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Predicting traffic volumes and estimating the effects of shocks in massive transportation systems

Silva, R; Kang, SM; Airoldi, EM; (2015) Predicting traffic volumes and estimating the effects of shocks in massive transportation systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , 112 (18) pp. 5643-5648. 10.1073/pnas.1412908112. Green open access

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Abstract

Public transportation systems are an essential component of major cities. The widespread use of smart cards for automated fare collection in these systems offers a unique opportunity to understand passenger behavior at a massive scale. In this study, we use network-wide data obtained from smart cards in the London transport system to predict future traffic volumes, and to estimate the effects of disruptions due to unplanned closures of stations or lines. Disruptions, or shocks, force passengers to make different decisions concerning which stations to enter or exit. We describe how these changes in passenger behavior lead to possible overcrowding and model how stations will be affected by given disruptions. This information can then be used to mitigate the effects of these shocks because transport authorities may prepare in advance alternative solutions such as additional buses near the most affected stations. We describe statistical methods that leverage the large amount of smart-card data collected under the natural state of the system, where no shocks take place, as variables that are indicative of behavior under disruptions. We find that features extracted from the natural regime data can be successfully exploited to describe different disruption regimes, and that our framework can be used as a general tool for any similar complex transportation system.

Type: Article
Title: Predicting traffic volumes and estimating the effects of shocks in massive transportation systems
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1412908112
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1412908112
Language: English
Additional information: Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
Keywords: complex systems, regime change, smart cities, transportation,
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > UCL School of Management
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Statistical Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1469570
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