Researching Transit

In this episode Prof Graham Currie talks to Prof Marcela Munizaga from the Universidad de Chile. Marcela is Vice Dean at the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, but also the Vice President at the Santiago Metro. Graham and Marcela initially talk about Marcela’s roles in administration, teaching and research at the University. Marcela outlines her research background in discrete choice modelling and data science. Since 2010 there has been a relationship between the University of Chile and the public transport authority to share data from the ticketing system. The buses and metro systems in Santiago have smartcard ticketing, GPS and automatic vehicle location, which allows origin and destinations of transit users to be determined. Marcella outlines some of the data analysis that the University has done on this rich database. Later in the episode Graham and Marcela discuss Marcela’s role as a member of the board for Metro Santiago. Marcela outlines how the board has a diverse make up, including her as a researcher and academic. Finally, Marcela discusses some of her current research activity on behavioural economics and influencing changes in travel towards more sustainable options. Marcela has also recently been working on experiments involving economic incentives, crowd sourcing service quality data such as crowding, and messaging to encourage greater transit use. Find out more about Marcela and her work at: Twitter - @mamuniza ORCID profile - https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0485-5124 Research Gate profile - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marcela-Munizaga LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcela-munizaga-61b0a696/ Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

In this episode Professor Graham Currie meets with Professor Stefan Voß, who is Director of the Institute of Information Systems and (until the end of 2022 was) the Dean of the Hamburg Business School at the University of Hamburg. Stefan has a background in mathematics, computer science and related fields. He and Graham discuss this and the fields of operations and information management, including the application of artificial intelligence and heuristics to public transport and other scheduling problems. Stefan outlines research he has done on timetable synchronisation (sometimes referred to as timetable coordination). Much of this has been in partnership with industry, and Stefan and Graham briefly discuss some of the challenges of publishing research within the constraints of commercial confidentiality. Robustness in transport systems is another of Stefan’s other areas of research interest. He outlines work he has done on the Hamburg public transport system looking at predicting service delays and developing a mathematical formulation of robustness. Stefan was also an co-author on A Scientometric Analysis of Public Transport Research, published in the Journal of Public Transportation (DOI: http://doi.org/10.5038/2375-0901.18.2.8, available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/jpt/vol18/iss2/8). This paper undertook a broad review of the Public Transport research, looking at key authors, journals and other aspects of the field. Graham and Stefan discuss the use of Impact Factors in assessing the importance of research outputs, and Stefan highlights how the scientometric analysis findings might suggest that the current emphasis on Impact Factor may not provide a full picture of which publications are particularly important to the field. Moving on to discuss upcoming research, Stefan talks about his current work using digital twins to better understand power usage at container terminals. Graham and Stefan briefly discuss how similar issues of power supply may be turning out to be a problem for public transport depots that need to provide electric bus recharging. Stefan also talks about how digital twins might support research into, and the management of, public transport networks. Find out more about Stefan and his work at: his profile page at the University of Hamburg at https://www.bwl.uni-hamburg.de/en/iwi/team/mitglieder/stefan-voss.html his publications at World Transit Research at https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author%3A(%20stefan%20vo%C3%9F%20)&start=0&context=1060035&sort=score&facet= his ORCID page at https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1296-4221 Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

