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Information and Communication

Technologies

Public Transport Information Platform

Francisco Furtado - [email protected]

Francisco Furtado – Public Transport Information Platform Page 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Description of the system .............................................................................................................................................. 2

State Of the Art .............................................................................................................................................................. 2

OPen Platform Concept ............................................................................................................................................. 3

Wiki City Rome .......................................................................................................................................................... 5

Chicago ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Helsinky ..................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Athens ........................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Google Transit ............................................................................................................................................................ 7

RFID and German public transport tests on NFC ticketing ........................................................................................ 8

Transit Tracking and Automatic Passenger Counting (APC) ...................................................................................... 8

Discussion on Technologies ........................................................................................................................................... 9

Functional specification, analysis and design .............................................................................................................. 11

Use cases diagram ................................................................................................................................................... 11

Class diagram ........................................................................................................................................................... 12

Gant Chart ............................................................................................................................................................... 13

Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................................. 14

References ................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Sites ......................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Papers ...................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Annex ........................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Tutoring Lessons ...................................................................................................................................................... 16


DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM The Intelligent Transport System we propose in this works intends to incorporate, using some of the

most recent communications and sensor technologies, the following characteristics in a coherent way:

use of real time data; multimodality; personalized ticketing; and, in an non direct way, collective scoring.

What we propose is a web based platform with useful information about public transport both to the

users and Operators in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon.

The concept is that all the public transport operators (Carris, Metro, CP, Transtejo and Fertagus) will use

a single platform, were all their schedules, routes, stops, and real time vehicle locations are

combined/fused in a single GIS system. The interface with the user would be threw a internet web page

(that can be easily adapted to mobile devices) available on any laptop or personal computer (and

possible terminal in some of the more central stations/stops), were the users could not only see the

real-time location of every transit vehicle, but also query about the best travel paths using public

transports or the waiting time in a given stop for a given vehicle.

Another part of the system would be to track in real time not only the vehicles but also the passenger’s

flow, that is to track the paths of the users of the public transport vehicles. This way the operators

would have very accurate measures of: real time vehicle occupations, more used routes, rate of

intermodality, origins-destinations flows, and the time of day (and month, week and year) for each kind

of trips. Crossing this data several very accurate statistics can be made about the efficiency of the

system. For instance the actual use rate of each bus, boat or metro route and it´s part in the overall

system could be assessed. Also the degree of intermodality, like if in an station with bus, boats and

trains their time tables are correctly tunned to provide the best service to the users that change

transport mode in that station. With this quality of data Operators would be able to adjust, and

coordinate their services in a much more efficient way, and also the planning of new infrastructures

could be made according to estimates and models much more reliable and detailed then the ones that

exist today.

In the next topic we will present some of the technologies that should be used to build this system and

examples of some similar ITS´s already in use in some citys.

STATE OF THE ART There are already in use, in some metropolitan areas, transport information systems with some of the

components of our proposed project, although none of them integrate both information useful for the

transit operators and transit users. Still, there is already some research and some published papers

about designing an open platform such as the one we want to implement. There are also different types

of technologies available to build our system, namely in GIS´s(geographic information systems), vehicle

and users tracking.


So we will present the already implemented systems, the papers written in this field and the available

technologies, in the end we will discuss the technology choices we made, namely in user tracking, since

the others components of the system have clear best solutions.

OPEN PLATFORM CONCEPT

In their proposed presentation for the Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems in Beijing,

China, October 12-15, 2008, Li, M. Andrade and V. Blervaque will address the concept for development

of an open platform for traffic management and traveller information services for metropolitan areas.

The authors describe the existing scenario were most existing traffic data collection and information

services have been developed based on specific requirements of their own sector, resulting in a non-

harmonised environment. It is difficult to integrate existing services and build up new services upon them

since proprietary solutions are predominantly, designed to suit the specific service only, rather than

providing data for different purposes. There is a lack of inter-sector cooperation in terms of information

sharing. It is often the case that information for one transport mode will not be shared with other

transport modes or authorities neither in real time nor for historical database, even though this sharing

has the potential to enhance efficiency of overall urban transport and benefit to each transport mode.

