Brendon Hemily is an independent public transport consultant based in Toronto, and Chair of the Public Transportation Group at Transportation Research Board (TRB). TRB brings together researchers, practitioners, government agency staff, and others, from all modes of transportation, to identify research needs, review current research, conduct research, and share and disseminate knowledge on transport research. It is the largest forum for transportation research in the world. 

Speaking from experience in both research and practice, Brendon describes the challenges involved in ensuring academic research is pitched appropriately for use in the real world, and leads to innovation in practice. He also reflects on the drastic changes to both the running of TRB, including the move to a virtual conference in January of this year, and of research priorities generally in light of the pressures that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed on public transport operations. 

You will find Brendon on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendon-hemily-45104210 

Have feedback? We’re listening. Please send your comments to info@ptrg.info. Find us on twitter and instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit
Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

Researching Tansit

RT20 - Brendon Hemily - Making Academic Research Relevant to the Transit Industry

Professor Graham Currie introduces a new book that is hot off the press: The Handbook of Public Transport Research. The book, edited by Professor Currie, is the most recent in the Research Handbooks in Transport Studies series, published by Edward Elgar. It brings together the latest research from 52 authors across 10 countries, packed into 21 chapters.

In this episode of the podcast, Graham provides an in-depth preview of the book. The aim of the book is to guide readers through the emerging challenges and opportunities for public transport posed by urbanisation and the growth of mega-cities.  

The book weaves together expert knowledge and research at the intersection of public transport and a diverse array of disciplines. These include industrial designing, optimisation, economics and land-use planning. It is organised into five sections, which enable practitioners and researchers to dive into the perspective that is relevant for them. These are:
- Research Foundations
- User Perspectives
- Policy Perspectives
- Planning and Operations Perspectives
- Service development and Future Perspectives

We take a deeper look at Chapter Two - State of the Art of Public Transport Research. This Chapter, co-authored by Dr Nicholas Fournier (UC Berkeley) and Graham, provides an interesting overview of the geographic trends and topic strengths and weaknesses in public transport research. 

This episode is the first in a series that will cover a chapter of the handbook in depth through conversations with the authors.

Download the book from Edward Elgar publishing
https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-public-transport-research-9781788978651.html
 
You can stay up to date with public transport innovations via World Transit Research, the database used by authors Nicholas Fournier and Professor Currie to compile Public Transport: State of the Art, for this book. Subscribe: www.worldtransitresearch.info.
 
Have feedback? We’re listening. Please send your comments to info@ptrg.info.Find us on twitter and instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit.

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT23- Introducing the Handbook of Public Transport Research

This is the second episode in the Researching Transit 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:
Smart Public Transport Lab: http://smartptlab.tudelft.nl/
Oded Cats: https://odedcats.weblog.tudelft.nl/
Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS): https://www.tudelft.nl/bk/samenwerken/amsterdam-institute-for-advanced-metropolitan-solutions 

Read lessons learned from the WMATA project, undertake by Dr. Menno Yap and Dr. Oded Cats. 
Yap, M.D., Cats, O., 2020. Predicting disruptions and their passenger delay impacts for public transport stops. Transportation (Dordrecht). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-020-10109-9


Have feedback? We’re listening. Please send your comments to info@ptrg.info
Find us on twitter and instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit
 
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Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT24 - Dr Oded Cats - Network Resilience and The Smart Public Transport Lab

This is the third episode in the Researching Transit 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 Curries speaks to authors of Chapter 19, Incorporating Mobility on Demand (MOD) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) automotive services into Public Transportation, Emma Lucken and Susan Shaheen. Susan Shaheen is Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. She is also Co-director, Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC), UC Berkeley, and chair of the US Transportation Research Board Executive committee. Emma Lucken is undertaking a PhD in transportation engineering and is also a member of TSRC. 

Professor Shaheen reflects on the motivation and philosophy that has underpinned her research career in transportation. She has always sought to challenge the status quo, using technology to provide sustainable mobility options that could be superior to private automobile ownership and use, particularly from an environmental and social perspective. Public transport, paired with other mobility options, is central to providing mobility without the need for car ownership. 

Turning attention to the book chapter, Shaheen makes the distinction between Mobility on Demand (MOD) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Mobility on demand refers to an ecosystem of transport options that offer integrated and seamless access. Transportation network companies (TNCs, or ridesharing services as they are more commonly known in Australia), as well as microtransit and public transportation, make up links in this ecosystem. Mobility as a Service refers to the provision of on-demand mobility through apps and subscriptions. Emma Lucken describes the different service models of some of the 62 TNC and microtransit projects identified in the USA. Four main models emerge, which can be described by the ways in which the public-private partnerships seek to supplement fixed-route transit. These include: first- and last-mile services, low-density services, off-peak services and paratransit services for users who may not be able to use fixed route services as readily or who may not be able to harness the technology that often accompanies Mobility on Demand. 

Find out more about this research in Chapter 19 of the Handbook of Public Transport Research, available for purchase from the publisher’s website: www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook…781788978651.html

Learn more about the people and projects in today’s show:
Prof Susan Shaheen:  https://ce.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/shaheen 
Emma Lucken: https://tsrc.berkeley.edu/emma-lucken
Transportation Sustainability Research Centre: https://tsrc.berkeley.edu/
Innovative Mobility Research (Susan’s lab): http://innovativemobility.org/

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also enjoy episode 12 with Dr Taru Jain , on the role of carshare in the mobility ecosystem http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/?p=51729. 

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit
Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT25 – Susan Shaheen and Emma Lucken – Mobility on demand services and public transport

This is the fourth episode in the Researching Transit 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 the author of Chapter 9, The Total Social Cost (TSC) of Public Transport Modes, Professor John Preston. John Preston is Professor of Rail Transport in the Transportation Research Group at the University of Southampton. 

Professor Preston talks about his pathway into rail transit research, noting the shifting focus particularly in the realm of transit demand forecasting. He notes the move away from probabilistic demand models, suggesting future research will need to deliver more nuanced understanding of the drivers of transit ridership. Professor Preston discusses some of the projects his research group and collaborators have delivered, including station-level demand prediction tools, and an ongoing project to develop Mobility as a Service tools. 

Professor Preston then elaborates the concept of Total Social Cost (TSC) models of public transport, the focus of his Chapter in the Handbook of Public Transport Research. TSC comprises three elements: operator costs, user costs and external costs. As well as considering operator costs, the TSC approach to modelling transit alternatives considers their ease of use (user cost) and their impact on such external factors as congestion, emissions and safety (external costs). Considering all three can help agencies and governments choose more appropriate transit technologies. The book chapter contains more detail concerning the economic appraisal of each aspect along with case studies from Vietnam (1) and China (used to evaluate the famous straddling bus concept (2) among others) about the economic costing of each aspect. 

Find out more about this research in Chapter 9 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

Learn more about Professor Preston and the concepts in today’s show:
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/about/staff/jpreston.page
Transportation Research Group, University of Southampton: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/research/groups/transportation_group.page

Example of a Total Social Cost Alternative Transit Mode Analysis in Vietnam http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Figure-1-Example-Total-Social-Cost-Alternative-Transit-Mode-Analysis-in-Vietnam-Source-Vu-and-Preston-2020.jpg

(1) Tam Vu & John Preston (2020) Assessing the social costs of urban transport infrastructure options in low and middle income countries, Transportation Planning and Technology, 43:4, 365-384, DOI: 10.1080/03081060.2020.1747202

(2) An example of the straddle bus concept: http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20100906/000bcdb95f1d0deeddd41e.jpg

RT26 - John Preston – A Total Social Cost Perspective on Public Transport

This is the eleventh 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 talks to Associate Professor Selby Coxon of Monash University’s Department of Design. Associate Professor Coxon is the Director of the Mobility Design Lab and also the Associate Dean Graduate Research for the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture.  He has been involved in industrial design in both academia and the commercial sector for around 30 years. 

