1. AUTOMATIC DATA COLLECTION:
A New Foundation for Analysis and Management
Nigel H.M. Wilson
Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
MIT
email: nhmw@mit.edu
Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013
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2. OUTLINE
• Automated Data Collection Systems (ADCS)
• Key Transit Agency/Operator Functions
• Impact of ADCS on Functions
• Traditional Relationships Between Functions
• State of Research/Knowledge
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

3. Automated Data Collection Systems
• Automatic Fare Collection Systems (AFC)
• increasingly based on contactless smart cards with unique ID
• provides entry (exit) information (spatially and temporally) for individual
passengers
• traditionally not available in real-time
• Automatic Vehicle Location Systems (AVL)
• bus location based on GPS
• train tracking based on track circuit occupancy
• available in real time
• Automatic Passenger Counting Systems (APC)
• bus systems based on sensors in doors with channelized passenger movements
• passenger boarding (alighting) counts for stops/stations with fare barriers
• train weighing systems can be used to estimate number of passengers on board
• traditionally not available in real-time
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

4. Manual
• low capital cost
• high marginal cost
• small sample sizes
• "hard and soft"
• unreliable
• limited spatially and temporally
• not available immediately
Automatic
• high capital cost
• low marginal cost
• large sample sizes
• "hard"
• errors and biases can be estimated and
corrected
• ubiquitous
• available in real-time or quasi real-time
Transit Agencies are at a Critical Transition
in Data Collection Technology
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

5. ADCS - Potential
• Integrated ADCS database
• Models and software to support many agency decisions
using ADCS database
• Monitoring and insight into normal operations, special
events, unusual weather, etc.
• Large, long-time series disaggregate panel data for better
understanding of customer experience and travel
behavior
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

6. ADCS - Reality
• Most ADCS systems are implemented independently
• Data collection is ancillary to primary function
• AVL - emergency notification, stop announcements
• AFC - fare collection and revenue protection
• Many problems to overcome:
• not easy to integrate data
• requires resources and expertise
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

7. Key Transit Agency/Operator Functions
Off-Line Functions
• Service and Operations Planning (SOP)
• Network and route design
• Frequency setting and timetable development
• Vehicle and crew scheduling
• Performance Measurement (PM)
• Measures of operator performance against SOP
• Measures of service from customer viewpoint
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

8. Key Transit Agency/Operator Functions
Real-Time Functions
• Service and Operations Control and Management (SOCM)
• Dealing with deviations from SOP, both minor and major
• Dealing with unexpected changes in demand
• Customer Information (CI)
• Information on routes, trip times, vehicle arrival times, etc.
• Both static (based on SOP) and dynamic (based on SOP and SOCM)
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

9. Impact of ADCS on Functions
IMPACT ON Service Planning
• AVL: detailed characterization of route segment running times
• APC: detailed characterization of stop activity (boardings,
alightings, and dwell time at each stop)
• AFC: detailed characterization of fare transactions for individuals
over time, supports better characterization of traveler behavior
IMPACT ON Performance Monitoring
• AVL: supports on-time performance assessment
• AFC: supports passenger-oriented measures of travel time and
reliability
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

10. Impact of ADCS on Functions
IMPACT ON Management and Control
• AVL: identifies current position of all vehicles, deviations from SOP
IMPACT ON Customer Information
• AVL: supports dynamic CI
• AFC: permits characterization of normal trip-making at the
individual level, supports active dynamic CI function
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

11. Opportunities
• ADCS
• monitoring status at various levels of resolution
• measuring reliability
• understanding customer behavior
• Data + Computing
• simulation-based performance models
• Communications
• real time information (demand)
• operations management (supply)
• Systematic approaches for planning, operations, real-
time control
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

12. Relationships Between Functions
• Real-time functions (SOCM and CI) based on
• SOP
• AVL data
• Reasonable as long as SOP is sound and deviations
from it are not very large
• Fundamentally a static model in an increasingly
dynamic world
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

13. State of Research/Knowledge in SOCM
• Advances in train control systems help minimize impacts of
routine events
• Major disruptions still handled in individual manner based on
judgment and experience of the controller
• Little effective decision support for controllers
• Models are often deterministic formulations of highly stochastic
systems
• Simplistic view of objectives and constraints in model
formulation
• Substantial opportunities remain for better decision support
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

14. Key Functions
Off-line Functions
Real-time Functions
Supply Demand
Customer
Information (CI)
Service
Management
(SOCM)
Service and Operations
Planning (SOP)
ADCSADCS
Performance
Measurement (PM)
System Monitoring,
Analysis, and Prediction
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Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013

15. Real-Time Functions
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Vehicle Locations Loads
Monitoring
Information
- travel times
- paths
Dynamic
rescheduling
Demand
CONTROL CENTER
Prediction
Estimation of current
conditionsSupply
ADCS
Incidents/Events
Nigel Wilson, BRT Workshop:
Experiences and Challenges
September 2013