They propose to overcome this situation implementing a comprehensive system, with real time data.

A Geographical Information System (GIS) with detailed location of infrastructure forms the base of the

open platform. The open platform will provide standardized interfaces to connect a variety of entries.

Data exchange and fusion models are important components of the open platform which will be able to

gather and process data from different systems which are connected to the open platform and generate

static (historical) and dynamic (real-time) information.

In the following table they present what would be the architecture of such an open platform,

FIGURE 1


In the next table we present the data input and output for a generic system like this,

TABLE 1

So what we aim to achieve is an example of such a system applied to Lisbon.


WIKI CITY ROME

The first project we look to is the The Wiki City Rome project, namely The Notte Bianca implementation.

It doesn´t deal directly with the transportation problem but it deals with some issues and data handling.

Although it´s not included in our project, in the medium run the open platform we suggest could be

fused, or integrate, elements of this project.

In a brief overview the Notte Bianca implementation allows people access to the real time data on

dynamics that occur in the very place they find themselves in, in that moment, creating the intriguing

situation that the map is drawn on the basis of dynamic elements of which the map itself is an active

part. One of the project aims is to assess 'How does having access to real time data in the context of

possible action alter the process of decision making in how to go about different activities?'

This is part of Senseable City Lab's MIT projects, that considers such questions in a larger context that

includes the active uploading of information by citizens, local authorities and businesses regarding an

ever increasing field of data; an elaborate approach to semantic data structures to enable novel ways of

querying the data and a rich array of multimodal access interfaces for users to interact with the data in a

meaningful way.

CHICAGO

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is an independent governmental agency created by state legislation.

And it´s the sole operator of Chicago transit system. The CTA as been implementing (it still isn´t available

for all the bus routes) a Bus Tracker system available on the web, and it as a text only version for mobile

devices.

FIGURE 2

This system allows seeing the real time location and progress of the select route buses, it shows several

information helpful for the user on the Bus. It provides estimation arrival times at stops and chosen

destinations.

FIGURE 1


This is very similar, from the user perspective, to the system we propose (but here the only available

information is on the Bus system and not on other modes of public transportation), although it doesn´t

give explicitly to the operators any information on their performance.

HELSINKY

The Helsinki City Public Transport uses

a somewhat similar system, which

includes not only buses but also Trams.

The core of this system is the WSP LIVE

platform that gathers, uses and

distributes real-time public transport

information.

WSP LIVE works by constantly tracking

the position of all the vehicles in a fleet

with the latest ultra high-accuracy GPS

and mobile broadband technologies.

This tracking is done once a second for

every vehicle on the fleet, and the

results are immediately available for all

services.

The vehicles transmit their location to the WSP LIVE server once a second, and the server takes care of

everything else. As this architecture sets very low requirements for the vehicle computer, WSP LIVE can

be installed even on large fleets with unprecedentedly low costs. Additionally, all vehicles are fitted with

a Wi-Fi hotspot for passengers to surf the web or view your information services.

WSP LIVE provides the operator and passengers with a constant stream of up-to-date realtime

information. Internet based services can be viewed at home, workplace, mobile phone or over the WSP

LIVE vehicle Wi-Fi connection.

The very same services are used to create public displays at stops, terminals or any other public areas.

Simply plug in any internet capable computer to create a public stop display.

Every single movement of every vehicle in the fleet is stored on the WSP LIVE server, available for later

viewing at any detail. This enables a whole new set of tools for controlling and surveying transport

services. LIVE Control can be set to automatically compare the actual movement of vehicles against the

planned routes and produce information on late or early departures or arrivals, undelivered routes etc.

WSP LIVE uses state-of-the-art statistical methods to constantly calculate stop time forecasts for every

vehicle in the fleet. Events in both present and past are used with various levels of emphasis to generate

reliable stop time information that quickly adapts to changing circumstances.

FIGURE 3


These forecasts are then presented by LIVE Info and LIVE Control on multiple platforms to be viewed by

passengers and operators of different levels.

This system has many of the components that we propose. Still it misses on the occupancy of each route

and vehicle, user tracking routes and intermodality assessment.

ATHENS

In Athens since the late 90´s a

Intermodal Traffic Information

System (e-traffic). As been

tested and implemented. It

started as a part of the

QUARTET PLUS project.

The Department of

Transportation Planning and

Engineering of the National

Technical University of Athens

(NTUA) has developed the on-

line map of Athens. It offers a

lot of services such as traffic

volume map, congestion map,

a travel time map and a link to

the VMS real-time web site.

GOOGLE TRANSIT

Also on the user side, and in is

test trials, there is the Google

Transit application. It provides,

with real time info, best rout

plans and estimated travel

times for public transport

users.

FIGURE 4

FIGURE 5


RFID AND GERMAN PUBLIC TRANSPORT TESTS ON NFC TICKETING

One of the options for user tracking and to establish an automatic passenger counting system, is if the

users use and operators use a RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification), based ticketing system. The users

would use a single card with an RFID tag for all the Metropolitan Area transit ravels, and would have to

check in and out of each vehicle using their card. The Buses of Carris and Metro already have such cards

and the readers on the buses and in the metro stations.

An example of a similar solution is being tested in Germany. Nokia and Royal Philips Electronics have

joined forces with the Rhein-Main Verkehrsverbund (RMV) public transport authority in Frankfurt, to

trial a Near Field Communication (NFC) ticketing solution that uses mobile phones to access an existing

contactless smart card ticketing infrastructure.

The RMV electronic ticketing application will be securely stored on an integrated smart card controller in

the phone, and is compatible with existing smart card-based ticketing products. The user simply touches

their phone against the contactless reader as they get on and off the bus to register their journey. And,

apart from being a hand-held terminal for transport ticketing, the NFC-enabled phone can also be used

as a resource for transport information such as timetables.

Jointly developed by Philips and Sony, NFC enables touch-based interactions in consumer electronics,

mobile devices, PCs, smart objects and for payment purposes. This new trial will provide all of the

companies involved with valuable practical experience of NFC-enabled mobile ticketing on a check-

in/check-out basis, paving the way for broader adoption of the technology in future. NFC is compatible

with the broadly established contactless smart card infrastructure based on ISO 14443 A, which is also

used in Philips' MIFARE technology and Sony's FeliCa card.

TRANSIT TRACKING AND AUTOMATIC PASSENGER COUNTING (APC)

On an article about Automatic Passenger Counting Systems and

Tracking Ridership, Andreas Rakebrandt1, discusses several technical

solutions for users tracking systems. Including some similar to the

mentioned above, but other sensor technologies can be used to

achieve this aim.

INFODEV is a company that provides passanger counting and also

vehicle tracking technology. So this system allows knowing how

many people boards each vehicle and also where and when they did

it. Infodev's APC system is based mainly in directional sensors, it´s

composed of basic building blocks, the passenger counting

equipment, to which optional accessories can be added.

1 APC project manager with Init Innovations in Transportation Inc.

FIGURE 6 – DIRECTIONAL SENSOR


The heart of the system is the DL-10B, the on-board

computer. It receives signals from the vehicle, the

people counters and other devices, depending on

the complexity of the system. The directional

counting sensors are installed above the doors.

They count passengers and determine their

direction, then send the data to the on-board

computer. Transfer devices are used to get the

information from the on-board computer to the

garage computer for analysis: The Data-Collector is

a small device that holds in your hand. It is first

connected to the on-board computer manually, and

then connected to the computer to dump the data. The intelligent spread-spectrum modem (ISSM-20)

or the infrared modem (IR-20) transfer data automatically while the vehicle is being refuelled. Digital

video cameras can be installed to certify the passenger counting system's accuracy, monitor traffic

conditions or study passenger behaviour. The data is fed into a web-based report system. It´s possible to

produce standard reports and graphs, or have custom reports built for the Operators.