Professor Currie and Associate Professor Selby Coxon discuss the work of the Mobility Design Lab, which is focused around two themes: decarbonising transport; and developing mobility solutions for dense urban environments. The Mobility Design Lab builds on Monash University’s long history of educating students who went on to work in the automotive industry, but adopts a broader focus to also consider public transport and other forms of mobility, not just personal cars.  Examples of research from the Mobility Design Lab have previously been discussed with Dr Robbie Napper on episode 21 of this podcast. 

This episode focuses on the sixth chapter of the Handbook of Public Transport Research: The power of design to enrich the public transport experience. The chapter was authored by Associate Professor Coxon, Dr Robbie Napper, Dr Ilya Fridman and Dr Vincent Moug.  It discusses how design processes can be used to improve transport systems, and takes the reader through the British Design Council’s “Double Diamond model”. This model involves iterative steps based on 4Ds: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver, as shown in Figure 1.  

Figure 1 - Double Diamond design process, based on British Design Council. Source: Coxon et al. (2021, p. 94)
In this episode Associate Professor Coxon discusses how the design process involves both divergent and convergent thinking. In the first step (Discover) designers seek to gain a broad understanding of the issues to be addressed. The second step (Define) involves synthesising collected data, developing an understanding of the key issues to be addressed, and ultimately converging back to create a design specification.  This is followed by a return to divergent thinking in the third step (Develop) as designers seek to draw, explore and test potential solutions. In the final step of the process (Deliver) the designer seeks to converge the potential solutions into a design output.  

Overall the design process is a form of action research, where the research is done through the production of a new design, process or object. Towards the end of this episode Associate Professor Coxon discusses some of the challenges for research in industrial design, and also some of the benefits that can be gained through adopting design approaches more broadly in practice. While these have already been widely applied to increase the attractiveness of private automobiles, there appears to be much opportunity for such approaches to be used more generally to improve transit and mobility systems.  

Find out more about this research in Chapter 6 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 Associate Professor Selby Coxon and his work:
https://www.monash.edu/mada/about-us/people/selby-coxon

Find out more about the Mobility Design Lab:
https://www.monash.edu/mada/research/labs/mobility-design-lab

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com


References:

Coxon, S, Napper, R, Fridman, I & Moug, V 2021, 'The power of design to enrich the public transport experience', in G Currie (ed.), Handbook of Public Transport Research, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, pp. 92-114.

RT33 – Selby Coxon – Design Research Innovations in Public Transport

This is the twelfth 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 talks to Associate Professor Wijnand Veeneman from the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft). Associate Professor Veeneman is part the Organisation and Governance Section in TU Delft’s Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management.  He is also:
the Scientific Director of Next Generation Infrastructure, a cooperation between six major infrastructure managers in the Netherlands; 
a member of the TRAIL research school, which is an organisation for Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics across six Netherlands Universities; 
on the advisory council of the Netherlands Institute of Government; and 
on the editorial board of Tijdschrift Vervoerswetenschap (Netherlands Transport Science Magazine).

Associate Professor Veeneman has been researching governance in public transport since undertaking his PhD. In this episode he and Professor Currie first briefly discuss his thesis, which is titled Mind the Gap: Bridging Theories and Practice for the Organisation of Metropolitan Public Transport. Links to the thesis are provided below.   
 
This episode of the podcast focuses on the eighth chapter of the Handbook of Public Transport Research: The governance of public transport: towards integrated design, which is authored by Associate Professor Veeneman. He and Professor Currie discuss rule sets, which support the decision-making of the many actors involved in transit. The book chapter provides details about the four levels of rule sets (culture, laws, arrangements and transactions), and how these are relevant to transit governance. In this episode, Associate Professor Veeneman and Professor Currie also discuss how a good starting point in designing a governance system for a public transport network is to first understand the context and local culture.

Find out more about this research in Chapter 8 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 Associate Professor Wijnand Veeneman and his work at:
TU Delft at https://www.tudelft.nl/tbm/over-de-faculteit/afdelingen/multi-actor-systems/people/associate-professors/dr-ww-wijnand-veeneman
the TRAIL Research School for Transport, Infrastructure and Logistics at http://rstrail.nl/ and
Next Generation Infrastructure at https://www.nginfra.nl/english/ 

Associate Professor Wijnand Veeneman’s PhD thesis Mind the Gap: Bridging Theories and Practice for the Organisation of Metropolitan Public Transport is available at:
https://www.academia.edu/667427/Mind_the_Gap and
https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Gap-organisation-metropolitan-transport/dp/9040723087

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT34 – Wijnand Veeneman – Public Transport Governance

This is the thirteenth episode in the Researching Transit 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 talks to Assistant Professor Niels van Oort from the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft). Assistant Professor van Oort is the Co-Director of the Smart Public Transport Lab in the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. The Smart PT Lab has previously been discussed in Episode 24 of this podcast, when Professor Graham Currie spoke to the other Co-Director, Associate Professor Oded Cats (see http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/portfolio-item/rt24-handbook-of-public-transport-research-network-resilience-and-the-smart-public-transport-lab/). 

Assistant Professor van Oort is the author of the thirteenth chapter of the Handbook of Public Transport Research: Service reliability: a planning and operations perspective. This chapter discusses the elements of service reliability, the impact of service reliability on passengers, indicators that are used to measure reliability and variability, and how to make improvements. In this episode, Assistant Professor van Oort talks about the research behind the handbook chapter, including his PhD thesis and subsequent work. Some of the topics discussed are: the factors that can impact service reliability; the need for perspectives across strategic, tactical and operational levels; and bridging the gaps between front-line staff, management and researchers.  Data sets, modelling and the practicality of optimal solutions are also discussed.  

The podcast episode closes with a discussion of current research topics in public transport reliability.  Assistant Professor van Oort notes the growing importance of demand side perspectives to better understand passenger experiences. This includes greater consideration of access and egress to transit systems, and understanding the different impacts that are experienced by passengers when a service is running slightly early versus slightly late. 

Find out more about this research in Chapter 13 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 Assistant Professor Niels van Oort and his work:
at TU Delft at https://www.tudelft.nl/en/ceg/about-faculty/departments/transport-planning/staff/personal-pages/oort-n-van and 
at the Smart Public Transport Lab at http://smartptlab.tudelft.nl/ 

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT35 – Niels van Oort – Public Transport Reliability

This is the fourteenth 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 talks to Professor Juan Carlos Munoz from the Department of Transport and Logistics Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.  Professor Munoz is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDUS) and also the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development. At the beginning of this episode, Professor Munoz talks about these two organisations and how they differ in scope and focus. He also discusses his research in public transport operations and the management of headway, demand and capacity. 

Professor Munoz is the lead author of the seventeenth chapter of the Handbook of Public Transport Research: ACES technologies and public transport operations and control. The chapter discusses Autonomous, Connected, Electric and Shared (ACES) vehicles and how they are expected to disrupt public transportation. In this episode, Professor Munoz and Professor Currie talk about these emerging technologies and some of the opportunities and threats that they pose for transit operators. This includes discussion of autonomous buses, and how vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications might help to improve service provision. Towards the end of the episode, Professor Munoz highlights policy and governance issues related to these new technologies, and some of the future challenges that may be faced as ACES vehicles are introduced into cities. 

Find out more about this research in Chapter 17 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 Juan Carlos Munoz and his work at https://jcmunozpuc.wordpress.com/ 
Department of Transport Engineering and Logistics at https://www.ing.uc.cl/transporte-y-logistica/ 
Institute for Sustainable Development at www.ids.uc.cl
at the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CEDEUS) at https://www.cedeus.cl/
And in a video on innovative ‘Out of the Box’ ideas in transport from Juan Carlos’s research team at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2PcgDt4cFs (in Spanish with English subtitles)

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT36 – Juan Carlos Munoz – Public Transport Operations Control Technologies

This is the fifteenth 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 talks to Professor Jeff Brown and Dr Joel Mendez about funding public transport. Professor Brown is from the College of Social Sciences & Public Policy at Florida State University. He is Department Chair, Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and the Interim Associate Dean for Research at the Department of Urban & Regional Planning. Dr Mendez is Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas’ Urban Planning Program. 

The episode starts with a brief discussion of Professor Brown’s background in transportation finance and policy, planning history, and public transport. He talks about how he got into research and early work with Donald Shoup on using unlimited transit passes to help reduce parking demand at universities. Professor Brown also discusses his research on streetcars and the influences on US cities to invest in this mode. 