Our guest for this episode of Researching Transit is Professor Marcus Enoch of Loughborough University. Graham and Marcus discuss Marcus’ somewhat sudden commencement of his PhD studies at the Open University, with a research topic agreed to in the taxi from the railway station! They also discuss the 18 months of journalism Marcus undertook for Local Transport Today. Marcus’ research has included studying transport in Mauritius and Cuba. This work, with James Warren, approaches island transport almost as laboratory for new ideas given that it is easier to understand what is going on when systems are constrained by geography. Marcus also briefly discusses his work about transport in a cultural island, having published a paper in the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies about Transport Practices in Amish Communities (https://doi.org/10.18061/1811/59689). More recently Marcus has been publishing about transport convergence, which links somewhat to the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept. Newer modes such as ride share, Demand Responsive Transport (DRT), micro-mobility modes such as electric scooters and bike share, and car share may be leading towards the convergence of transport services by bridging the gaps between the more established modes. Marcus briefly discusses how this relates to his work in New Zealand on the Public Transport 2045 strategy, which included interviewing experts from across the world and developing four scenarios for how public transport will evolve. Marcus also tells us about some of his recent projects on predicting station passenger demand using machine learning, and an internet of things systems for seat sensors on buses: the Bus Seating Information Technology (BusSIT) project. BusSIT was reported in a recent paper in the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Intelligent Transport Systems journal (https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-its.2019.0529). Marcus has also done research on travel plans for the European Commission and Transport for London. Travel plans relate to how employers, especially large organisations such asuniversities, have a much larger influence on how people travel to and from their site than do transport agencies. Marcus has written a book on sustainable transport and travel plans (Enoch, M. (2016). Sustainable Transport, Mobility Management and Travel Plans. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis) which has helped to move travel plans away from being something that is done solely because of a local planning requirement. They also discuss Marcus’ review of 100+ Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) schemes (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.11.004). Finally, Marcus and Graham discuss Marcus’ future research, including a project about booking a `slot’ prior to starting a journey by car. Marcus is also looking at how falls on hard surface can lead to injury, and the economic feasibility of rolling out soft surfaces, such as might be found in a children’s playground, to reduce pedestrian trauma. Also in the works is a series of eight science fiction novels on the future of transport, looking at different potential outcomes and technologies. Find out more about Marcus and his work at: His biography on the Loughborough University website https://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/abce/staff/marcus-enoch/ https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3D%22Enoch%2C+Marcus%22&itemType=book&itemSubType=book-printbook%2Cbook-digital New Zealand’s Public Transport 2045 at https://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Paper/Public-Transport-2045.pdf His publications at: Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6bIPO3oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra World Transit Research https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author_lname%3A%22Enoch%22%20AND%20author_fname%3A%22Marcus%22&start=0&context=1060035&sort=date_desc&facet= Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

In this episode of Researching Transit Professor Graham Currie talks to Professor Martin Trépanier from Polytechnique Montréal. Martin is part of the Department of Mathematical and Industrial Engineering, and also the Director of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT), and Director Chair in Transport Transformation. At the start of the episode Martin and Graham discuss Polytechnique Montréal and Martin’s role teaching in information systems engineering and in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) for a logistics program. They then move on to discusses Martin’s research using smartcard data. This came out connections with local operators developed during initial work on household travel surveys. Martin was at the cutting edge when smartcard ticketing systems were first introduced to transit services. These systems provide very large volumes of data about ridership, travel patterns and operations, yet are only a relatively recent development in the field. Towards the end of the episode Graham and Martin discuss Martin’s other research interests in car- and bike-sharing, Mobility As A Service (MAAS) and operations research. They also talk about the Transition platform, which is a tool for planning transit networks developed by Martin’s group. It is now available online at http://transition.city Find out more about Martin and his work at: his profile page at Polytechnique Montréal https://www.polymtl.ca/expertises/en/trepanier-martin Martin’s publications on World Transit Research at https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author_lname%3A%22Tr%C3%A9panier%22%20AND%20author_fname%3A%22Martin%22&start=0&context=1060035&sort=date_desc&facet= and on Scopus at https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=6603041080 Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

