Geosciences Dept. Seminar: From Mobility for Commuters to Mobility as a Service (MaaS): The Analysis of the Israeli Smartcard Data

​Abstract:

Public transport (PT) networks usually remain stable for years while residential and business patterns of modern cities are constantly changing. Accumulated, these changes can induce large-scale changes in travel demand that cannot be properly served by the existing PT network and this discrepancy between the demand and supply can result in bifurcation of travelers’ mode choice. Travelers who have no access to private cars become captives of PT, while the rest use the car almost exclusively.

Modal split can be influenced if we would be able to monitor, explicitly in space and time, travel activities of travelers. One Big Data source of information on activity-travel patterns is Public Transport Smartcard records. Investigating this data can provide unique understanding of the compatibility of the PT network to users' needs.

In order to understand travel behavior patterns of Israeli PT users I analyze Smartcard records for the recent three months period (October 2017 – January 2018). The analysis results in several unexpected outcomes and support the recent concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) that aims at seamless integration of all types of mobility services for a smooth multimodal journey and demands deep rethinking of the transportation planning models.

Seminar Organizer: Prof. Eyal Haifetz