Professor Currie then talks to Dr Joel Mendez about his background and research about equity and public transport, including recent work about a zero fare policy in Kansas. This is followed by a discussion about the eleventh chapter of the Handbook of Public Transport Research: Paying for public transport, which was authored by Dr Mendez, Professor James Wood, Assistant Professor Dristi Neog and Professor Brown. The chapter includes material about the benefits and cost of public transport, transit subsidies, and the challenges of providing sufficient resources to support operations and capital improvements. 

Dr Mendez, Professor Brown and Professor Currie discuss how paying for public transport is linked to its purpose, and how there are often many benefits of providing transit that accrue to non-users. This is part of the reason that many US services are supported by local sales taxes or other revenue streams, instead of just passenger fares. They discuss systems, such as the U-Pass, where a university makes a bulk payment to an operator in return for all students receiving free or subsidised travel. Payroll taxes, intergovernmental grants and transit funding through the US highway trust fund are also covered in the episode. 

Professor Brown emphasises the importance of having diverse funding sources. This might involve non-traditional forms of financing, which Dr Mendez discusses towards the end of the episode. They could also include joint development, revenue and cost sharing agreements, and other ways of capturing the property value benefits that occur when transit services are provided.  

Find out more about:

This research in Chapter 11 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.

Professor Jeff Brown and his work at https://coss.fsu.edu/durp/faculty/jeff-brown/; and 
Dr Mendez and his work at https://kupa.ku.edu/joel-mendez


Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT37 – Jeff Brown and Joel Mendez – Paying for Public Transport

In this episode Dr James Reynolds talks to Andrew Nash about implementing priority for buses and trams in Zurich, Switzerland. Mr Nash is a Senior Researcher at the St Pölten University of Applied Sciences in Austria. He is also a Lecturer at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and a widely published transport researcher 

The episode starts with a brief discussion of Mr Nash’s background in transportation and politics. This includes him having stood for election to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District Board of Directors. It is this history of involvement in the politics of transport that has helped shape Mr Nash’s interest in researching implementation, including that of the Citizen’s Transit Priority Initiative in Zurich.

The Citizen’s Transit Priority Initiative provided funding and a mandate to prioritise buses and trams in the City of Zurich. It was passed by voters in a 1977 ballot, having been submitted by members of the public after a proposal to build an underground (metro) system was rejected by the electorate in 1973.  Approximately 20 years ago, Mr Nash undertook a research project into the Citizen’s Transit Priority Initiative. He and Dr Reynolds initially discuss this research, how the Initiative has led to much success for Zurich’s transit system, and the lessons that can be applied to implementing transit priority in other cities.  

Mr Nash has recently revisited the topic of Zurich in a new paper written with Professor Dr Francesco Corman and Professor Dr. Thomas Sauter-Servaes. In the latter part of this episode he and Dr Reynolds discuss the motivation for looking at Zurich again now, and the city’s current efforts to prioritise transit and improve conditions for other road users. The discussion also touches on the political challenges of reallocating road space, and how experimenting with trials and pop-ups can help demonstrate and build support for change. 

Find out more about Andrew Nash and his work at:
His website https://andynash.com/

In his 2003 paper on Implementing Zurich’s Transit Priority Program https://www.andynash.com/nash-publications/Nash2003-ZRH-PTpriority-TRR-1835.pdf 
and In his 2020 paper revisiting Zurich https://www.andynash.com/nash-publications/2020-Nash-Zurich%20Transit%20Priority%20-%20TRA2020-30092019_Nash.pdf

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT 38 – Andrew Nash – Implementing transit priority in Zurich

In this episode Prof Graham Currie talks to Christian Wolmar, a prolific author and journalist specialising in transport and railway history. Christian studied economics at Warwick University, but after graduating in 1971 began a career as a journalist. In 1992 he became the transport correspondent at The Independent newspaper. He has since written over 20 books and is a regular contributor to The Times, The Guardian and many other publications. 

At the start of this episode Graham and Christian briefly discuss the importance of the railways: in wartime; in providing support for city development and growth; and in binding nations together. They talk about how the transcontinental railway had a role in uniting the states of America, and how the trans-Siberian railway linked east and west. Christian’s book “Are Trams Socialist?” is also discussed in the episode, and Christian relates how the book is about public transit and roads being seen as competitors rather than components of the same transport system. Using higher capacity modes, trams and trains rather than cars, to move people around in dense urban environments is an obvious solution. However, as Christian highlights, the reality is that most cities have done away with their (historical) tram networks, and now face challenges related to traffic congestion. 

Later in the episode, Graham and Christian discuss his book “Driverless Car: A road to nowhere”. Christian talks about: how the technical issues of autonomous vehicles are enormous; why the shared-use model appears to be flawed; and how semi-autonomous vehicles raise safety concerns. He also outlines “the Holborn problem”. This relates to how autonomous vehicles might never be able to get through busy areas (like that around Holborn station in London, UK) because, along the lines of Asimov’s three laws of robotics, driverless cars will always have to stop for pedestrians. Hence, anyone might be able to stop any car at any time, simply by stepping into the street. 

Graham notes that Christian’s journalism and writing is informed by research, but may often be closer to asking the real questions than texts coming from academia, which might tend to have a narrower focus. Along similar lines, Christian discusses his current book project about the importance of railways for the WW2 D-Day landings, and how this topic is often overlooked by historians. The book will also discuss how the British and USA railway networks were vital for the movement of troops and supplies, and as a component of the wartime logistics systems. 
 
Find out more about Christian and his work at:
https://www.christianwolmar.co.uk
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=8957703600
https://markwalkerg.podbean.com/

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT39 - Christian Wolmar - Researching Rail Transport History

This episode comes to you from Imperial College London, in the United Kingdom, where Prof Graham Currie recently met with Richard Anderson. Richard is the Managing Director of the Applied Research group within the Transport Strategy Centre (TSC) at Imperial’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He leads the group’s industry facing work on benchmarking across metro, heavy rail, light rail, bus and airport systems, with Associate Directors Alexander Barron, Ben Condry and Mark Trompet.

Graham and Richard discuss the group’s 28 year long programme comparing and analysing the performance of transit systems from around the world. They discuss how context is especially important in benchmarking, because of the large variation in operating conditions. To understand fare-box revenue, operating costs or other characteristics on one system there is a need to compare with analogous systems that have similar contexts.

As well as annual network benchmarking at the strategic planning level, the TSC has also undertaken comparisons on more tactical issues. Richard discusses an example of work that was done to benchmark the London Underground’s procurement policies for escalators. By understanding the escalator specifications used by other metro systems of similar age and context to London, TSC found that the Underground could shift away from ordering bespoke escalators to a more generic heavy duty model, saving 100s of millions of pounds in procurement costs.

Towards the end of the episode, Graham and Richard discuss recent work that TSC has done in response to COVID-19. The structure of the benchmarking groups, as a coalition of member organisations, has allowed rapid knowledge-sharing about COVID-19 responses amongst operators. TSC’s history of benchmarking on specific topics has also meant that member organisations already had access to learnings from SARS pandemic in the early 2000s, and comparisons of the effectiveness of the various responses by different transit operators (e.g. Hong Kong, Canada).

Find out more about Richard and his work at:
the Transport Strategy Centre’s website at https://www.imperial.ac.uk/transport-studies/transport-strategy-centre/applied-research/
the Centre for Transport Studies website at https://www.imperial.ac.uk/transport-studies
Richard’s profile page at https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/richard.anderson
the COVID-19 benchmarking public report at https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/research-centres-and-groups/centre-for-transport-studies/tsc/covid-19/Imperial-College-London-TSC---COVID19-Benchmarking-Review-of-Recent-Activities-(Public-Report)---July-2022.pdf
Community of Metros at https://communityofmetros.org/ 
the International Bus Benchmarking Group (IBBG) at https://busbenchmarking.org/background/ and
the International Suburban Rail Benchmarking Group (ISBERGISBeRG) at https://www.isberg-web.org/ 

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Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT 40 – Richard Anderson – International Transit Benchmarking Research at Imperial College London

This episode of Researching Transit again comes to you all the way from the United Kingdom, as Prof Graham Currie chats with (Emeritus) Prof Peter White from the University of Westminster. Peter has had a long and varied career in teaching and research at Westminster, having joined the university in 1971, back when it was known as the Polytechnic of Central London. He became a Professor in 1992 and has been Emeritus Professor of Public Transport Systems since 2015.  Peter is also the author of Public Transport: its Planning, Management and Operation, which is now in its sixth edition (2017) having first been published in 1976.  