Researching Transit continues in the United Kingdom, heading further north for this episode to talk with Professor Karen Lucas of the University of Manchester. Karen is Professor of Human Geography and Deputy Director at the Manchester Urban Institute. She is also the Director of Research in the Department of Geography within the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) and leads the Transport and Mobilities research Group (also in the Manchester Urban Institute). Karen and Graham discuss the importance of transport in improving social inclusion, and Karen’s work as an academic advisor to policy makers and England’s Social Exclusion Unit. This included her involvement in the “Making the connections: final report on transport and social exclusion”, published in 2003 and available at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/@emp_policy/@invest/documents/publication/wcms_asist_8210.pdf. This report includes tools and policy recommendations for improving social outcomes related to transport and transit, and more generally given that this is a whole-of-government issue. Later in the episode, Karen talks about her recent work on social inclusiveness in public transport in developing countries. She outlines how the issues are generally the same as elsewhere, only more intense. Karen and Graham also discuss how the interest in the social inclusion field has grown significantly in recent years. Towards the end of the episode, Karen and Graham discuss policies relating to transport subsidises in the UK. They contrast the lack of free transport for school children (outside of London) with the introduction of free fares after 9am for older people. Karen also outlines the need for integrated and inclusive geographical approaches in research and policy-making that take into account land use and social needs, rather than focusing on only ‘fixing public transport’. Find out more about Karen and her work at: her University of Manchester profile page at https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/karen.lucas the Transport and Mobilities pages at https://www.mui.manchester.ac.uk/research/themes/transport-and-mobilities/ Karen’s publications on World Transit Research at https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author_lname%3A%22Lucas%22%20AND%20author_fname%3A%22Karen%22&start=0&context=1060035&sort=date_desc&facet= and Scopus at https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=7103189191 Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

In this episode Prof Graham Currie talks to Christian Wolmar, a prolific author and journalist specialising in transport and railway history. Christian studied economics at Warwick University, but after graduating in 1971 began a career as a journalist. In 1992 he became the transport correspondent at The Independent newspaper. He has since written over 20 books and is a regular contributor to The Times, The Guardian and many other publications. At the start of this episode Graham and Christian briefly discuss the importance of the railways: in wartime; in providing support for city development and growth; and in binding nations together. They talk about how the transcontinental railway had a role in uniting the states of America, and how the trans-Siberian railway linked east and west. Christian’s book “Are Trams Socialist?” is also discussed in the episode, and Christian relates how the book is about public transit and roads being seen as competitors rather than components of the same transport system. Using higher capacity modes, trams and trains rather than cars, to move people around in dense urban environments is an obvious solution. However, as Christian highlights, the reality is that most cities have done away with their (historical) tram networks, and now face challenges related to traffic congestion. Later in the episode, Graham and Christian discuss his book “Driverless Car: A road to nowhere”. Christian talks about: how the technical issues of autonomous vehicles are enormous; why the shared-use model appears to be flawed; and how semi-autonomous vehicles raise safety concerns. He also outlines “the Holborn problem”. This relates to how autonomous vehicles might never be able to get through busy areas (like that around Holborn station in London, UK) because, along the lines of Asimov’s three laws of robotics, driverless cars will always have to stop for pedestrians. Hence, anyone might be able to stop any car at any time, simply by stepping into the street. Graham notes that Christian’s journalism and writing is informed by research, but may often be closer to asking the real questions than texts coming from academia, which might tend to have a narrower focus. Along similar lines, Christian discusses his current book project about the importance of railways for the WW2 D-Day landings, and how this topic is often overlooked by historians. The book will also discuss how the British and USA railway networks were vital for the movement of troops and supplies, and as a component of the wartime logistics systems. Find out more about Christian and his work at: https://www.christianwolmar.co.uk https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=8957703600 https://markwalkerg.podbean.com/ Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

