Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Transport: An Overview

Exploratory Data Analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis of Urban Rail Transit

This paper deals with the efficiency and sustainability of urban rail transit (URT) using exploratory data analytics (EDA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). The first stage of the proposed methodology is EDA with already available indicators (e.g., the number of stations and passengers), and suggested indicators (e.g., weekly frequencies, link occupancy rates, and CO2 footprint per journey) to directly characterize the efficiency and sustainability of this transport mode. The second stage is to assess the efficiency of URT with two original models, based on a thorough selection of input and output variables, which is one of the key contributions of EDA to this methodology. The first model compares URT against other urban transport modes, applicable to route personalization, and the second scores the efficiency of URT lines. The main outcome of this paper is the proposed methodology, which has been experimentally validated using open data from the Transport for London (TfL) URT network and additional sources.

Artificial Intelligence, Transport and the Smart City: Definitions and Dimensions of a New Mobility Era

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful concept still in its infancy that has the potential, if utilised responsibly, to provide a vehicle for positive change that could promote sustainable transitions to a more resource-efficient livability paradigm. AI with its deep learning functions and capabilities can be employed as a tool which empowers machines to solve problems that could reform urban landscapes as we have known them for decades now and help with establishing a new era; the era of the “smart city”. One of the key areas that AI can redefine is transport. Mobility provision and its impact on urban development can be significantly improved by the employment of intelligent transport systems in general and automated transport in particular. This new breed of AI-based mobility, despite its machine-orientation, has to be a user-centred technology that “understands” and “satisfies” the human user, the markets and the society as a whole. Trust should be built, and risks should be eliminated, for this transition to take off. This paper provides a novel conceptual contribution that thoroughly discusses the scarcely studied nexus of AI, transportation and the smart city and how this will affect urban futures. It specifically covers key smart mobility initiatives referring to Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs), autonomous Personal and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (PAVs and UAVs) and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), but also interventions that may work as enabling technologies for transport, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Physical Internet (PI) or reflect broader transformations like Industry 4.0. This work is ultimately a reference tool for researchers and city planners that provides clear and systematic definitions of the ambiguous smart mobility terms of tomorrow and describes their individual and collective roles underpinning the nexus in scope.

A comparison between Artificial Neural Network and Hybrid Intelligent Genetic Algorithm in predicting the severity of fixed object crashes among elderly drivers

Run-off-road (ROR) crashes have always been a major concern as this type of crash is usually associated with a considerable number of serious injury and fatal crashes. A substantial portion of ROR fatalities occur in collisions with fixed objects at the roadside. Thus, this study seeks to investigate the severity of ROR crashes where elderly drivers, aged 65 years or more, hit a fixed object. The reason why the present study investigates this issue among older drivers is that, comparing to younger drivers, this age group of drivers have different psychological and physical features. Because of these differences, they are more likely to get injured in ROR types of crashes. This paper applies two types of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, including hybrid Intelligent Genetic Algorithm and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) using the crashe information of California in 2012 obtained from Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) database. Although the results showed that the developed ANN outperformed the hybrid Intelligent Genetic Algorithm, the hybrid approach was more capable of predicting high-severity crashes. This is rooted in the way the hybrid model was trained by taking advantage of the Genetic Algorithm (GA). The results also indicated that the light condition has been the most significant parameter in evaluating the level of severity associated with fixed object crashes among elderly drivers, which is followed by the existence of the right and left shoulders. Following these three contributing factors, cause of collision, Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT), number of involved vehicles, age, road surface condition, and gender have been identified as the most important variables in the developed ANN, respectively. This helps to identify gaps and improve public safety towards improving the overall highway safety situation of older drivers.

An Automobile Environment Detection System Based on Deep Neural Network and its Implementation Using IoT-Enabled In-Vehicle Air Quality Sensors

This paper elucidates the development of a deep learning–based driver assistant that can prevent driving accidents arising from drowsiness. As a precursor to this assistant, the relationship between the sensation of sleep depravity among drivers during long journeys and CO2 concentrations in vehicles is established. Multimodal signals are collected by the assistant using five sensors that measure the levels of CO, CO2, and particulate matter (PM), as well as the temperature and humidity. These signals are then transmitted to a server via the Internet of Things, and a deep neural network utilizes this information to analyze the air quality in the vehicle. The deep network employs long short-term memory (LSTM), skip-generative adversarial network (GAN), and variational auto-encoder (VAE) models to build an air quality anomaly detection model. The deep learning models gather data via LSTM, while the semi-supervised deep learning models collect data via GANs and VAEs. The purpose of this assistant is to provide vehicle air quality information, such as PM alerts and sleep-deprived driving alerts, to drivers in real time and thereby prevent accidents.

