Using Smart Card Technologies to Measure Public Transport Performance: Data Capture and Analysis

Abstract

This project investigates a series of benefits arising from the use of smart card technologies apart from the ones they were initially conceived for. The purpose of this project is to use real smart card data from passengers provided by the transit authority in Brisbane, Australia. Two bus lines were studied, concerning some aspects of the travel time reliability and passenger demand. The aim was to show that smart card data could also be used for purposes other\nthan the ones for which smart card ticketing systems were designed (mainly revenue collection).\nThe first part of the project intends to review the reason for the success of smart card ticketing systems over other traditional methods of fare collection. Then, focus is moved on to the stage of processing and analysis. In this stage performance data was extracted from\npassenger records in order to investigate the adequacy of smart card data to provide public transport performance indicators. This was done in two stages: the first one was focused on the method of data extraction, by designing a universal algorithm capable to extract useful\ndata, not only for the scope of the current project but also that could be used on other\npossible future studies. Next, a data analysis phase was performed, in which the intention was to show examples of results and discern in what cases the method could be useful and the limitations concerning the approximations and length of the project.\nFinally there are chapters dedicated to project planning, sustainability and cost breakdown,as well as conclusions and future similar studies that could be derived from this project.

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