This is the fifteenth episode in Researching Transit’s Handbook of Public Transport Research Series. Links to the book can be found at the end of the notes. In this episode Professor Graham Currie talks to Professor Jeff Brown and Dr Joel Mendez about funding public transport. Professor Brown is from the College of Social Sciences & Public Policy at Florida State University. He is Department Chair, Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and the Interim Associate Dean for Research at the Department of Urban & Regional Planning. Dr Mendez is Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas’ Urban Planning Program. The episode starts with a brief discussion of Professor Brown’s background in transportation finance and policy, planning history, and public transport. He talks about how he got into research and early work with Donald Shoup on using unlimited transit passes to help reduce parking demand at universities. Professor Brown also discusses his research on streetcars and the influences on US cities to invest in this mode. Professor Currie then talks to Dr Joel Mendez about his background and research about equity and public transport, including recent work about a zero fare policy in Kansas. This is followed by a discussion about the eleventh chapter of the Handbook of Public Transport Research: Paying for public transport, which was authored by Dr Mendez, Professor James Wood, Assistant Professor Dristi Neog and Professor Brown. The chapter includes material about the benefits and cost of public transport, transit subsidies, and the challenges of providing sufficient resources to support operations and capital improvements. Dr Mendez, Professor Brown and Professor Currie discuss how paying for public transport is linked to its purpose, and how there are often many benefits of providing transit that accrue to non-users. This is part of the reason that many US services are supported by local sales taxes or other revenue streams, instead of just passenger fares. They discuss systems, such as the U-Pass, where a university makes a bulk payment to an operator in return for all students receiving free or subsidised travel. Payroll taxes, intergovernmental grants and transit funding through the US highway trust fund are also covered in the episode. Professor Brown emphasises the importance of having diverse funding sources. This might involve non-traditional forms of financing, which Dr Mendez discusses towards the end of the episode. They could also include joint development, revenue and cost sharing agreements, and other ways of capturing the property value benefits that occur when transit services are provided. Find out more about: This research in Chapter 11 of the Handbook of Public Transport Research, available for purchase from the publisher’s website: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-public-transport-research-9781788978651.html. Professor Jeff Brown and his work at https://coss.fsu.edu/durp/faculty/jeff-brown/; and Dr Mendez and his work at https://kupa.ku.edu/joel-mendez Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

This is the thirteenth episode in the Researching Transit Handbook of Public Transport Research Series. Links to the book can be found at the end of the notes. In this episode Professor Graham Currie talks to Assistant Professor Niels van Oort from the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft). Assistant Professor van Oort is the Co-Director of the Smart Public Transport Lab in the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. The Smart PT Lab has previously been discussed in Episode 24 of this podcast, when Professor Graham Currie spoke to the other Co-Director, Associate Professor Oded Cats (see http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/portfolio-item/rt24-handbook-of-public-transport-research-network-resilience-and-the-smart-public-transport-lab/). Assistant Professor van Oort is the author of the thirteenth chapter of the Handbook of Public Transport Research: Service reliability: a planning and operations perspective. This chapter discusses the elements of service reliability, the impact of service reliability on passengers, indicators that are used to measure reliability and variability, and how to make improvements. In this episode, Assistant Professor van Oort talks about the research behind the handbook chapter, including his PhD thesis and subsequent work. Some of the topics discussed are: the factors that can impact service reliability; the need for perspectives across strategic, tactical and operational levels; and bridging the gaps between front-line staff, management and researchers. Data sets, modelling and the practicality of optimal solutions are also discussed. The podcast episode closes with a discussion of current research topics in public transport reliability. Assistant Professor van Oort notes the growing importance of demand side perspectives to better understand passenger experiences. This includes greater consideration of access and egress to transit systems, and understanding the different impacts that are experienced by passengers when a service is running slightly early versus slightly late. Find out more about this research in Chapter 13 of the Handbook of Public Transport Research, available for purchase from the publisher’s website: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-public-transport-research-9781788978651.html. Find out more about Assistant Professor Niels van Oort and his work: at TU Delft at https://www.tudelft.nl/en/ceg/about-faculty/departments/transport-planning/staff/personal-pages/oort-n-van and at the Smart Public Transport Lab at http://smartptlab.tudelft.nl/ Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

