Crowd Operations Management

We are interested to determine the relationship between commuter satisfaction of transit services and waiting time. Satisfaction is a crucial KPI for many transit operators and waiting time is manly influenced by the design of public transport services (timetable, scheduling). Moreover, we develop models and algorithms to manage passenger boarding operations in urban transit systems such that dwell times are minimized. We account for variable passenger demand (routes and travel times) as well as transit timetables and capacities. In particular, the impact of (monetary) incentives to control passenger flows while embarking and debarking will be analyzed. This project joins insights from pedestrian simulation, microeconomics (discrete choice), and operations research.