Graham and Peter discuss the privatisation and deregulation of much of the UK’s public transport networks. They discuss Peter’s research in this area, including work looking at the use of minibuses to provide higher-frequency services with lower operating costs per vehicle. Graham ad Peter touch on some of the trade-offs involved, how the cost of the driver and whether there is a differentiation between wages for driving large and small buses can impact operational planning, and the importance of frequency in public transport.  

Peter has had, and continues to have, an active role in teaching at the university.  He and Graham discuss Peter’s current involvement in this area, and how this ties in with his research. Peter also discusses some of the master’s research he has supervised on the societal costs of car miles travelled to reach bus park-and-ride, looking at how longer rural car trips to reach park-and-ride facilities may be preferable to shorter car trips that penetrate into urban centres.  

Find out more about Peter and his work at:
his University of Westminster profile page at https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/researcher/88w32 
the page for Public Transport: its Planning, Management and Operation and https://www.amazon.com.au/Public-Transport-Management-Operation-Environment-ebook/dp/B01MTYHOG2 
Peter’s publications at https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author_lname%3A%22White%22%20AND%20author_fname%3A%22Peter%22&start=0&context=1060035&sort=date_desc&facet=  and https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=7404089426 

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Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

Note: The bus based park and ride research paper mentioned by Peter White (20 mins) was undertaken by Gareth Mills and Peter White;  It is the paper:
Gareth Mills, Peter White (2018) "Evaluating the long-term impacts of bus-based park and ride" Research in Transportation Economics,Volume 69, 2018, Pages 536-543.

RT 42 – Peter White – Public Transport Research in the UK

Researching Transit continues in the United Kingdom, heading further north for this episode to talk with Professor Karen Lucas of the University of Manchester. Karen is Professor of Human Geography and Deputy Director at the Manchester Urban Institute. She is also the Director of Research in the Department of Geography within the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) and leads the Transport and Mobilities research Group (also in the Manchester Urban Institute).

Karen and Graham discuss the importance of transport in improving social inclusion, and Karen’s work as an academic advisor to policy makers and England’s Social Exclusion Unit. This included her involvement in the “Making the connections: final report on transport and social exclusion”, published in 2003 and available at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/@emp_policy/@invest/documents/publication/wcms_asist_8210.pdf. This report includes tools and policy recommendations for improving social outcomes related to transport and transit, and more generally given that this is a whole-of-government issue. 

Later in the episode, Karen talks about her recent work on social inclusiveness in public transport in developing countries. She outlines how the issues are generally the same as elsewhere, only more intense. Karen and Graham also discuss how the interest in the social inclusion field has grown significantly in recent years. 

Towards the end of the episode, Karen and Graham discuss policies relating to transport subsidises in the UK. They contrast the lack of free transport for school children (outside of London) with the introduction of free fares after 9am for older people. Karen also outlines the need for integrated and inclusive geographical approaches in research and policy-making that take into account land use and social needs, rather than focusing on only ‘fixing public transport’.  

Find out more about Karen and her work at:
her University of Manchester profile page at https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/karen.lucas 
the Transport and Mobilities pages at https://www.mui.manchester.ac.uk/research/themes/transport-and-mobilities/ 
Karen’s publications on World Transit Research at https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author_lname%3A%22Lucas%22%20AND%20author_fname%3A%22Karen%22&start=0&context=1060035&sort=date_desc&facet= and Scopus at https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=7103189191 

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT 41 – Karen Lucas – Researching Transport and Social Exclusion

In this episode of Researching Transit Professor Graham Currie talks to Professor Martin Trépanier from Polytechnique Montréal. Martin is part of the Department of Mathematical and Industrial Engineering, and also the Director of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT), and Director Chair in Transport Transformation. 

At the start of the episode Martin and Graham discuss Polytechnique Montréal and Martin’s role teaching in information systems engineering and in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) for a logistics program. They then move on to discusses Martin’s research using smartcard data. This came out connections with local operators developed during initial work on household travel surveys. Martin was at the cutting edge when smartcard ticketing systems were first introduced to transit services. These systems provide very large volumes of data about ridership, travel patterns and operations, yet are only a relatively recent development in the field. 

Towards the end of the episode Graham and Martin discuss Martin’s other research interests in car- and bike-sharing, Mobility As A Service (MAAS) and operations research. They also talk about the Transition platform, which is a tool for planning transit networks developed by Martin’s group. It is now available online at http://transition.city
 
Find out more about Martin and his work at:
his profile page at Polytechnique Montréal https://www.polymtl.ca/expertises/en/trepanier-martin
Martin’s publications on World Transit Research at https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author_lname%3A%22Tr%C3%A9panier%22%20AND%20author_fname%3A%22Martin%22&start=0&context=1060035&sort=date_desc&facet= and on Scopus at https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=6603041080
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Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT 43 –Martin Trépanier – Getting more value from smartcard data

Our guest for this episode of Researching Transit is Professor Marcus Enoch of Loughborough University. Graham and Marcus discuss Marcus’ somewhat sudden commencement of his PhD studies at the Open University, with a research topic agreed to in the taxi from the railway station! They also discuss the 18 months of journalism Marcus undertook for Local Transport Today. 
 
Marcus’ research has included studying transport in Mauritius and Cuba. This work, with James Warren, approaches island transport almost as laboratory for new ideas given that it is easier to understand what is going on when systems are constrained by geography. Marcus also briefly discusses his work about transport in a cultural island, having published a paper in the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies about Transport Practices in Amish Communities (https://doi.org/10.18061/1811/59689).

More recently Marcus has been publishing about transport convergence, which links somewhat to the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept. Newer modes such as ride share, Demand Responsive Transport (DRT), micro-mobility modes such as electric scooters and bike share, and car share may be leading towards the convergence of transport services by bridging the gaps between the more established modes.  Marcus briefly discusses how this relates to his work in New Zealand on the Public Transport 2045 strategy, which included interviewing experts from across the world and developing four scenarios for how public transport will evolve.
 
Marcus also tells us about some of his recent projects on predicting station passenger demand using machine learning, and an internet of things systems for seat sensors on buses: the Bus Seating Information Technology (BusSIT) project. BusSIT was reported in a recent paper in the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Intelligent Transport Systems journal (https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-its.2019.0529). 

Marcus has also done research on travel plans for the European Commission and Transport for London. Travel plans relate to how employers, especially large organisations such asuniversities, have a much larger influence on how people travel to and from their site than do transport agencies. Marcus has written a book on sustainable transport and travel plans (Enoch, M. (2016). Sustainable Transport, Mobility Management and Travel Plans. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis) which has helped to move travel plans away from being something that is done solely because of a local planning requirement. They also discuss Marcus’ review of 100+ Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) schemes (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.11.004). 

Finally, Marcus and Graham discuss Marcus’ future research, including a project about booking a `slot’ prior to starting a journey by car. Marcus is also looking at how falls on hard surface can lead to injury, and the economic feasibility of rolling out soft surfaces, such as might be found in a children’s playground, to reduce pedestrian trauma. Also in the works is a series of eight science fiction novels on the future of transport, looking at different potential outcomes and technologies. 

