Special Issue "Sustainable Urban Public Transport Management and Planning with Big Data"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Sangho Choo
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Urban Engineering, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea
Interests: travel behavior; transportation planning; mobility as a service; big data analysis; urban public transport; survey design; discrete choice modeling; logistics planning; ICT and travel

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, information and communication technology (ICT) has been widely used in the field of public transport operation and planning. As a result, various big data such as passenger OD (origin/destination) data and bus operation data have been generated, and much interest in public transportation policies using them has increased. This Special Issue invites papers related to public transport management and planning utilizing various big data generated by public transport systems. We encourage new methodologies and various applications of data analysis for sustainable urban public transport management and planning.

Prof. Sangho Choo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • public transport management
  • public transport planning
  • public transport operation
  • big data
  • sustainable urban transport
  • ICT

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

Article
An Application of a Deep Q-Network Based Dynamic Fare Bidding System to Improve the Use of Taxi Services during Off-Peak Hours in Seoul
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9351; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169351 - 20 Aug 2021
Viewed by 219
Abstract
The problem of structural imbalance in terms of supply and demand due to changes in traffic patterns by time zone has been continuously raised in the mobility market. In Korea, unlike large overseas cities, the waiting time tolerance increases during the daytime when [...] Read more.
The problem of structural imbalance in terms of supply and demand due to changes in traffic patterns by time zone has been continuously raised in the mobility market. In Korea, unlike large overseas cities, the waiting time tolerance increases during the daytime when supply far exceeds demand, resulting in a large loss of operating profit. The purpose of this study is to increase taxi demand and further improve driver’s profits through real-time fare discounts during off-peak daytime hours in Seoul, Korea. To this end, we propose a real-time fare bidding system among taxi drivers based on a dynamic pricing scheme and simulate the appropriate fare discount level for each regional time zone. The driver-to-driver fare competition system consists of simulating fare competition based on the multi-agent Deep Q-Network method after developing a fare discount index that reflects the supply and demand level of each region in 25 districts in Seoul. According to the optimal fare discount level analysis in the off-peak hours, the lower the OI Index, which means the level of demand relative to supply, the higher the fare discount rate. In addition, an analysis of drivers’ profits and matching rates according to the distance between the origin and destination of each region showed up to 89% and 65% of drivers who actively offered discounts on fares. The results of this study in the future can serve as the foundation of a fare adjustment system for varying demand and supply situations in the Korean mobility market. Full article
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Article
What Factors Affect Commuters’ Utility of Choosing Mobility as a Service? An Empirical Evidence from Seoul
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9324; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169324 - 19 Aug 2021
Viewed by 256
Abstract
Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which integrates public and shared transportation into a single service, is drawing attention as a travel demand management strategy aimed at reducing automobile dependency and encouraging public transit. In particular, there have been few studies that recognize traffic [...] Read more.
Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which integrates public and shared transportation into a single service, is drawing attention as a travel demand management strategy aimed at reducing automobile dependency and encouraging public transit. In particular, there have been few studies that recognize traffic congestion during peak hours and identify related factors for practical application. The purpose of this study is to explore what factors affect Seoul commuters’ mode choice including MaaS. A web-based survey that 161 commuters participated in was conducted to collect information about personal, household, and travel attributes, together with their mode preference for MaaS. A latent class model was developed to classify unobserved latent groups based on trip frequency by means and to identify factors influencing mode-specific utilities (in particular, MaaS service) for each class. The result shows that latent classes are divided into two groups (public transit-oriented commuters and balanced mode commuters). Most variables have significant impacts on choice for MaaS. The coefficient of MaaS choice of Class 1 and Class 2 were different. These findings suggest there is a difference between the classes according to trip frequency by means as an influencing factor in MaaS choice. Full article
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Article
The Effect of COVID-19 on the Efficiency of Intercity Bus Operation: The Case of Chungnam
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5958; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115958 - 25 May 2021
Viewed by 449
Abstract
This paper estimates the efficiency of operating intercity bus lines in Chungnam province over the period 2017–2020, and then empirically analyzes the determinants of the efficiency. In particular, it evaluates to what extent the efficiency in 2020 decreased due to COVID-19 and which [...] Read more.
This paper estimates the efficiency of operating intercity bus lines in Chungnam province over the period 2017–2020, and then empirically analyzes the determinants of the efficiency. In particular, it evaluates to what extent the efficiency in 2020 decreased due to COVID-19 and which characteristics of lines (length of a line, frequency of operation, whether a line operates via highways and includes the capital region or not) affected the efficiency during the pandemic through a tobit model. The empirical results show that the efficiency in the operation of intercity bus lines in Chungnam was higher in 2018 and 2019 compared to 2017, but dropped in 2020 by 15.8%. It appears that the efficiency is higher when a line operates more frequently and covers a longer distance, but the efficiency increases at a decreasing rate as the operating distance becomes longer. In addition, the difference in the efficiency according to operating distance due to COVID-19 seems to be statistically significant. Given that intercity bus lines are heavily dependent upon a (local) government’s financial support and the amount of this support needs to reflect the degree to which the efficiency has decreased due to COVID-19 as an external shock, it is important to precisely estimate the magnitude of the efficiency reduction from both a policy and academic standpoint. Full article
Article
Multiple Utility Analyses for Sustainable Public Transport Planning and Management: Evidence from GPS-Equipped Taxi Data in Haikou
Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 8070; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12198070 - 30 Sep 2020
Viewed by 599
Abstract
The transportation utility values calculated by traditional utility methods are not comprehensive. Some objects and factors are ignored in traditional utility methods, and this narrow perspective is their primary drawback. In intelligent transportation systems, it is necessary to calculate transportation utility for promoting [...] Read more.
The transportation utility values calculated by traditional utility methods are not comprehensive. Some objects and factors are ignored in traditional utility methods, and this narrow perspective is their primary drawback. In intelligent transportation systems, it is necessary to calculate transportation utility for promoting public traffic planning and management. To build a sustainable intelligent transportation system, modified utility methods are essential to analyze transportation utility in a comprehensive way with innovative technologies and efficient communication systems. To solve the disadvantages of traditional utility methods, it is necessary to establish a new method to build sustainable public transport in the future. In this study, the Multiple Utility Method and Transportation Utility Method are proposed for public transport planning and management from multiple perspectives. A sample is presented to provide a better description, and 69,174 GPS-equipped taxi data in Haikou are adopted for the application of the Transportation Utility Method. The results show that the transportation utility values calculated by the Transportation Utility Method are more comprehensive than the transportation utility calculated by traditional utility methods. This indicates that it is necessary to calculate transportation utility from multiple perspectives based on the Transportation Utility Method. Future directions could include improving the methods, considering more factors, expanding the data used, and extrapolating this research to other cities around the world with similar urban metrics and urban form. Full article
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