency has set up during years a wide system of ITS technologies that acquires continuously measures and traffic information, which are used to deploy information services to citizens and public administrations. However, the spatial nature of these data is not fully considered in the daily operational activity, with the result of difficulties in information integration. Indeed the agency lacks of a complete GIS that includes all the management information in an organized spatial and “horizontal” vision. The main research question concerns the integration of different kind of data in a unique GIS spatial data model. Spatial data interoperability is critical and particularly challenging because geographic data definition in legacy database can vary widely: different data format and standards, data inconsistencies, different spatial and temporal granularities, different methods and enforcing rules that relates measures, events and physical infrastructures. The idea is not to replace the existing implemented and efficient system, but to built-up on these systems a GIS that overpass the different software and DBMS platforms and that can demonstrate how a spatial and horizontal vision in tackling urban mobility issues may be useful for policy and strategies decisions. The modelling activity take reference from a transport standards review and results in database general schema, which can be reused by other TOCs in their activities, helping the integration and coordination between different TOCs. The final output of the research is an ArcGIS geodatabase, tailored on 5T data requirements, which enable the customised representation of private traffic elements and measures. Specific custom scripts have been developed to allow the extraction and the temporal aggregation of traffic measures and events. The solution proposed allows the reuse of data and measures for custom purposes, without the need to deeply know the entire ITS environment system. In addition, The proposed ArcGIS geodatabase solution is optimised for limited power-computing environment. A case study has been deepened in order to evaluate the suitability of the database: a confrontation between damages, detected by Emergency Mapping Services (EMS), and Traffic Message Channel traffic events, has been conducted, evaluating the utility of 5T historical information of traffic events of the Piedmont floods of November 2016 for EMS services