This is the eleventh episode in Researching Transit's Handbook of Public Transport Research Series. Links to the book can be found at the end of the notes. In this episode, Professor Graham Currie talks to Associate Professor Selby Coxon of Monash University’s Department of Design. Associate Professor Coxon is the Director of the Mobility Design Lab and also the Associate Dean Graduate Research for the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture. He has been involved in industrial design in both academia and the commercial sector for around 30 years. Professor Currie and Associate Professor Selby Coxon discuss the work of the Mobility Design Lab, which is focused around two themes: decarbonising transport; and developing mobility solutions for dense urban environments. The Mobility Design Lab builds on Monash University’s long history of educating students who went on to work in the automotive industry, but adopts a broader focus to also consider public transport and other forms of mobility, not just personal cars. Examples of research from the Mobility Design Lab have previously been discussed with Dr Robbie Napper on episode 21 of this podcast. This episode focuses on the sixth chapter of the Handbook of Public Transport Research: The power of design to enrich the public transport experience. The chapter was authored by Associate Professor Coxon, Dr Robbie Napper, Dr Ilya Fridman and Dr Vincent Moug. It discusses how design processes can be used to improve transport systems, and takes the reader through the British Design Council’s “Double Diamond model”. This model involves iterative steps based on 4Ds: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 - Double Diamond design process, based on British Design Council. Source: Coxon et al. (2021, p. 94) In this episode Associate Professor Coxon discusses how the design process involves both divergent and convergent thinking. In the first step (Discover) designers seek to gain a broad understanding of the issues to be addressed. The second step (Define) involves synthesising collected data, developing an understanding of the key issues to be addressed, and ultimately converging back to create a design specification. This is followed by a return to divergent thinking in the third step (Develop) as designers seek to draw, explore and test potential solutions. In the final step of the process (Deliver) the designer seeks to converge the potential solutions into a design output. Overall the design process is a form of action research, where the research is done through the production of a new design, process or object. Towards the end of this episode Associate Professor Coxon discusses some of the challenges for research in industrial design, and also some of the benefits that can be gained through adopting design approaches more broadly in practice. While these have already been widely applied to increase the attractiveness of private automobiles, there appears to be much opportunity for such approaches to be used more generally to improve transit and mobility systems. Find out more about this research in Chapter 6 of the Handbook of Public Transport Research, available for purchase from the publisher’s website: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-public-transport-research-9781788978651.html. Find out more about Associate Professor Selby Coxon and his work: https://www.monash.edu/mada/about-us/people/selby-coxon Find out more about the Mobility Design Lab: https://www.monash.edu/mada/research/labs/mobility-design-lab Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com References: Coxon, S, Napper, R, Fridman, I & Moug, V 2021, 'The power of design to enrich the public transport experience', in G Currie (ed.), Handbook of Public Transport Research, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, pp. 92-114.

This is the ninth episode in Researching Transit's Handbook of Public Transport Research Series. Links to the book can be found at the end of the notes. In this episode, Laura Aston speaks to Dr Alexa Delbosc and Professor Graham Currie. Today’s guests will be familiar to man. Dr Delbosc was interviewed in episode 22, addressing the psychology of public transport. She is a lecturer with the Institute of Transport Studies in the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University. Professor Currie, your regular host and editor of the Handbook of Public Transport Research, is Director of the Public Transport Research Group at Monash University. Today they discuss Chapter 7 of the Handbook: The Paradigm Shift in Revenue Protection Research and Practice. The chapter is unique in providing a case study in impactful industry partnership. It presents the findings of a major program of research, funded by Victoria’s Department of Transport, which generated major economic savings for the State. Our guests set the scene by explaining the impetus for this research. Globally, agencies may lose up to 25% of revenue to fare evasion, costing in the hundred of millions of dollars. Yet prior to this project, which commenced in 2011/12, there was limited understanding of the motivations for fare evasion. Dr Delbosc explains how the project contributed to shifting the focus of revenue protection research from conventional systems control perspectives and customer profiling, to the more nuanced approach of customer motivations. Following the success of their research, the customer motivations perspective on fare evasion has taken off around the world. By combining numerous psychological frameworks that help understand human motivations, the project was able to identify four different rationales for fare evading, ranging from Accidental Evaders to Career Evaders (Figure 1). Importantly, they were able to quantify the revenue loss associated with different motivations. This was an important discovery that led to the development of effective responses, including a marketing campaign which targeted often affluent ‘freeloaders’. This campaign, along with other targeted interventions, saw fare evasion in Victoria reduce from 12% to 5% in 2015, saving the government $45 million (Figure 2). Figure 1: http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/RT-31-Figure-1.png Figure 2: http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/RT-31-Figure-2.png Find out more about this research in Chapter 7 of the Handbook of Public Transport Research, available for purchase here: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-public-transport-research-9781788978651.html Find out more about today’s guests Prof Graham Currie: https://www.monash.edu/engineering/grahamcurrie Dr Alexa Delbosc: https://www.monash.edu/engineering/alexadelbosc For an overview of the research program discussed during today’s show, visit the Psychology of Fare Evasion Research Website: http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/portfolio-item/understanding-the-psychology-of-fare-evasion/ Read more about the fare evasion research and findings in published research papers: Currie, G. and A. Delbosc (2017). "An Empirical Model for the Psychology of Deliberate and Unintentional Fare Evasion." Transport Policy 54: 21-29. Delbosc A and Currie G (2019). "'Why do people fare evade? A global shift in fare evasion research' " TRANSPORT REVIEWS Volume 39 - 3 pp376-391. Delbosc, A. and G. Currie (2016a). "Cluster analysis of fare evasion behaviours in Melbourne, Australia." Transport Policy 50: 29-36. Delbosc, A. and G. Currie (2016b). "Four Types of Fare Evasion: A Qualitative Study from Melbourne, Australia." Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour 43: 254-264. Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

