T-PickSeer: Visual Analysis of Taxi Pick-up Point Selection Behavior

Taxi drivers often take much time to navigate the streets to look for passengers, which leads to high vacancy rates and wasted resources. Empty taxi cruising remains a big concern for taxi companies. Analyzing the pick-up point selection behavior can solve this problem effectively, providing suggestions for taxi management and dispatch. Many studies have been devoted to analyzing and recommending hot-spot regions of pick-up points, which can make it easier for drivers to pick up passengers. However, the selection of pick-up points is complex and affected by multiple factors, such as convenience and traffic management. Most existing approaches cannot produce satisfactory results in real-world applications because of the changing travel demands and the lack of interpretability. In this paper, we introduce a visual analytics system, T-PickSeer, for taxi company analysts to better explore and understand the pick-up point selection behavior of passengers. We explore massive taxi GPS data and employ an overview-to-detail approach to enable effective analysis of pick-up point selection. Our system provides coordinated views to compare different regularities and characteristics in different regions. Also, our system assists in identifying potential pick-up points and checking the performance of each pick-up point. Three case studies based on a real-world dataset and interviews with experts have demonstrated the effectiveness of our system.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures; The 10th China Visualization and Visual Analytics Conferenc

MARTA Reach: Piloting an On-Demand Multimodal Transit System in Atlanta

This paper reports on the results of the six-month pilot MARTA Reach, which aimed to demonstrate the potential value of On-Demand Multimodal Transit Systems (ODMTS) in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. ODMTS take a transit-centric view by integrating on-demand services and traditional fixed routes in order to address the first/last mile problem. ODMTS combine fixed routes and on-demand shuttle services by design (not as an after-thought) into a transit system that offers a door-to-door multimodal service with fully integrated operations and fare structure. The paper fills a knowledge gap, i.e., the understanding of the impact, benefits, and challenges of deploying ODMTS in a city as complex as Atlanta, Georgia. The pilot was deployed in four different zones with limited transit options, and used on-demand shuttles integrated with the overall transit system to address the first/last mile problem. The paper describes the design and operations of the pilot, and presents the results in terms of ridership, quality of service, trip purposes, alternative modes of transportation, multimodal nature of trips, challenges encountered, and cost estimates. The main findings of the pilot are that Reach offered a highly valued service that performed a large number of trips that would have otherwise been served by ride-hailing companies, taxis, or personal cars. Moreover, the wide majority of Reach trips were multimodal, with connections to rail being most prominent

Dubai Taxi Demand Hotspots Prediction

Public transportation mode like taxi service consider as an essential service in every city that can serve all gender, age, and level of people, used for to move at any time and everywhere inside or outside the city. with the new entrance of technology for transportation, the taxi industry is undergoing a rapid digital transition like many other fields, that include new inventory like Uber and Careem for taxi sharing used by smartphones. Most of the time, taxi vehicles\u27 distribution is imbalanced due to passengers and taxi drivers\u27 unorganized demand. The plan is always left to the driver to estimate the right place to drive in, making passengers waiting time is longer in some areas, and taxi drivers tour without giving exemplary service. That will lead to loss of income for taxi service providers and reduce the service\u27s passenger satisfaction due to long waiting time without finding the service when needed. To solve this problem, the ability to forecast the proper place and time for taxi demand will help in solving this issue and increase income and customer satisfaction. Solving this issue will bring advantages for passengers, taxi drivers, and the service provider. Such service providers like Dubai RTA or Uber can reallocate taxi vehicles in advance to service a wider area of demand. Of course, we are not able to know where the passenger will be in a short time. However, through experience, we will know the approximate numbers of people in a particular area that require a certain number of taxis, and this is what we are looking for to reduce the waiting time. This issue is considered the right question for an approach for competitive study and using different algorithms. Can it provide the service provider with a good view of the number of riders waiting for the taxi vehicle? Moreover, a clear idea of locating the vehicles based on passengers waiting for the service. Passenger demands can also have too irregular patterns for people to understand but can be identified by a competitive study

Networking Transportation

Networking Transportation looks at how the digital revolution is changing Greater Philadelphia's transportation system. It recognizes several key digital transportation technologies: Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, connected and automated vehicles, digital mapping, Intelligent Transportation Systems, the Internet of Things, smart cities, real-time information, transportation network companies (TNCs), unmanned aerial systems, and virtual communications. It focuses particularly on key issues surrounding TNCs. It identifies TNCs currently operating in Greater Philadelphia and reviews some of the more innovative services around the world. It presents four alternative future scenarios for their growth: Filling a Niche, A Tale of Two Regions, TNCs Take Off, and Moore Growth. It then creates a future vision for an integrated, multimodal transportation network and identifies infrastructure needs, institutional reforms, and regulatory recommendations intended to help bring about this vision

Dumb Cities: Spatial Media, Urban Communication, and the Right to the Smart City

A majority of the global population is now concentrated in cities, and the "smart city" model has emerged as the predominant paradigm for contemporary urban development. Employing networked infrastructures and big data for urban governance, the smart city promises innovative solutions for longstanding urban problems—using computer technologies to automate or monitor everything from traffic patterns to voting practices—while also posing new questions and dilemmas for city dwellers. The smart city model reworks traditional notions of urban rights, such as access to housing and public space, by implementing communication technologies that offer new possibilities for connection even as they create conditions for division and unequal access. How do the communication infrastructures deployed in smart city programs alter the communicative functions of urban spaces, and how might critical urban theory be updated in order to account for these emerging technologies? Focusing primarily on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this project addresses these questions by investigating policies, practices, and infrastructures mediating civic engagement and urban communication in technologically-driven urban development. I survey several salient examples of smart city approaches including the use of “big data” approaches for urban governance, networked transportation infrastructures, and media interfaces for visualizing and interacting with space. This work focuses especially on how notions of citizenship and civic engagement are constructed in "smart" urban imaginaries, as well as the role of emergent technologies in mediating experiences of space and place. I advance the rhetorical skill and cunning intelligence of mêtis as a conceptual lens for assessing and cultivating an engaged urban citizenship. I argue that rhetorics of “smart” urbanism discursively delegate ideals of civic engagement to technical infrastructures and processes, thereby occluding both longstanding and emergent disparities in urban communities

Rethinking Sustainable Mobility: Understanding the use of boda-boda motorcycle taxis in Kampala, Uganda

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are characterised by informal transportation services compensating for the lack of institutionalised transportation system. In Kampala, Uganda, the vast army of boda-boda (boda) motorcycle taxis have proliferated through the city, with passengers and/or cargo goods straddled behind the boda drivers as they navigate through the city’s congested and dilapidated roads. Despite the strong presence of informal transport in developing cities, local governments often regulate against them as they do not fit the desired modern image. Against this backdrop, the dynamics of the system, perception and needs of the users themselves are neglected and unknown. Therefore, this study aims to identify the role of informal mobility in the sustainable urban landscape by investigating the boda sector in Kampala from the users’ (i.e. passengers and cargo) lens. Qualitative Geographical Information System (GIS) as a mixed-methods approach was adopted for the research, explicitly: GIS analysis, questionnaire surveys, interviews, and unstructured observations. The study develops understanding of the boda demand – travel patterns, trip purposes, profiles, perceptions, and aspirations of the boda users. Visual representations and findings are discussed vis-à-vis the sustainable mobility dimensions. The study finds that the boda physical attributes influence the types of market served including service areas and users. More importantly, the boda market morphs according to the city’s prevailing activities throughout the day, signifying how bodas are woven into the urbanites’ life and the city itself. This is more distinctive for lower income groups, working population, and areas with high formal and informal economic activities. Nonetheless, the high social costs resulting from unprofessional driving and high accident rates should justify intervention by formal and informal institutions. Overall, this study identifies the complementary role of the boda system and advocate for its integration into the public transport system through three transition pathways, namely improvement, complementary planning, and institutional reform. This analysis suggests that the informal mobility system and users should be engaged in changing the negative narratives of the sector and working towards sustainable urban mobility and development

policy and managerial implications

Thesis(Master) -- KDI School: Master of Development Policy, 2020The purpose of this study is to provide implications on policy and management in terms of public transportation by exploring the factors of user satisfaction/dissatisfaction, and the current status of demand and perception on government. Research questions applied in this study are following; i) how determinants of satisfaction/dissatisfaction vary among transportation modes, ii) how the citizens’ perception on public transportation affects satisfaction/dissatisfaction of the users and perception on government, and iii) how the improvement of public transportation service based on user’s demands will affect the level of expected satisfaction and perception on government. This study applies both qualitative and quantitative research to analyze 3 types of public transportation modes including bus, bike, and taxi. For qualitative research, civil opinions were collected from the city website to see the current status of public transportation system. Based on the result of qualitative research, an online survey was distributed randomly to users for quantitative research. A factor analysis and ANOVA test were conducted using the data from survey for the overall satisfaction/dissatisfaction level and its determinants, the existing demand, and the expected future satisfaction and perception on government for the users. The findings of this study could be applied to future strategies towards sustainable development of cities for proper provision and operation of public transportation system by using ICT technology that could increase its efficiency.1. Introduction 2. Literature Review 3. Theoretical Background 4. Hypothesis Development 5. Methodology 6. Data Analysis 7. ConclusionmasterpublishedJiin YO