Find out more about Marcus and his work at:
His biography on the Loughborough University website https://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/abce/staff/marcus-enoch/
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3D%22Enoch%2C+Marcus%22&itemType=book&itemSubType=book-printbook%2Cbook-digital 
New Zealand’s Public Transport 2045 at https://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Paper/Public-Transport-2045.pdf 
His publications at:
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6bIPO3oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra 
World Transit Research https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author_lname%3A%22Enoch%22%20AND%20author_fname%3A%22Marcus%22&start=0&context=1060035&sort=date_desc&facet=

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT 45 – Marcus Enoch – Researching Transport Strategy

Researching Transit comes to you this episode from the Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport (CASPT2022) in Tel Aviv, Israel.  Here Professor Graham Currie met with one of the conference organisers, Dr Yuval Hadas from Bar-Ilan University, which is in Ramat Gan, a city near Tel Aviv.

Yuval is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management and the Head of Supply Chain Management and Logistics Graduate programs. Graham and Yuval initially discuss the Department’s focus on city logistics and supply-chain management. However, freight movement has many similarities to people movement, and Yuval’s research and work provide connections to transit, Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and transport management.  

Yuval describes how transfers are an inevitable, yet difficult, part of public transport.  He and Graham discuss how networks can be designed to minimise transfers (as in Paul Mees’ ‘Squaresville’ model), but that transfer-free, point-to-point services for all riders are not practical. Yuval then outlines his research about improving transfers for passengers using real-time service changes, such as skipping stops, to optimise outcomes.  He and Graham briefly discuss some of the challenges with implementation, with real-time changes to services unlikely to be popular with those passengers waiting at a skipped stop regardless of overall benefits.  However, Yuval highlights that real-time fare pricing adjustments might be one way to offset impacts on different users.  This connects to Yuval’s other research on dynamic fare pricing for transit services.  

Graham and Yuval discuss how variable pricing is already well established in transport systems. Examples include congestion-based road pricing systems, some toll lanes, and off-peak ticketing for some transit services.  However, dynamic pricing in transit is, as yet, only informal and non-financial, with passengers often incentivised to wait for the next bus or travel outside of peak times to avoid crowding.  Yuval discusses his research examining how this might be taken to the next level, with passengers offered a discount to avoid boarding an overcrowded vehicle.  This might allow space to be left available for those further down the line, those with special needs, or those who are not as able or willing to travel later.  

Yuval also outlines his research into bus lanes and similar priority measures for on-road transit services. This focuses on evaluating priority across an entire network, not just on a segment-by-segment basis. The research seeks to develop a set of solutions that have similar overall (technical) benefits, rather than just a single `optimal’ solution, so that decision-makers can take non-technical issues into consideration when selecting a desired option.  

Chewing gum might seem an odd topic for transit, but Yuval has been involved research about this, caffeine and bus driver vigilance. He and Graham discuss a case-control study that found caffeinated chewing-gum improved driver performance in less than ten minutes, whereas an ordinary cup of coffee did not (see https://doi.org/10.3141/2602-04). Finally, Yuval briefly tells Graham about some of his current research looking into electric vehicles, batteries and power supply. 

Find out more about Yuval and his work at his:
•	Biography at the Bar-Ilan University website https://management.biu.ac.il/en/yuvalhadas
•	LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuval-hadas-841b315/
•	Publications at:
•	Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?hl=en&user=64jXi9wAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
•	ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3767-846X
•	World Transit Research at https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author_lname%3A%22Hadas%22%20author_fname%3A%22Yuval%22&start=0&context=1060035&facet= 

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RT 44 – Yuval Hadas – Transfers, dynamic fares, priority and chewing gum?

In this episode Professor Graham Currie meets with Professor Stefan Voß, who is Director of the Institute of Information Systems and (until the end of 2022 was) the Dean of the Hamburg Business School at the University of Hamburg. Stefan has a background in mathematics, computer science and related fields. He and Graham discuss this and the fields of operations and information management, including the application of artificial intelligence and heuristics to public transport and other scheduling problems. Stefan outlines research he has done on timetable synchronisation (sometimes referred to as timetable coordination). Much of this has been in partnership with industry, and Stefan and Graham briefly discuss some of the challenges of publishing research within the constraints of commercial confidentiality.  

Robustness in transport systems is another of Stefan’s other areas of research interest.  He outlines work he has done on the Hamburg public transport system looking at predicting service delays and developing a mathematical formulation of robustness.

Stefan was also an co-author on A Scientometric Analysis of Public Transport Research, published in the Journal of Public Transportation (DOI: http://doi.org/10.5038/2375-0901.18.2.8, available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/jpt/vol18/iss2/8). This paper undertook a broad review of the Public Transport research, looking at key authors, journals and other aspects of the field.  Graham and Stefan discuss the use of Impact Factors in assessing the importance of research outputs, and Stefan highlights how the scientometric analysis findings might suggest that the current emphasis on Impact Factor may not provide a full picture of which publications are particularly important to the field. 

Moving on to discuss upcoming research, Stefan talks about his current work using digital twins to better understand power usage at container terminals. Graham and Stefan briefly discuss how similar issues of power supply may be turning out to be a problem for public transport depots that need to provide electric bus recharging.  Stefan also talks about how digital twins might support research into, and the management of, public transport networks. 

Find out more about Stefan and his work at: 
his profile page at the University of Hamburg at https://www.bwl.uni-hamburg.de/en/iwi/team/mitglieder/stefan-voss.html 
his publications at World Transit Research at https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author%3A(%20stefan%20vo%C3%9F%20)&start=0&context=1060035&sort=score&facet= 
his ORCID page at https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1296-4221 


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Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT 47 – Stefan Voß – Transit Robustness, data and the state of the research field

Researching Transit comes to you again from the Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport (CASPT2022) in Tel Aviv, Israel. In this episode Professor Graham Currie met with another of the conference organisers, Professor Avi Ceder. Avi is the Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and at the Transportation Research Institute, Technion Israel Institute of Technology. He is also a former Zhi-xing Professor at Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU) and Honorary Professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Avi is an expert on public transport scheduling, and the author of Public Transit Planning and Operation: Theory, Modeling and Practice.  Graham and Avi first talk about Avi’s background and experience as a bus driver, PhD student, academic and now Emeritus Professor. Avi got into transit scheduling having taught operations management subjects, and as a consultant to an Israeli bus company prior to development of computerised scheduling tools. Graham and Avi discuss the development of, and research into, transit scheduling theory and tools.  

They then move onto discuss a recent paper Avi authored on Syncing sustainable urban mobility with public transit policy trends based on global data analysis in Nature Scientific Reports (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93741-4).  Avi outlines four issues with road traffic discussed in this paper: crashes, congestion, pollution and space used by parked vehicles. He also discusses the paper’s study of 17 cities, and exploration of what the shift to autonomous vehicles might mean for transportation, transit and the number of vehicles that will be needed in the future.  

Graham and Avi discuss some of the opportunities that are presented by COVID-19, autonomous vehicles and other shifts.  Avi’s Nature paper discusses how autonomous vehicles, if publicly owned / shared, may allow cities to reallocate road and parking space to other uses.  He and Graham discuss how a future with widespread private ownership and use might, instead, result in more vehicles, lower occupancy and increase congestion. 

Later in the episode Avi discusses his work on deficit functions that can be use in the optimisation of vehicle numbers and minimisation of waiting time. Avi also outlines the concept of Just Noticeable Difference (JND), being the threshold at which people might distinguish between different costs, waiting times or other aspects of alternative transport options. This might be used as an input to mobile phone-based trip planning software, to personalise route recommendations to individual preferences in real-time. 

Find out more about Avi and his work at his:
Avi’s webpage at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology at https://ceder.net.technion.ac.il/
Avi’s webpage as an International Associate of Monash’s Public Transport Research Group (PTRG) at http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/our-team/international-associates/avi-ceder-2/
Avi’s publications at: World Transit Research at https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=author_lname%3A%22Ceder%22&start=0&context=1060035&facet=#query-results

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT 46 – Avi Ceder – From Bus Driving to Transit Scheduling and Visioning Future Cities that Work

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:
Twitter - @mamuniza
ORCID profile - https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0485-5124
Research Gate profile - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marcela-Munizaga
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcela-munizaga-61b0a696/

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

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

This episode’s guest is Associate Professor Jan-Dirk Schmöcker from the Department of Urban Management at Kyoto University in Japan. Jan-Dirk has been in Japan for 15 years, 12 of them at Kyoto University. He is part of the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) group at the university and has a background in transportation planning and assignment modelling. 