This is the seventh episode in Researching Transit's Handbook of Public Transport Research Series. Links to the book can be found at the end of the notes. In this episode, Professor Graham Currie speaks to Kari E. Watkins, Frederick Law Olmsted Associate Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). She is also the lead author of Chapter 21 of the Handbook of Public Transport Research: Advances in transit customer information. Associate Professor Watkins is the director of the T-SCORE (Transit-Serving Communities Optimally, Responsible, and Efficiently) Center, a US DOT-funded program that brings together several universities to conduct research into the future of transit. T-SCORE’s mission is to understand ridership trends and the underlying drivers of change, and identify ways to position transit as a robust part of any future transportation system. An early contribution of the program is the development of future transportation scenarios, based on expert interviews. Prior to her current role at Georgia Tech, Watkins completed a PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle. During her PhD she co-developed the real-time transit app One-Bus-Away. The app was among the first to harness smartphones and real-time transit information technologies, capable of providing users with up-to-date transit vehicle location data. Watkins continues to undertake research in transit customer information. Such information is critical, she says, for facilitating transit use by giving potential users the information they need to plan their journeys on transit when other alternatives are available. As its title suggests, Chapter 21 of the Handbook reviews the technologies, standards and apps making data about transit more readily available for both customers and planners. Three advances are focal points: the opening up of GTFS, the widespread adoption of smartphones, and data standardisation. Together, this has led to the emergence of reusable smart-phone integrated applications that can be readily adapted for new agencies/systems. Data standardisation has been key to disseminating information for agencies that might not have in-house resources to provide their information otherwise. The Chapter concludes with a look to the future and potentials of open and standardised transit data, including efficient microtransit and adaptation to other modes of transportation such as bikeshare, that often interface with public transport. Find out more about Kari E. Watkins and her work: https://ce.gatech.edu/people/faculty/5861/overview T-SCORE Center: http://tscore.ce.gatech.edu/ One-Bus-Away: https://onebusaway.org/ Find out more about the Handbook of Public Transport Research, and Kari's chapter here: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-public-transport-research-9781788978651.html. Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

