Facilitating a privacy-protecting empirically-driven continuous-optimisation approach to sustainable public transport operations using Big Data recorded by Tap On Tap Off electronic ticketing systems
Enhancing Interpretive Models of Operational Efficiency using Measurements Derived from Big Data to develop Collaborative Multi-Modal Customer-Centric Key Performance Indicators for Transport
The 3E’s of Service Delivery and Value for Money
This doctorate is an extension of the author’s research into empirical measurement of public transport operations and passenger response. This research programme aims to assist all service partners in collaboratively implementing a Continuous Improvement Cycle (CIC) to deliver increased Value-for-Money (VFM) to the public, through using economy, efficiency, efficacy, & effectiveness to deliver transit that passengers perceive as Dependable, Timely, & Affordable.
Watch the four conference presentations and read the papers from my research programme into empirically-driven customer-centric reliable and efficient public transport through reducing running time and running time variability.
2018 – Better service through runtime saving
Hounsell, M. (2018). Better service through runtime savings – Inner West Light Rail case study Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF), Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. https://atrf.info/papers/2018/files/ATRF2018_paper_61.pdf
‘Sherrington … argued that the nervous system responsible for this simplest class of determinate decision making [harm avoidance] could be … composed of three critical elements: a selective sensory element, … a detector for … events in the outside world…; a selective motor element … that led to the activation of muscles; and a point of contact between these two systems (… the integrative element).’[1] A sensor fires when it detect something, however, since they are imperfect (both natural or man-made) an additional element is required to collect evidence over time (integrate) to remove errors and noise from the signal – as in a sequential-sampling model.[2]
These models serve as the basis for more complex discriminating behavioural diffusion models, such as directional motion tracking. Consider a juvenile primate watching its mother walk through long grass: as the adult moves rightward it displaces grass, but the juvenile will also see leftward, upward, and downward movement. To tack its mother, the juvenile must discern which of these multiple movements is the primary movement.
Diffusion models add an integration step to collect the relative difference between two options and trigger an action only when the difference exceeds a threshold. Diffusion models have accurately accounted for the observed reaction times and accuracy in experiments compared to accumulator and race models.[2] Diffusion models can also account for the fast erroneous actions which have been experimental observed.[2] Diffusion models using the relative difference implicitly treat evidence for one alternative as evidence against another alternative preventing the errors of multiple conclusions and race-conditions possible in accumulator and counter models which do not have mutual inhibition.[2]
‘Cogito, Ergo Sum’ wrote René Descartes — ‘I think, therefore I am’. His rationalist argument was that the only we could trust was our conscious thoughts — our “inner-voice”. He argued our senses could be deceiving us, positing that we cannot know a demon is not deceiving us with false inputs — as in the “The Matrix”. His refutation of empiricism is a central text in the historical belief of dualism — i.e. that the human mind is separate from the body; that we are the “Ghost in the Machine”. [1]
Subsequent research has advanced our understanding of ourselves beyond the ancient guesses about the nature of thought. The physicalist paradigm assumes that all that exist is built upon the physical world and its interactions. [2] This paradigm assumes that human consciousness is a manifestation of processes running in our physical bodies, on the nervous system and under the influence of our endocrine system. [5] The physicalists accept emergence as an ontological reality and that our consciousness emerges out of the interactions between our neurons. [6]
Here are some notes I wrote in 2015 on the Westconnex & the Western Harbour Tunnel and their political origins …
The 23rd of April 2014 was a good day for the voters of Manly, Curl Curl, Balgowlah, and Seaforth. On that Wednesday, their local member Mike Baird (1 April 1968) became the Premier of New South Wales. At the same time, the Prime Minister of Australia was their federal member Tony Abbott (4 November 1957). Mike Baird and Tony Abbot share more than their electors, they are also very similar men.
Updated with Sydney Metro’s “Response to issues raised in the submissions”.
Regarding the Revised station design for Bankstown Station. Includes the provision of a new north-south connection across the rail corridor between Appian Way and Restwell Street.
Reordered Submission June 2020. Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a Transport Analyst and Planner. I was asked to address the NSW Legislative Council to Transport & Customer Service Committee Inquiry regarding the Sydenham to Bankstown Metro Conversion. I have worked extensively on projects with Sydney Trains including on the Responsive Passenger Information System designed for customer congestion management at Town Hall and other important interchange stations.
I will be brief, as I only saw this proposed change on the day submissions closed.
Firstly, the proposed bike parking area is too small. The northern commuter car park only has space for 50 cars, a tiny fraction of possible demand. Central Bankstown is too be redeveloped as Transit-Oriented Developments. Therefore, 40 car spaces should be retained for disabled passengers, and the space on the west of the driveway should be converted to secure covered bike parking. This would significantly increase the station’s passenger catchment.
Secondly, to 1) reduce crowding, congestion, and delays, 2) improve fire and life safety, and 3) increase patronage; I would recommend the instillation of exits on the eastern end of the metro station. These eastern exits would allow quick exit in the event of an emergency. These eastern exits would spread passengers more evenly on the trains. These eastern exits would attract passengers from further afield and connect all passengers quickly to more locations. These eastern exits might allow some bus stops to be relocated to improve network efficiency.
Built around Sydney’s tramways in 1890s, Newtown needs KPIs to prioritise humans not cars.
Proposed changes overlaid on aerial photography
The proposed transformation will activate Newtown as a premier destination for locals, as well as domestic and international visitors.
Bring the tram sheds back to life – creating a new gathering point. Landscape and open the areas around the tram sheds, with increased passive surveillance and human scale lighting. Make more spaces to sit, reducing crowding, and create new cooling green islands.
Create quicker connections between business areas with new paths. Most people head straight to northern King St. Use shared identity, anchors, and wayfinding to encourage visitors to spread.
Newtown only receives 10% of the international visitors as the Opera House
Reactivate Brennan Lane and the old path along the Bank Hotel.