In this episode Jan-Dirk explains his research about hyperpaths on the transit. These relate to the range of options available to transit riders, representing a set of paths through the network. Together with understand a strategy (such as boarding the first arriving bus), these hyperpaths can be used to better understand how passengers make choices. Jan-Dirk also describes some of his research into bus bunching and the choices passengers might have between boarding an overcrowded first bus or a second, relatively empty bus. 

Graham and Jan-Dirk also discuss Jan-Dirk’s research into the benefits of unreliability. This relates to the way that users might learn other parts of the network when there are service disruptions, crowding or other problems that force them to seek an alternate route. This may result in users discovering better options to their usual route. In unreliable transportation systems travellers also arguably experience their environment more.

Towards the end of the episode Jan-Dirk describes some of his work on transit fares. This has included looking at trends in fare structures, with some cities moving towards flat-fare pricing (which is easier to understand) while others are moving towards pricing that better reflects the marginal cost each passenger imposes on the system. Jan-Dirk discusses how much of the focus has been on the spatial dimension: whether to have a flat-fare, or a zonal or other distance-based pricing structure. In contrast, there has been less attention paid to other aspects of fare policy-making, such as the impacts of discounts for frequent users and daily/weekly/monthly/yearly passes, special pricing for particular user groups, and the impact of transit operators obtaining significant amounts of their revenue from non-transit businesses. 

Finally, Jan-Dirk discusses some of his work using Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) data to understand passengers’ origins and destinations. He also discusses his current research into using big data and crowd sourcing to better understand travel and activity patterns. Among others he is using Google Popular Times data and Twitter data to understand how tourists are using public transport in Kyoto.
 
Find out more about Jan-Dirk and his work at:
His biography on the Kyoto University website at: https://trans.kuciv.kyoto-u.ac.jp/its/Schmoecker.html
His publications at:
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=DIFXh60AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
ResearchGate:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan-Dirk-Schmoecker
World Transit Research: https://www.worldtransitresearch.info/do/search/?q=Jan-Dirk%20Schm%C3%B6cker%20&start=0&context=1060035&facet=
and a recent project on using crowdsourced data at: https://concert-japan-daruma.github.io/

Have feedback? Find us on twitter and Instagram @transitpodcast or using #researchingtransit
Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT 48 – Jan-Dirk Schmöcker –Hyperpaths and the benefits of unreliability

Transit priority is controversial and its potential to unclog congested roads often goes overlooked. How can cities gain support for implementing priority measures aimed at improving the operation of transit and the efficiency of the road network?

In this episode of Researching Transit, James Reynolds of Monash University’s Public Transport Research Group explains the notion of incrementalism in the context of transport planning. Mixing engineering with public policy has allowed James to recognise that technical solutions without political will are destined to languish.

“It’s not just the amount of [transit] priority that matters, but the legitimacy, and how much is legitimate”. 

James offers three main approaches – and some pragmatic strategies – to achieve legitimacy in transit priority. Drawing on case studies from Toronto, Melbourne and Curitiba, James explains how transport planners are already achieving success by using these pragmatic strategies to implement transit priority, and that the missing element has largely been a lack of links to public policy analysis and legitimacy theory, which provide the formal language and understanding to describe these types of approaches in transport planning.

For more on transit priority and related public policy research, James recommends:
•	Marsden and Reardon (2017) Questions of governance: rethinking the study of transportation policy, discussion to much techno-rationalism, and a lack of engagement with social sciences and politics, in transport research;
•	Lindblom (1959) The science of "muddling through", on incrementalism
•	Lindblom (1979) Still muddling, not yet through, refining incrementalism into three types 
•	Reynolds et al. (2017) Moving beyond techno-rationalism: new models of transit priority implementation, applying public policy analysis to transit priority
•	Reynolds et al. (2018) Top-down versus bottom-up perspectives on streetcar priority, comparing the effectiveness of different policy implementation approaches in Melbourne

Videos of presentations about the research:
o	PTRG Transport Research Series: on pragmatic strategies for practitioners.  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdKZm70C8JtUhxmdHtdcc_gZ0n6xsP68G
o	PhD project final review seminar: on three main approaches: (1) building legitimacy before implementation; (2) avoiding impacts on other road users; and (3) building legitimacy through implementation; and eight pragmatic strategies https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdKZm70C8JtUkhuBkq5Jt4pvRYIQitfpi

Learn more about the three different roles for public transport in a city’s transport policy of: 1) providing for social transport needs, 2) peak-period congestion relief, and/or 3) as a replacement for the car; in a chapter by Professor Graham Currie (2016) in Handbook on transport and urban planning in the developed world.

Theme music for this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT2 - James Reynolds - Legitimising Transit Priority

An interest in built environment and sustainable travel behaviour brought Yamini to the Netherlands and pursue a PhD in the same. After several years of researching ‘transit-oriented development’, Yamini found a new passion for ‘gendered mobility’. She found that even though this topic has been so well-researched, the people remain unaware about its consequences on their daily lives and choices. According to her, this missing link is the reason why so little has improved on ground. She now tries to create awareness on the same by transferring the knowledge from academic domain to public at large. 

How does women’s mobility differ from men’s? How did the planning of our cities and its transportation networks come to overlook women’s travel patterns? Yamini discusses gender bias and its equity implications in this episode of Researching Transit.

“What we consider a gender-neutral approach, which is very well intentioned… has created a gender gap in our cities”

Yamini explains why equitable mobility is beneficial for the entire population and dispels the misconception that gender equality is at odds with economic development. In fact, Yamini argues, the opposite is true. 

She adds that since Smart City technology is being hailed as a potential means of breaking down the urban mobility gender divide, she delved into the research to reconcile the promise of equity in smart cities with the reality. For now, she finds, that unconscious bias towards certain user types is apparent in the design of smart city technologies, thereby proving to be unequal and unequitable.

Fortunately, there are simple ways by which, planners, women and men alike can influence more equitable planning. Yamini describes some of these. She outlines research to date that suggests development that makes public transport and active transport more accessible is also the kind of development that is more inclusive of women’s travel. 

More information about Yamini and her work can be found on her website www.yaminijsingh.com. She has also published content related to mobility, equity vs equality, transit-oriented development and gender on her blog.
 Learn more about this topic at https://yaminijsingh.wordpress.com/ including this featured post about the difference between equity and inequality: https://yaminijsingh.wordpress.com/2019/04/02/equity-or-equality/
Watch Yamini’s talk at TEDxAmsterdamWomen (themed “Bridging the gap”) at https://youtu.be/6Z2rhkVJK7k 

You can also read about the role of gender equity in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals here: 
-	SDG 5: “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg5
-	SDQ 10: “Reduce inequality within and among countries” https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg10

Some evidence on the gender bias in mobility systems:
o	1 – Bhattacharya, A. and Kopf, D. 2017, “For their own safety, Indian women are choosing o go to worse colleges than men’, Quartz India, https://qz.com/india/1138346/data-shows-that-women-in-delhi-are-choosing-to-go-to-worse-colleges-than-men-for-their-own-safety/.
o	2 –YJ 2019, 'Is smart mobility also gender-smart?', Journal of Gender Studies, https://doi.orgDOI 10.1080/09589236.2019.1650728.

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT4 - Dr Y J Singh – Gender Bias in Planning of our Cities

Picture this: a future in which shared autonomous vehicles are run by public agencies, providing equitable transport to address a multitude of travel needs in a city decoupled from car ownership. 

In this episode of Researching Transit, Konstanze Winter ponders this scenario and the big what-ifs it poses. Konstanze guides us through many of the pointy unknowns of automation - such as how to avoid the transformation of shared public space into parking lots for empty vehicles. 

“We can learn from other systems, but there’s the difference that automated vehicles can replace themselves”
She sets the scene by discussing the multitude of possible technological, individual choices and policy scenarios at play. These complex interactions are being tackled by cities and researchers, trying to guide automation down a path of equity and accessibility. However, with so many questions and no lived experience of automation, how can we really anticipate the outcomes of new technology?

“We cannot rely on a single study. We have to combine all studies to get a holistic picture across borders, across scenarios and across specifications.”