This is the fifth episode in the Researching Transit Handbook of Public Transport Research series. Links to the book can be found at the end of the notes. In this episode, Professor Graham Currie speaks to Margareta Friman and Maria Borjesson, two of the authors of Chapter 20 of the Handbook: Large increases in bus use in Sweden: lessons learned. Margareta Friman works at Karlstad University where she is Pro-vice Chancellor, as well as Professor of Psychology and member of the Service and Market Oriented Transport (SAMOT) Research Group. Maria Borjesson is Professor of Economics and a researcher at VTI – The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute and Likoping University. Professor Friman talks about the three areas of focus for public transport research at SAMOT: travel behaviour, travel experiences, and perceived accessibility. One of SAMOT’s strengths is pairing psychology and business perspectives to provide insights about the motivations for public transport mode shift. Their research has also elevated the role of the user, not just gaining insights about their travel experiences, but also giving a user focus to contracting and service design. Their perceived accessibility research aims to understand the extent to which users feel they can undertake the travel they want. SAMOT’s ongoing passenger experience research unveiled a shift in the relative importance of ‘stress’ during COVID-19, with its relative importance increasing. Professor Friman is joined by Professor Maria Borjesson to discuss the lessons learned from Sweden’s major bus network expansion, the focus of Chapter 20 of the Handbook. In recent years, Sweden enjoyed a 50% increase in bus use. How did they achieve this? The country increased the supply of bus services dramatically. Yet despite this expansion, operating costs increased per unit of travel. They attribute this to the bespoke, and not necessarily supply-driven, nature of the revamped network. Increased operating costs have driven up the ticket price of transport dramatically, which has in turn created an equity issue for pre-existing users of public transport. Finally, Sweden has not seen a reduction in car use. This demonstrates the need to understand if bus use can really reduce car travel; a major motivation for Sweden’s investment in the bus network. Find out more about this research in Chapter 20 of the Handbook of Public Transport Research, co-authored by today’s guests as well as Masoud Fadei, available for purchase from the publisher’s website: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-public-transport-research-9781788978651.html. Learn more about the people and projects in today’s show: Professor Margareta Friman https://www.kau.se/en/researchers/margareta-friman Service and Market Oriented Transport (SAMOT) Research Group - https://www.kau.se/en/ctf/research/ctf-research/research-projects/samot-service-and-market-oriented-transport-research Professor Maria Borjesson: https://www.vti.se/en/employees/maria-bratt-borjesson VTI; Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute: https://www.vti.se/en Have feedback? Find us on twitter and instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com/

This is the third episode in the Researching Transit Handbook of Public Transport Research series. Links to obtain the book can be found at the end of the notes. In this episode, Professor Graham Curries speaks to authors of Chapter 19, Incorporating Mobility on Demand (MOD) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) automotive services into Public Transportation, Emma Lucken and Susan Shaheen. Susan Shaheen is Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. She is also Co-director, Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC), UC Berkeley, and chair of the US Transportation Research Board Executive committee. Emma Lucken is undertaking a PhD in transportation engineering and is also a member of TSRC. Professor Shaheen reflects on the motivation and philosophy that has underpinned her research career in transportation. She has always sought to challenge the status quo, using technology to provide sustainable mobility options that could be superior to private automobile ownership and use, particularly from an environmental and social perspective. Public transport, paired with other mobility options, is central to providing mobility without the need for car ownership. Turning attention to the book chapter, Shaheen makes the distinction between Mobility on Demand (MOD) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Mobility on demand refers to an ecosystem of transport options that offer integrated and seamless access. Transportation network companies (TNCs, or ridesharing services as they are more commonly known in Australia), as well as microtransit and public transportation, make up links in this ecosystem. Mobility as a Service refers to the provision of on-demand mobility through apps and subscriptions. Emma Lucken describes the different service models of some of the 62 TNC and microtransit projects identified in the USA. Four main models emerge, which can be described by the ways in which the public-private partnerships seek to supplement fixed-route transit. These include: first- and last-mile services, low-density services, off-peak services and paratransit services for users who may not be able to use fixed route services as readily or who may not be able to harness the technology that often accompanies Mobility on Demand. Find out more about this research in Chapter 19 of the Handbook of Public Transport Research, available for purchase from the publisher’s website: www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook…781788978651.html Learn more about the people and projects in today’s show: Prof Susan Shaheen: https://ce.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/shaheen Emma Lucken: https://tsrc.berkeley.edu/emma-lucken Transportation Sustainability Research Centre: https://tsrc.berkeley.edu/ Innovative Mobility Research (Susan’s lab): http://innovativemobility.org/ If you enjoyed this episode, you may also enjoy episode 12 with Dr Taru Jain , on the role of carshare in the mobility ecosystem http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/?p=51729. Have feedback? Find us on twitter and instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com