RT30 – Amer Shalaby - Research Innovations in Delay and Disruption Management

RT30 – Amer Shalaby – Research Innovations in Delay and Disruption Management

Researching Transit · RT30 – Amer Shalaby – Research Innovations in Delay and Disruption Management

Researching Transit – Episode 30

Published: August 2021

Keywords: public transport, rail transit, disruption, traffic signal priority, TSP, automation, knowledge transfer, data analytics, bus bridging

This is the eighth 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 Amer Shalaby, Professor and Bahen/Tanenbaum Chair in the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada. Shalaby’s passion for all aspects of public transport, from operations and planning to emerging technologies and data, has led him to his role as Director of the new Transit Analytics Lab (TAL) and Co-Director of the Center for Automated and Transformative Transportation Systems (CATTS) at the University of Toronto. TAL provides a unique forum for different transit stakeholders to come together to better leverage transit data. The lab uses predictive analytics and optimisation to solve problems relating to service planning, operational management, customer satisfaction, equity and more, in collaboration with its industry partners.

Professor Shalaby has co-authored two chapters in the Handbook of Public Transport Research: Chapter 16: Transit Signal Priority: research and practice review and future needs; and Chapter 14: Rail transit disruption management: a comprehensive review of strategies and approaches.

Chapter 16 of the handbook is written for academics and professionals grappling with transit reliability in the face of many sources of delay. Its focus is on one of the key strategies for reducing transit delay: traffic signal priority (TSP). The evolution and technology behind traditional and adaptive signal priority are explored. Key lessons learned include the importance of carefully planning stop and signal location at intersections, and coordinating successive TSP intersections.

Sticking to the theme of disruption management, Chapter 14 takes a broad look at the variety of strategies that are available to address rail transit delay. Rail user delays in the NEW York subway cost the equivalent of $389 million per year. The chapter reviews the strategies available to mitigate these disruptions and their costly implications. The chapter takes a deep dive into ‘bus bridging’ or substitute bus services, a key strategy to address rail service disruption. Other strategies are grouped into supply-side or demand-side responses. Supply-side strategies relate to schedule adjustment, whereas as the less common demand-side responses using information provision and crowd management.

Find out more about this research in Chapters 14 and 16 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 Professor Amer Shalaby and his work: