Journal article
Managing public transit during a pandemic: The trade-off between safety and mobility
Transportation research. Part C, Emerging technologies, Vol.138, pp.103592-103592
05/01/2022
DOI: 10.1016/j.trc.2022.103592
PMCID: PMC8937026
PMID: 35340721
Abstract
During a pandemic such as COVID-19, managing public transit effectively becomes a critical policy decision. On the one hand, efficient transportation plays a pivotal role in enabling the movement of essential workers and keeping the economy moving. On the other hand, public transit can be a vector for disease propagation due to travelers' proximity within shared and enclosed spaces. Without strategic preparedness, mass transit facilities are potential hotbeds for spreading infectious diseases. Thus, transportation agencies face a complex trade-off when developing context-specific operating strategies for public transit. This work provides a network-based analysis framework for understanding this trade-off, as well as tools for calculating targeted commute restrictions under different policy constraints, e.g., regarding public health considerations (limiting infection levels) and economic activity (limiting the reduction in travel). The resulting plans ensure that the traffic flow restrictions imposed on each route are adaptive to the time-varying epidemic dynamics. A case study based on the COVID-19 pandemic reveals that a well-planned subway system in New York City can sustain 88% of transit flow while reducing the risk of disease transmission by 50% relative to fully-loaded public transit systems. Transport policy-makers can exploit this optimization-based framework to address safety-and-mobility trade-offs and make proactive transit management plans during an epidemic outbreak.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Managing public transit during a pandemic: The trade-off between safety and mobility
- Creators
- Qi Luo - Clemson UniversityMarissa Gee - Cornell UniversityBenedetto Piccoli - Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyDaniel Work - Vanderbilt UniversitySamitha Samaranayake - Cornell University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Transportation research. Part C, Emerging technologies, Vol.138, pp.103592-103592
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.trc.2022.103592
- PMID
- 35340721
- PMCID
- PMC8937026
- ISSN
- 0968-090X
- eISSN
- 1879-2359
- Number of pages
- 24
- Grant note
- CMMI CIS 2033580 / National Science Foundation (NSF), United States; National Science Foundation (NSF) U.S. Department of Transportation's University Transportation Centers Program
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/01/2022
- Academic Unit
- Business Analytics
- Record Identifier
- 9984696561302771
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