The challenge of sustainability that the European Union is facing calls for a shift of the demand for mobility from individual to collective means of transport. Hence more attractive public transport systems are required, above all in urban contexts. Since a shortage of funds for public transport is envisaged for the next years, efforts are needed to allocate money in the most effective and efficient way. Transit assignment models describe and predict the patterns of network usage by passengers, which are a fundamental input for transport planning. The models currently used do not take adequately into consideration the effects brought about by the increasingly advanced and widespread Intelligent Transportation Systems on transit operations and on transit user behaviour, nor do they exploit to the full the amount of high quality data made available by the new technologies. This deficiency can delay the realisation of the benefits of enhanced passenger information provision. This Action gathers together researchers in the field of transport and urban and regional planning, transport operators and authorities, consultancies and software developers with the main aim of giving rise to and of disseminating a new generation of transit assignment models tailored to the era of Intelligent Transport Systems.
Public transport - Assignment models - Intelligent Transport Systems - Experimental approach to transit modelling
