RT24 – Handbook of Public Transport Research – Network Resilience and The Smart Public Transport Lab

RT24 – Handbook of Public Transport Research – Network Resilience and The Smart Public Transport Lab

Researching Transit – Episode 24

Published: May 2021

Keywords: public transport, transit, network resilience, AMS Institute, WMATA, passenger experience, smart card data, disruption

This is the second episode in Researching Transit’s 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 Currie speaks to another of the book’s authors, Associate Professor Oded Cats. Dr Cats cofounded and co-directs the Smart Public Transport Lab, in the Department of Transport Planning, at TU Delft.

Two key areas of focus for the Smart PT Lab are network resilience (the focus of Chapter 12 in the Handbook), as well as changing public transport usage patterns. This includes charting the interaction of public transport with other travel modes, including the role of the bicycle in rail journeys, as well as emerging mobility technologies. The Critical MaaS project with the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute) explored the role of public transport on demand in the future mobility ecosystem.

Chapter 12 of the Handbook of Public Transport Research focuses network resilience. The chapter, Public Transport Network Resilience, was written by Dr Menno Yap and. Dr Cats. During the interview, Dr. Cats discusses some of the indicators and strategies that can be used to model the impact of unexpected events. He discusses the special case of the black swan event, the event that can’t be planned for because it has not been experienced before. He emphasises the need to strike an effective balance between efficiency and network resilience.

Taking a passenger experience focus has been a hallmark of projects and research into network reliability. The use of smartcard data has been central to these efforts. In a recent example of collaboration across academia and industry, the Smart PT Lab for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to understand and address trip-level delays experienced by individual passengers. The Smart PT Lab’s research was central to implementing a scheme aimed at improving the passenger experience, by providing refunds for trips that were delayed more than 15 minutes. The success of the scheme has resulted in the delay window being reduced to 10 minutes.

The Handbook of Public Transport Research is 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:

Read lessons learned from the WMATA project, undertake by Dr. Menno Yap and Dr. Oded Cats.

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  • Date May 16, 2021
  • Tags Podcast