Rationalizing Urban Transportation using Smart Card Data

Abstract

The urban population in 2014 accounted for 54% of the total global population, up from 34% in 1960, and continues to grow. The global urban population is expected to grow approximately 1.84%, 1.63% and 1.44% between 2015 and 2020, 2020 and 2025, and 2025 and 2030 respectively. This growing population puts pressure on government not only to accommodate the current and potential citizens but also provide them facilities and services for a better living standard. Providing a sustainable growing environment for the citizens is the biggest challenge for the government. As the populations increase, complexity network of transportation, water and sanitation, emergency services, etc. will increase many folds. SMART CITY Mission is being implemented to resolve this issue. As the cities turn smart, so should the transportation facilities. India on June 2018 had only 20 cities with populations of over 500,000 have organized public transport systems, pointing to the large gap to be bridged in their journey to turn smart. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of smart card data from public transport for improving the predictions and planning of public transport usage and congestions. The mobile apps like M-Indicator, Google Maps don’t interlink, do not have a real time tracking of vehicles, fare distribution, congestion-based route mapping for public transportation. These factors are addressed in the paper with its advantages and disadvantages. This paper also talks about how information from smart card is to be extracted, how Big Data is to be managed and finally come to a smart, sustainable Urban Transit System. This paper also brings into light the data security issues and measures to curb those issues. This paper proposes and emphasizes on a single smart card for all modes of public transport