TransitData 2020, the 6th international symposium on the use of public transit automated data for planning and operations, will be held at the University of Toronto August 11-13, 2020.
Organizers have launched a website, transitdata2020.ca, and Twitter account @2020Transit where they will post the latest conference news and announcements as well as reminders of abstract submission and registration due dates.
Rationale
Technological advances and research on methodologies have dramatically increased the availability and quality of automated data that can be used to develop applications that enhance the planning and operations of public transportation systems. Automated Data Systems include: Advanced Fare Collection (AFC), Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), Automatic Passenger Counting (APC), GTFS-RT, on-board video surveillance, but also new sources of passive data obtained from mobile devices, social media and other Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.
A series of symposia have been held in recent years to explore both methodological challenges and potential applications, including: Gifu, Japan (2014), Boston, United States (2016), Santiago, Chile (2017), Brisbane, Australia (2018), and Paris, France (2019) .
TransitData 2020 in Toronto, Canada
The Toronto symposium will place more emphasis on applications, and substantially broaden the discussion between practitioners and researchers interested in the use of public transportation automated data.
Both practitioners and researchers are encouraged to attend and to submit an abstract (maximum 1,000 words) for a proposed presentation.
Symposium topics
The topics of the symposium will include, but are not limited to:
- Applications using automated data to enhance strategic or service planning, performance measurement, fare policy, market research, and equity.
- Applications using automated data to assist in operations control, incident management, and service restoration.
- Use of automated data to understand demand, customer behavior, normal patterns of travel, and response to service disruptions.
- Methodological challenges in using automated data.
- New technologies for data collection.
- Visualization tools.
- Organizational challenges related to data management, access and governance.
Please note that the emphasis for this symposium is primarily on public transit (i.e., fixed route and demand responsive transit), but not on shared-use modes (e.g., car sharing, bike sharing, e-scooters, ride-hailing, robo-taxis, etc.), which have many other venues.
Communications
The TransitData2020-l listserv will be used for direct email of news and updates of the TransitData 2020 symposium. Subscription to TransitData2020-l is open and all interested parties are invited to sign up.
Important dates
Abstract submission and registration functions will open soon on the TransitData 2020 website.
- Extended abstract submission (maximum 1,000 words): Extended to February 17, 2020
- Acceptance notification: March 27, 2020
- Early Bird registration: by April 3, 2020
- Pre-registration: by July 6, 2020