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Improving public transportation systems with self-organization: A headway-based model and regulation of passenger alighting and boarding
The equal headway instability—the fact that a configuration with regular time intervals between vehicles tends to be volatile—is a common regulation problem in public transportation systems. An unsatisfactory regulation results in low efficiency and possible collapses of the service. Computational s...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5747448/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29287120 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190100 |
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author | Carreón, Gustavo Gershenson, Carlos Pineda, Luis A. |
author_facet | Carreón, Gustavo Gershenson, Carlos Pineda, Luis A. |
author_sort | Carreón, Gustavo |
collection | PubMed |
description | The equal headway instability—the fact that a configuration with regular time intervals between vehicles tends to be volatile—is a common regulation problem in public transportation systems. An unsatisfactory regulation results in low efficiency and possible collapses of the service. Computational simulations have shown that self-organizing methods can regulate the headway adaptively beyond the theoretical optimum. In this work, we develop a computer simulation for metro systems fed with real data from the Mexico City Metro to test the current regulatory method with a novel self-organizing approach. The current model considers overall system’s data such as minimum and maximum waiting times at stations, while the self-organizing method regulates the headway in a decentralized manner using local information such as the passenger’s inflow and the positions of neighboring trains. The simulation shows that the self-organizing method improves the performance over the current one as it adapts to environmental changes at the timescale they occur. The correlation between the simulation of the current model and empirical observations carried out in the Mexico City Metro provides a base to calculate the expected performance of the self-organizing method in case it is implemented in the real system. We also performed a pilot study at the Balderas station to regulate the alighting and boarding of passengers through guide signs on platforms. The analysis of empirical data shows a delay reduction of the waiting time of trains at stations. Finally, we provide recommendations to improve public transportation systems. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5747448 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-57474482018-01-26 Improving public transportation systems with self-organization: A headway-based model and regulation of passenger alighting and boarding Carreón, Gustavo Gershenson, Carlos Pineda, Luis A. PLoS One Research Article The equal headway instability—the fact that a configuration with regular time intervals between vehicles tends to be volatile—is a common regulation problem in public transportation systems. An unsatisfactory regulation results in low efficiency and possible collapses of the service. Computational simulations have shown that self-organizing methods can regulate the headway adaptively beyond the theoretical optimum. In this work, we develop a computer simulation for metro systems fed with real data from the Mexico City Metro to test the current regulatory method with a novel self-organizing approach. The current model considers overall system’s data such as minimum and maximum waiting times at stations, while the self-organizing method regulates the headway in a decentralized manner using local information such as the passenger’s inflow and the positions of neighboring trains. The simulation shows that the self-organizing method improves the performance over the current one as it adapts to environmental changes at the timescale they occur. The correlation between the simulation of the current model and empirical observations carried out in the Mexico City Metro provides a base to calculate the expected performance of the self-organizing method in case it is implemented in the real system. We also performed a pilot study at the Balderas station to regulate the alighting and boarding of passengers through guide signs on platforms. The analysis of empirical data shows a delay reduction of the waiting time of trains at stations. Finally, we provide recommendations to improve public transportation systems. Public Library of Science 2017-12-29 /pmc/articles/PMC5747448/ /pubmed/29287120 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190100 Text en © 2017 Carreón et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Carreón, Gustavo Gershenson, Carlos Pineda, Luis A. Improving public transportation systems with self-organization: A headway-based model and regulation of passenger alighting and boarding |
title | Improving public transportation systems with self-organization: A headway-based model and regulation of passenger alighting and boarding |
title_full | Improving public transportation systems with self-organization: A headway-based model and regulation of passenger alighting and boarding |
title_fullStr | Improving public transportation systems with self-organization: A headway-based model and regulation of passenger alighting and boarding |
title_full_unstemmed | Improving public transportation systems with self-organization: A headway-based model and regulation of passenger alighting and boarding |
title_short | Improving public transportation systems with self-organization: A headway-based model and regulation of passenger alighting and boarding |
title_sort | improving public transportation systems with self-organization: a headway-based model and regulation of passenger alighting and boarding |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5747448/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29287120 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190100 |
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