iCITY Project

Project

Public transit is an indispensable component of mobility systems in urban areas. The effectiveness of public transit depends on its quality of service in terms of frequency, speed, service reliability, comfort, cost, and safety. Service reliability is increasingly recognized as an attribute of public transit systems that is highly valued by customers. While conventional strategies exist to tackle service reliability, the full potential of new technologies in improving the reliability and punctuality of transit services has yet to be realized. In this project, we developed the following studies and tools to improve the resilience of the transit network and its reliability:

A multi-objective transit signal priority (TSP) scheme that improves proactively service reliability at signalized intersections in urban corridors.
Methods to estimate the probability and timing of transit vehicle bunching incidents along transit corridors.
A shuttle bus dispatching toolkit to help transit agencies manage unplanned rail disruption that cause great inconvenience to passengers.

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Bus Bunching

2 / 9

Passengers Waiting to Board Shuttle Buses due to Subway Disruption

3 / 9

Streetcar Bunching

4 / 9

The Methodology Adopted by the Shuttle Bus Dispatching Tool to Manage Unplanned Rail Disruptions

5 / 9

The Methodology Adopted by the Shuttle Bus Dispatching Tool to Manage Unplanned Rail Disruptions

6 / 9

Subway System Outdoor Tracks (not sure if needs to be labeled twice)

7 / 9

Subway System Total Z-Score by Subway Station (not sure if needs to be labeled twice)

8 / 9

Toronto’s Subway System Development (not sure if needs to be labeled twice)

9 / 9

Streetcar Bunching

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PRESENTATIONS

“Dual-Objective Transit Signal Priority for Improving Speed and Reliability of High-Frequency Lines: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach”, 99th Annual Transportation Research Board Meeting, Washington D.C., January, 2020.

W. Hu, A. Shalaby, B. Abdulhai

“Managing Unplanned Rail Disruptions: Policy Implications and Guidelines Towards an Effective Bus Bridging Strategy”, 98th Annual Transportation Research Board Meeting, Washington D.C., January, 2019.

I. Itani, A. Aboudina, E. Diab, S. Srikukenthiran, A. Shalaby

“Evaluation of Bus Bridging Scenarios for Railway Service Disruption Management: A Users’ Delay Calculator Tool”, 2018 Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport (CASPT) / TransitData 2018 Symposium, Brisbane, Australia, July, 2018.

A. Aboudina, E. Diab, S. Srikukenthiran, A. Shalaby

“Subway Service Down Again? Assessing the Effects of Subway Service Interruptions on Local Surface Transit Performance”, 97th Annual Transportation Research Board Meeting, Washington D.C., January, 2018.

E. Diab and A. Shalaby

“Understanding the Factors that Influence the Probability and Time to Streetcar Bunching Incidents”, 97th Annual Transportation Research Board Meeting, Washington D.C., January, 2018.

P. Nguyen, E. Diab, A. Shalaby

“Understanding the impacts of subway’s system interruptions on streetcar and bus transit service performance”, TransitData 2017 – 3rd International Workshop and Symposium, Santiago, Chile, May, 2017.

E. Diab and A. Shalaby

“Breaking into Emergency Shuttle Service: Aspects and Impacts of Retracting Buses from Existing Scheduled Bus Services”, 96th Annual Transportation Research Board Meeting, Washington D.C., January, 2017.

E. Diab, G. Feng, A. Shalaby

“Rail Transit Resilience: Understanding the Impacts of Outdoor Tracks and Weather Conditions on Subway System Interruptions”, 96th Annual Transportation Research Board Meeting, Washington D.C., January, 2017.

E. Diab and A. Shalaby

“Understanding the Internal and External Determinants of Streetcar Bunching”, TransitData 2017 – 3rd International Workshop and Symposium, Santiago, Chile, May, 2017.

P. Nguyen, E. Diab and A. Shalaby

“Understanding the impacts of subway’s system interruptions on surface transit system performance”, 56th Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), Portland, Oregon, November, 2016.

E. Diab and A. Shalaby

CONNECT judy.farvolden@utoronto.ca

RESEARCH THEMES Urban Informatics for Transportation Operations, Planning, & Decision making Urban Mobility & Integrated Urban Systems Design Visualization & Decision Support

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