RT 49 – Marcela Munizaga – Transit Data for Forecasting and Analysis

Public Transport Research Group / RT 49 – Marcela Munizaga – Transit Data for Forecasting and Analysis

RT 49 – Marcela Munizaga – Transit Data for Forecasting and Analysis

Researching Transit · RT 48 – Marcela Munizaga – Transit Data for Forecasting and Analysis

Researching Transit – Episode 49

Published: July 2023

Keywords: Public transport, data science, big data, operator, governance

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: