Leonardo Caggiani

Quantifying the impacts of horizontal and vertical equity in transit route planning

ABSTRACT Equity refers to a fair sharing of costs or resources. Horizontal equity concerns distribution among individuals or groups with the same necessities, whereas vertical equity should be considered in situations with different levels of needs. This paper deals with transit service, looking at how to make it equitable from a spatial and social point of view. Traditionally equity has been neglected in transit planning, being in the best cases an afterthought during service provision. Hence, we propose a methodology to plan and design public transport routes, which meets the needs of communities fostering equitable accessibility. In this paper we put forward a method to incorporate horizontal and vertical equity goals in a Transit Network Design Problem. We study how the costs of the system change with the attained level of equity and found that higher overall costs may be born if more equitable service provision has to be pursued.

Planning and Design of Equitable Free-Floating Bike-Sharing Systems Implementing a Road Pricing Strategy

Promoting a more sustainable development of urban realities is one of the most important goals of the recent decades. One possible strategy to undertake in order to achieve this objective is the implementation of a road pricing: tolling private cars when passing by certain roads of the network could be a way to tone down the traffic congestion and, at the same time, encourage the shifting towards more sustainable means of transport. In this context, we suggest a method to distribute in a fair way the outcomes/revenues of this pricing strategy. In particular, we propose to design a free-floating bike-sharing system whose resources could be allocated in the territory according to spatial and social equity principles. The relation between the amount of the tolls, the number of days of application of the policy, and the pursued equity is investigated, and both a numerical application (to a test network and to a real case study) and a sensitivity analysis in support of the method are enclosed.

Spatio-temporal Clustering and Forecasting method for Free-Floating Bike Sharing Systems

Free-floating bike sharing systems are an emerging new generation of bike rentals, that eliminates the need for specific stations and allows to leave a bicycle (almost) everywhere in the network. Although free-floating bikes allow much greater spontaneity and flexibility for the user, they need additional operational challenges especially in facing the bike relocation process. Then, we suggest a methodology able to generate spatio-temporal clusters of the usage patterns of the available bikes in every zone of the city, forecast the bicycles use trend (by means of Non-linear Autoregressive Neural Networks) for each cluster, and consequently enhance and simplify the relocation process in the network.

Design of Priority Transportation Corridor Under Uncertainty

Network design is one of the crucial activity in transportation engineering whose goal is to determine an optimal solution to traffic network layout with respect to given objectives and technical and/or economic constraints. In most of the practical problem the input data are not always precisely known as well as the information is not available regarding certain input parameters that are part of a mathematical model. Also constraints can be stated in approximate or ambiguous way. Thus, starting data and/or the problem constraints can be affected by uncertainty. Uncertain values can be represented using of fuzzy values/constraints and then handled in the framework of fuzzy optimization theory. In this paper we present a fuzzy linear programming method to solve the optimal signal timing problem on congested urban. The problem is formulated as a fixed point optimization subject to fuzzy constraints. The method has been applied to a test network for the case of priority corridors that are used for improve transit and emergency services. A deep sensitivity analysis of the signal setting parameters is then provided. The method is compared to classical linear programming approach with crisp constraints.

A real time multi-objective cyclists route choice model for a bike-sharing mobile application

The attractiveness of cycling- and in particular of bike-sharing systems-as a sustainable alternative of transportation is constantly growing, given the undeniable benefits associated with it. The aim of this paper is to present a multi-objective model based on a Fuzzy Inference System to be embedded in a mobile application that could assist cyclists in the selection of the smartest route to follow to reach their destination, in terms of travel costs (distance or time), level of air pollution and road safety. The features of the bike-sharing system (both traditional and free-floating) are considered in the generation of the final path, and also the starting and final stations to prefer (or the closest bike to pick up for the free-floating option) are provided. The proposed optimization model is dynamic, as it is synchronized with geolocated real time data regarding level of congestion and flows on the network, and availability of bikes/racks in the bike-sharing system. The mobile app gives bike users the possibility to plan, personalize and execute their trip with turn-by-turn guidance, allowing them to select the default optimal path, or to choose the desired travel time among the available route options, each of them accompanied by the related air pollution and safety. An application of the model is carried out through a test case to evaluate the proposed approach. Furthermore, a first study regarding the graphic interface of the mobile platform is presented to recommend some guidelines to follow to have a final product effective and bike users-friendly. The final goal is to improve the cycling experience, encouraging at the same time more people to elect the bike as their preferred mode of transportation.

Airline efficiency performance in the turbulent period before and after economic crisis

JOVANA G. KULJANIN, University of Belgrade, Professional paper Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, Belgrade UDC: 005.51/.52:656.7 MILICA Đ. KALIĆ, University of Belgrade, 339.13.017:656.7 Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, Belgrade DOI: 10.5937/tehnika1705725K LEONARDO G. CAGGIANI, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy MICHELE G. OTTOMANELLI, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy