Rumana Sarker

Name: Rumana Sarker

Title: Research Fellow

Affiliations: Public Transport Research Group, Monash University

Rumana Sarker is a Research Fellow at the Public Transport Research Group. Her research focuses on the application of data analytics and machine learning techniques to improve public transport services and urban mobility. She completed her PhD in 2020, entitled “Application of behavioral theories to increase transit ridership based on user-operator interaction” and undertaken at Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck.  Before this Rumana completed a Master of Science in Transportation Systems at the Technical University of Munich.

Rumana has published research on walking distances to public transport, applying event theory to understand how passengers respond to service disruptions, and intermodal transport.  She has skills in statistical analysis and GIS, and has worked on projects related to car sharing, electric vehicles, Mobility As A Service (MAAS), and transit resilience. In 2021 Rumana was awarded the 16th European Friedrich-List-Prize from the European Platform of Transport Sciences, which is for the best doctoral dissertation by a young transport researcher.

B Science (Civil Engineering, Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering), Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology 2010

M Science, Technical University of Munich 2014

PhD, Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck 2020

2021 – 16th European Friedrich-List-Prize from the European Platform of Transport Sciences

2021 – ‘Nachhaltige Mobilität in der Praxis’- Sustainable mobility in practice from Klima und Energie Fonds (Climate and Energy Fonds)

2020 – ‘IKB Forschungsförderung 2020’ – IKB Research Grant from the Innsbruck Municipal Service Corporations and City of Innsbruck

US Transportation Research Board – AP020 Innovative Public Transportation Services and Technologies – Member

European Regional Science Association (ERSA) – Member

Network on European Communications and Transport Activities Research (NECTAR) – Member

PTRG Projects

comeINperiphery-The Geography of New Working Spaces and the Impact on the Periphery (CA-18214)

‘CHOOSE’- Car sharing for sustainable mobility: Current barriers and future potentials in Austria

‘PeCASO’- Potentials of (e-) Car sharing and Electric Vehicles as an Integral option for Smart City initiatives of Innsbruck

Mobility-as-a-Service in Tyrol

Qualität des öffentliche Verkehrs in Tirol- Resilient Public Transport in Tyrol Region

CHANGE lab- Centre for habitual change analysis in transportation for the design of effective, socially accepted mobility measures

PT Publications
  1. Sarker, R.I., Mailer, M. and Sikder, S.K. (2020), “Walking to a public transport station: Empirical evidence on willingness and acceptance in Munich, Germany”, Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 38-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-07-2017-0031
  2. Sarker, R.I., Kaplan, S., Mailer, M. and Timmermans, H.J., 2019. Applying affective event theory to explain transit users’ reactions to service disruptions. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 130, pp.593-605.
  3. Sarker, R.I., Kaplan, S., Anderson, M.K., Haustein, S., Mailer, M. and Timmermans, H.J., 2019. Obtaining transit information from users of a collaborative transit app: Platform-based and individual-related motivators. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 102, pp.173-188.
  4. Sarker, R.I., Morshed, G., kumar Sikder, S. and Sharmeen, F., 2020. Trends in active and sustainable mobility: experiences from emerging cycling territories of Dhaka and Innsbruck. In Urban Ecology (pp. 163-183). Elsevier.
  5. Sarker, R.I., 2015. ⁎ A101 Surveying acceptable walking distance to different modes of local public transport in Munich area ID. Journal of Transport & Health, 2(2), pp.S57-S58.
  6. Sarker, R.I., Sánchez, M.J., Islam, M.F., Heidegger, F. and Nakkash, N., Intermodal transport concepts including all modes for the Salzburg-Berchtesgadener Land Region.