DISCUSSION ON TECHNOLOGIES As we have seen in the previous topic In the recent years there were several technologic break troughs

that applied to the Transportation system can greatly improve their performance and efficiency. The

most meaningful for our project are the ones related with Data transmission in mobile terminals,

namely using GSM or UTMs, or even wireless lans (like the iee 802.1 familily). Other important break

trough as to the with the accuracy of GPS location, using this today it´s not hard or expensive to know

the precise location threw time of any number of vehicles, like a fleet of buses, trains and boats. The last

one we mention is the mobile sensors networks and the use of RFID (radio frequency identification), this

last one although it uses radio signals it´s not exactly a communication technology, and it´s particularly

useful for identifying and tracking goods or in client cards. The way this works can be summarized like

this, in response to a radio information signal from a reader (base station) the RFIDs tags transmits their

ID. This tags are very cheap, withstand difficult environment conditions and some can have read/write

capabilities.

The concept of the project is much like Andrade and Blervaque discuss on their paper, from the Helsinky

system we can take much of the technology to track the vehicles (using GPS devices in all vehicles and

the same communication technologies) and assess traveling times. The main technical challenge is how

to be able to track the users in the system, when our aim is to survey not only buses, but also trains,

boats and the metro… We must be able to track hundreds of thousands of users every day. One of the

choices can be the system we showed above, equipping every vehicle with this kind of directional

FIGURE 7


sensors, but the costs of this alternative in the scale we propose here seem very prohibitive. The best

option seams to be to use a card with a RFID tag, that way we could fallow with great accuracy: the

travel routes of the transit users; at what time trips are made, the traffic origin and destination, and the

routes that include change of modes or not. This would also imply that the passengers would only use a

single card to pay for all their travels in the system.

One problem with this solution is that people have to check in, but would also mandatory have to check

out with their card. Another obstacle as to do with security/privacy issues, like jamming, covert reading,

and individual profiling. There are no 100% secure responses to this threats, research is going on. So this

will require from the managers of the system close attention so that the data collected should not fall

on the wrong hands, and even if we use the directional sensors technologies the data could become

available if the database is hacked. So in the end the RFID is a much more cheap and reliable alternative.


FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATION, ANALYSIS AND DESIGN In this topic we will present a use case diagram to illustrate the several actors rolls and actions in this

system, also a Class Diagram to show the relations between the several entities and to have an overview

on how should the different operation be processed. In the end we present a time table with the several

tasks needed to build our system.

USE CASES DIAGRAM

FIGURE 8

In addition to what we said in the first topic it we here include the option for the user to visualize some

statistics of the system, this should be managed by the Data Base manager and different policies could

be implemented along time.


CLASS DIAGRAM

FIGURE 9


Besides the Transit Operators, the Efficiency Statistics of the system should also be available to Higher

Education and research institutions.

GANT CHART

TABLE 2

This is the proposed timetable for the development of this project, it would vary according to the

resources available for this project, in this chart we assume that the system would be implemented

universally to all the metropolitan area. It could also be an option to implement this project by steps,

beginning only with the Metro and Carris inside the city of Lisbon were the RFID technology is already

employed for the Lisboa Viva Pass users and in the Metro stations and Carris Vehicles. After that it could

be extended for the suburban CP lines of Cascais, Sintra and Vila Franca, and in a third stage to the

Feratgus and Transtejo operations.


CONCLUSIONS As it was previously stated this project as an enormous potential for improving the public transport

efficiency, using the same infrastructures and vehicles, since it gives a very accurate and constantly

updated report on the system performance. The knowledge gained in how transport system works and

it´s used by the passengers could also be used to better plan and develop future infrastructures

investments and fleet dimensioning. At the same time, part of the data collected can be processed and

made available for the users to give real time information on vehicles arrival times at the stations and

best possible routes from an asked origin and destination.