Konstanze’s research assumes we are more likely to see shared automated vehicles than privately owned ones in our lifetime. Centrally deployed services overcome many of the barriers to automated vehicle adoption, including (1) high investment costs (2) efficient redeployment across multiple users and (3) a market segment of typical tech-savvy early adopters, who are not interested in owning a vehicle. Listen in to hear more about the potential for shared automated vehicles to provide more flexibility in our future transport network.  

Read Konstanze and her colleagues' published research on shared automation:

Winter, K, Cats, O, Martens, K & van Arem, B 2020, 'Relocating shared automated vehicles under parking constraints: assessing the impact of different strategies for on-street parking', Transportation, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11116-020-10116-w.

Winter, K, Cats, O, Martens, K & van Arem, B 'Identifying user classes for shared and automated mobility services', European Transport Research Review, vol. 12, no. 36, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12544-020-00420-y.

More on the levels of driving automation (Konstanze’s research focuses on level 4 and 5): https://blog.ansi.org/2018/09/sae-levels-driving-automation-j-3016-2018/#gref

More on urban parking policies and why they work: D.Shoup (2018): “Parking and the City”. New York, NY: Routledge

More on why parking self-driving vehicles can be game-changer: E. Guerra & E.A. Morris (2018): Cities, Automation, and the Self-parking Elephant in the Room. Planning Theory & Practice, 19:2, 291-297

Konstanze Winter recently complete her PhD at TU Delft’s Smart Public Transport Lab. Her work is bundled in her thesis: M.K.E. Winter (2020): “Providing Public Transport by Self-Driving Vehicles – User Preferences, Fleet Operation, and Parking Management” (Doctoral dissertation). Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands.

She can be contacted at linkedin.com/in/konstanzewinter.

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT6 - Konstanze Winter - Flexible future mobility and shared automation

Welcome to Researching Transit, the public transport research podcast. Your podcast hosts, Professor Graham Currie and Laura Aston, share the motivation for bringing you a podcast focused on  public transport, and provide a taste for what you can expect to learn...

How can transit be made more resilient, efficient, convenient and reliable? How will cities continue to meet the access and mobility needs of a growing population, while mitigating congestion and supporting thriving economies?  These are questions Graham and Laura will seek to answer by interviewing leading researchers from around the world. 

The aim of Researching Transit is to engage the public in shared learning around contemporary issues and innovation in public transport and provide a platform for public transport research communication.

Researching Transit is brought to you by the Monash University Public Transport Research Group.

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT0 - Introducing Researching Transit

In this episode of Researching Transit, Angel Cantillo from the Catholic University of Santiago explains the impacts of fare evasion, and new approaches to understanding and addressing the motivations of fare evaders

Fare evasion impacts the operating costs of transit network around the world. It can create negative perceptions toward the public transport network, of insecurity and unfairness, which in turn impacts transit use. 

However, traditional approaches to enforcing fare compliance, including physical barriers or fines, are no longer regarded as effective. Facebook groups and other ‘out in the open’ anti-fare groups demonstrate the limits of physical barriers when enforceability is limited. Conversely, such approaches may have unintended consequences for certain users. 

“When the same person fare evades many times, something is not working”

Can understanding the nuanced motivations unlock more effective solutions than the traditional enforcement approach? According to Angel, when it comes to understanding and addressing fare evasion, obtaining good evidence is key.

“Your solution will be as good as your data is”

Fare evaders are different, and motivated by different factors. The actions of fare evaders often signpost opportunities to improve our transit systems. 

In this episode, Angel refers to work by PTRG to understand fare evaders ' motivations. Learn more: http://publictransportresearchgroup.info/?p=16705

See also:
Delbosc, A., & Currie, G. (2019). Why do people fare evade? A global shift in fare evasion research. Transport Reviews, 39(3), 376-391. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2018.1482382 

Researching Transit is brought to you by the Public Transport Research Group in the Monash University Department of Civil Engineering. 

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

Researching Transit

RT13 - Angel Cantillo - Understanding fare evasion to improve transit

The impacts of COVID-19 are felt by individuals, while also disrupting the macro processes by which society functions. The effects of restricted movements, fear of virus transmission, and reduced economic activity on travel and activity are significant. In this episode of Researching Transit, Professor Graham Currie delivers early findings of research exploring the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on travel demand. 

Professor Currie’s project seeks to evaluate the likely effects of COVID-19 on long term travel demand, with implications for spending on big infrastructure projects in cities. The shutdown period has seen a reduction in personal travel, leading to a marked reduction in automobile and public transport use as individuals switch to active modes and work from home instead of travelling to work. For a city like Melbourne, with an infrastructure pipeline of $57 billion, this raises questions about the relevance of such large investments in projects including a suburban rail loop and major road expansions. Despite the marked reduction in travel and shifts to alternate modes, early findings suggest that individuals will return to their preferred travel routines once the threat of the virus is gone. 

“The number one answer from everybody is that they will go back to the activities that they had done before… Fundamentally the land use we have, the activities we have, the employment we have and the transport system we have are all there influencing their travel patterns”

The desired “return to normal” poses bigger problems for public transport, which cannot safely accommodate the normal peak capacity while the risk of virus remains. Professor Currie suggests this will encourage us to be flexible: to draw on the full range of travel demand management tools to find ways to facilitate the movement of people that were previously using public transport. With no space available for extra road capacity, this will challenge planners and policy makers to go beyond the conventional approach which has been to predict and provide. 

In its next phase the project will seek to understand how the population is affected differently by COVID-19, and what the behavioural responses have been. More information about the project is available at the links below. 

Project scope: https://lens.monash.edu/2020/05/19/1380466/will-covid-19-affect-victorias-57-billion-transport-spend

Webinars: 
-	Planning for uncertainty in public transport, Veitch Lister Consulting, https://veitchlister.com.au/webinar-planning-for-uncertainty-in-public-transport/, 13 May 2020
-	Reimagining mobility in Melbourne after COVID-19, Committee for Melbourne, [insert link] 19 May 2020.

Other research mentioned in this episode: 

Modelling public transport capacities to support safe social distancing: WSP 2020, COVID-19 & Public transport: From response to recovery,  https://www.wsp.com/en-AU/insights/covid-19-and-public-transport-from-response-to-recovery

Beck, M.J. and Hensher, D.A.2020, Insights into the Impact of Covid-19 on Household Travel, Working, Activities and Shopping in Australia – the early days under Restrictions, Working Paper, https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/22247

Marsden, G, Anable, J, Chatterton, T, Docherty, I, Faulconbridge, J, Murray, L, Roby, H & Shires, J 2020, 'Studying disruptive events: Innovations in behaviour, opportunities for lower carbon transport policy?', Transport Policy , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.04.008

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT5 - Professor Graham Currie - Long term impacts of COVID-19 on travel demand

In our tenth show, we explore a variety of topics that showcase Dr Kara Kockelman’s curiosity and the collaboration across disciplines that is a hallmark of her research. 

Dr Kockelman provides a refreshing take on the power of statistics as a tool for making sense of information. It has allowed her to probe a range of issues and bridge topics such as transport and land use, welfare and congestion. We speak about her early work at the nexus of transport and land use, when interest was first directed toward the role of planning in affecting traffic outcomes.

Based on extensive research, Dr Kara Kockelman provides a clear picture of shared autonomy and its distinct safety and efficiency advantages. According to Dr Kockelman, designing compact AVs which run on electric power, and operate on a dynamic ridesharing basis, will be essential for keeping congestion down and fostering sustainable mobility. 

“Every time we make driving easier,  we get more of it. Those downsides were a concern to me… I wanted to think about how we can mitigate those accompanying issues.”

Dr Kockelmam speaks about a model for SAV operation in which they are run by transit operators. SAVs operating in centralised fleets will be nimble, demand-responsive and able to take advantage of existing infrastructure investments. The role of conventional transit, however, will likely diminish, with central SAV fleets offering a more flexible and frequent service. She suggests private ridesharing models will continue to play a role among those wanting the most flexible and individualised service. This new style of publicly-deployed mobility has significant equity advantages; removing the ability to drive as a prerequisite for automobility.

We shift our conversation to one of Dr Kockelman’s co-curricular pursuits; the Bridging Transportation Research virtual conference series. Dr Kockelman gained some valuable experience with virtual conferencing pre-pandemic, with the inaugural BTR in January 2019. With COVID-19 putting a halt on international conference travel, the second BTR has been brought forward to 11-12 August. Kara explains the issues of equity, cost, fatigue and environmental impacts that inspired her to initiate the conference series together with hard working colleagues from around the world. The second BTR sees 70 registrations, up from 18. This uptake reflects an increase in exposure and traction, but is also a sign of COVID-19 changing the game for virtual conferencing both in the short and long term. The pandemic has shone a light on the ease and convenience of conferencing, taking the focus away from those aspects of conferences that are less readily substituted. 

Dr Kockelman and her team are committed to keeping the conference free and open and welcome volunteers to help deliver the BTR series. Find out ways to get involved, including registering for future conferences at bridgingtransport.org

Kara closes our conversation with an authentic reflection on the simple approach that guides her impactful research:

“By teaming you really can address a lot more questions than you yourself might be able to… Just keep your eyes open for what’s important.”

Find out more about Dr Kockelman, including contact information, by visiting her website https://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman/. There you’ll find a wealth of open access research sorted by topic, ranging from autonomous vehicles to traffic safety, modelling and pricing. 

Chapter eight of The Economics of Transportation Systems: A Reference for Practitioners, co-authored by Dr Kockelman, explores the use econometrics for transportation data analysis. The book is available as an open source resource at https://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman/TransportationEconomics_Website/TranspEconReference.pdf  

For information about the Bridging Transportation Research online conference, visit bridgingtransport.org

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT10 - Dr Kara Kockelman - Self-driving vehicle fleets: a new form of transit

In this episode of Researching Transit, Professor Graham Currie speaks with innovators Dr. Velvet Basemera-Fitzpatrick and Dr. Drew Dara-Abrams. Dr. Fitzpatrick is a Senior Program Officer for the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. TRB, host of the world’s largest annual meeting for transportation research, plays an immense role in both generating and disseminating transport research. 

Dr. Fitzpatrick discusses her work with novel technology projects through TRB’s Transit IDEA program. The Transit IDEA program – Transit Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis  - was founded in 1992 with the aim of funding unproven early-stage research; projects that are too risky for other institutions to invest in. Each year, a call for proposals is developed which reflects needs in the field of transportation. An expert panel evaluates proposals and selects eligible projects. To date, 99 projects have received funding through the program. 

Transit projects funded through the program are diverse in scope. Examples include drone technologies that make parking at Commuter Rail stations safer; and bus sensor technology that identifies riders in need of extra assistance for boarding and alighting. Dr. Drew Dara-Abrams of Interline Technologies has been involved in a recent IDEA-funded project. Drew works with transit agencies realise the value of high quality real-time transit data (through general transit feed specifications, or gtfs). Funding from the IDEA program has spurred incorporation of this real-time data into the Transit.Land open access platform, that provides an interface for agencies to query their timetable data. Learn more about Interline Technologies’ work by visiting www.interline.io.

Dr. Fitzpatrick speaks about the complexity, partnerships, risks and dedication that go into developing implemenetation-ready technologies in transport. One challenge is the longer-term payoff associated with early-stage innovation; which means projects require sustained effort and investment beyond the life of Transit IDEA funding. This is why Transit IDEA works with project teams to grow their networks and attract funding. She highlights two key lessons for innovators in transportation should be:
1.	Project goals should be sustainable, beyond the life and modality of the project
2.	Project teams must be flexible; accepting of risk and unexpected events

Want to learn more about transit innovations?
•	Visit project descriptions on the Transit IDEA website: http://www.trb.org/IDEAProgram/IDEATransit.aspx
•	Innovation in Action is the Transit IDEA Program’s first ever innovation report. Released in January 2020, the report highlights the impact of the program to date: http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/IDEA/FinalReports/Transit/TransitJ04A.pdf
•	The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) first received funding in 1991 after Willim (Bill) Millar and APTA highlighted the importance of research in public transportation. Since then, over $10 million has been invested in over 500 projects under the TRB banner. Source: Bill Millar’s Exit Interview: APTA’s Chief Signs Off (Metro Magazine, 2011)

Sign up for updates when we release new Researching Transit episodes: http://eepurl.com/g9tCdb

Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT15 - Fostering Transit Innovation: TRB's Transit IDEA Program

Dr Lorelei Schmitt now works as Principal Multimodal Advisor at Waka Kotahi, Māori for ‘travelling together as one’(1), and the name of the  New Zealand Transport Agency. In today’s show, Lorelei discusses the importance of first impressions on public transport and the collaborative ways NZTA is building the agency’s capability to integrate different modes of transport.

Lorelei completed a PhD as a member of the Public Transport Research Group. Her research focused on unfamiliar travel, among new users, visitors or users changing routes or modes in public transport networks. Leveraging her psychology training, Lorelei explored the ways in which unfamiliar trips differ from familiar trips. Unfamiliar travel has a primacy effect, conjuring more vivid recollections than for habitual trips. The way people perceive a network is important for shaping future behaviours. Visitors also form opinions about cities based on their unfamiliar journeys. In addition, new users have a higher cognitive load. She highlights the importance of providing clear signage and real-time information, since not all travellers have access to smart devices. Interventions can be targeted around locations or times when unfamiliar journeys often occur, such as sporting events or university semesters to ensure new users have a positive and efficient experience. 

As a multi-modal planner in New Zealand, Lorelei’s responsibilities include developing national public transport design guidelines collaboratively with local and regional agencies who deliver transit. The first iteration of the Public Transport Design Guidelines (2) provides advice on public transport infrastructure, including bus stop design and corridor clearance. They are designed to promote national consistency in the delivery of public transport, tailored to the New Zealand regulatory environment. Developing a tool that is useful for a wide range of stakeholders with different expertise was an unexpectedly complicated process. 

 “Trying to get solutions that are really passenger-centric, user-friendly, but also meet all the different requirements of different transport planners of different modes hasn’t been a simple exercise”

Multi-modal integration inherently complicates the transport planning process. A key challenge is enabling people to realise that what’s good for one mode isn’t necessarily best for the system as a whole. Much of the formal training for transport planning has a vehicle throughput focus. In the interest of achieving better multi-modal integration, Lorelei’s team explored the project funding and delivery Lifecyle to identify key stakeholders pivotal in shaping projects. Training modules developed by Waka Kotahi is provided to these stakeholders to lift the multimodal capability and unlock multimodal potential of projects.  

One key area that has benefited from collaboration between planners with different modal expertise is that of safety. Interestingly, Lorelei’s multi-modal responsibilities extend to that of Te Araroa, a 3000km walking trail that runs the length of New Zealand (3). Working with the road engineers improved the safety outcome for walkers at an intersection where Te Araroa crossed a major highway. Lorelei stresses the need for empathy, patience and collaboration when challenging status quo for modes. Multi-modal planning also fosters consideration of a wider range of access and mobility needs across the community. The process of collaborative planning therefore allows for accessibility to be provided more equitably.

Visit our website for the full notes from today's show.

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Music from this episode is from https://www.purple-planet.com

RT16 - Dr Lorelei Schmitt - First trips and multi-modal integration matter

Most humans now live in growing cities where increasing traffic congestion risks liveability, the environment and economic productivity.  Public transport is now widely seen a solution for mega-city growth due to its social, economic and mass travel efficiency.  However the industry faces significant challenges.  Infrastructure, systems and even thinking in the industry is old and out of date.  Policy and regulatory structures are ‘path dependent’ on historical approaches and lack progressive thinking.  There is a global need to revitalise  public transport with new knowledge and thinking to build a progressive future for the industry.

Researching Transit introduces listeners to the latest thinking in global public transit research.  It aims to engage the industry, researchers and the wider community in shared learnings about the latest innovations in public transport research providing a platform for research communication.    Professor Graham Currie and Laura Aston talk to some of the world's leading researchers in a podcast series brought to you by the Monash University Public Transport Research Group.

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