The system specifications, as presented, are not detailed enough to allow this Project implementation,

namely further study should be made to exhaustively describe all the operations, and data processing,

that the system is required to do. Still what is presented gives several guidelines in the selection of

technologies to be applied to implement this project and the actor’s roles and interactions are specified.

Regarding the risk assessment, there are two different kinds of problems in implementing this Project,

first, as mentioned in the discussion on technologies, are the privacy and security concerns. There is

some research going one in producing more secure RFID tags, but since this is already in use in some

transit operators in Lisbon, the biggest risk would be if the information and statistics only available to

the operators would be violated and accessible to a third party, to avoid this the system database should

have very high security requirements. Other set of problems is not connected to technical related

difficulties but it as to do with different Operators/Institutions working together and sharing their data.

To address this, two facts should be stated, one is that most of this Operators are directly state owned

or controlled, and the ones that are not are given concessions also by the state, so there if the will exists

there is a player with the power and legitimacy to implement this system. For each of the operators

taken as single units there are also big payoffs, they would all have very detailed information on their

network use (and in the overall system), much more if they worked as separate entities, and redundant

data collection would also be avoided. All taken the benefits of such a system would by far exceed its

risks, More over although it´s not the objective of this work to make a detailed study of the costs of

implementing this system, they wouldn´t be very high since most of the technologies (or hardware to be

more precise) necessary, namely GPS, mobile data communications, and RFID tags and readers, are not

very expensive and could be applied to the existing vehicles and infrastructures (some of them already

have this equipments!) with very low adapting costs.


REFERENCES

SITES

• http://senseable.mit.edu/ (MIT SENSEable City Laboratory)

• http://transport-futures.blogspot.com/ (Transport Futures)

• http://www.transport.ntua.gr/map/en/ (Stathopoulos, A. and Tsekeris, T. (2008) The Athens

Dynamic Traffic Map for multimodal travel information services, Journal of Maps, v2008, 119-

134)

• http://transport.wspgroup.fi/hklkartta/ (HKL Public Transport Map)

• http://ctabustracker.com/bustime/home.jsp (Chicago Transit Authority Bus Tracker)

• http://www.infodev.ca/vehicles/counting-passengers.html (Infodef Automatic Passenger

Counting)

• http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/ (City of Sound)

• http://connectedcities.eu/ (Connected Cities)

• http://www.google.com/transit (Google Transit)

• http://www.itsa.org/ (Intelligent Transportation Society of America)

• http://www.rmv.de/ (Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund)

• http://www.tfhrc.gov/ (Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center)

PAPERS

• The Concept of an Open Platform for Traffic and Traveler Information Services, Y. Li, M. Andrade,

V. Blervaque

• Mobility Agents: Guiding and Tracking Public Transportation Users, Alexander Repenning, Andri

Ioannidou

• Vehicle tracking in public transport domain and associated spatio-temporal query processing,

Lalit Kane, Bhupendra Verma, Sanjeev Jain

• RFID Security and Privacy: A Research Survey, Ari Juels

• Traffic Detector Handbook: Third Edition—Volume I, Research, Development, and Technology

Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center


ANNEX

TUTORING LESSONS

In the first tutoring lesson we started by refining the general concept of the project. We also defined the

different actors of the System, the inputs and outputs, and designed a first version of the use case

diagram.

In the second lesson we made a review of the “state of the art” and technologies to apply. A sketch of

the wireframe (for the webpage of this Project) was presented. The use case diagram and the class

diagram were refined, and we build in class a work plan or timetable for the Project Development. We

also discussed the risk assessment, the project viability, and main questions the Report should address.

We also exchanged e-mails with the Professor on the Use Case and Class Diagrams.

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