Contributions and Risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Building Smarter Cities: Insights from a Systematic Review of the Literature

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. Interest in the use of AI for urban innovation continues to grow. Particularly, the rise of smart cities—urban locations that are enabled by community, technology, and policy to deliver productivity, innovation, livability, wellbeing, sustainability, accessibility, good governance, and good planning—has increased the demand for AI-enabled innovations. There is, nevertheless, no scholarly work that provides a comprehensive review on the topic. This paper generates insights into how AI can contribute to the development of smarter cities. A systematic review of the literature is selected as the methodologic approach. Results are categorized under the main smart city development dimensions, i.e., economy, society, environment, and governance. The findings of the systematic review containing 93 articles disclose that: (a) AI in the context of smart cities is an emerging field of research and practice. (b) The central focus of the literature is on AI technologies, algorithms, and their current and prospective applications. (c) AI applications in the context of smart cities mainly concentrate on business efficiency, data analytics, education, energy, environmental sustainability, health, land use, security, transport, and urban management areas. (d) There is limited scholarly research investigating the risks of wider AI utilization. (e) Upcoming disruptions of AI in cities and societies have not been adequately examined. Current and potential contributions of AI to the development of smarter cities are outlined in this paper to inform scholars of prospective areas for further research.

Sustainability and Firm Performance: A Review and Analysis Using Algorithmic Pathways in the Throughput Model

This paper reviews the prior research on the relationship between sustainability and a firm’s performance and proposes algorithmic pathways in the throughput model that could be used to improve the research findings for such research. Results of our literature search were mixed. Some studies reported a positive relationship between a firm’s sustainability efforts and profitability while others found a negative to no relationship. Studies found reasons for implementing sustainability even though it is a loss-bearing activity; other studies found reasons for not practising sustainability. Reasons for not practising sustainability ranged from absence of external pressure; not viewing the sustainability report as a business obligation; deeming it too expensive for small firms; to a lack of resources. Our evaluation of the prior research also found that the prior studies excluded an important class of assets—non-financial intangible assets—in their evaluation of the relationship between sustainability efforts and profitability. The contribution of this study is that the throughput model along with its six dominant algorithms depicts the significance of triple bottom line concepts of economic, social, and environmental variables influencing performance.

Flexible Mobility On-Demand: An Environmental Scan

On-demand shared mobility is increasingly being promoted as an influential strategy to address urban transport challenges in large and fast-growing cities. The appeal of this form of transport is largely attributed to its convenience, ease of use, and affordability made possible through digital platforms and innovations. The convergence of the shared economy with a number of established and emerging technologies—such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Cloud and Fog computing—is helping to expedite their deployment as a new form of public transport. Recently, this has manifested itself in the form of Flexible Mobility on Demand (FMoD) solutions, aimed at meeting personal travel demands through flexible routing and scheduling. Increasingly, these shared mobility solutions are blurring the boundaries with existing forms of public transport, particularly bus operations. This paper presents an environmental scan and analysis of the technological, social, and economic impacts surrounding disruptive technology-driven shared mobility trends. Specifically, the paper includes an examination of current and anticipated external factors that are of direct relevance to collaborative and low carbon mobility. The paper also outlines how these trends are likely to influence the mobility industries now and into the future. The paper collates information from a wide body of literature and reports on findings from actual ‘use cases’ that exist today which have used these disruptive mobility solutions to deliver substantial benefits to travellers around the world. Finally, the paper provides stakeholders with insight into identifying and responding to the likely needs and impacts of FMoD and informs their policy and strategy positions on the implementation of smart mobility systems in their cities and jurisdictions.

Solving Traffic Congestion through Street Renaissance: A Perspective from Dense Asian Cities

Traffic congestion is one of the most vexing city problems and involves numerous factors which cannot be addressed without a holistic approach. Congestion cannot be narrowly tackled at the cost of a city’s quality of life. Focusing on transport and land use planning, this paper examines transport policies and practices on both the supply and demand sides and finds that indirect travel demand management might be the most desirable solution to this chronic traffic ailment. The concept of absorption of traffic demand through the renaissance of streets as a way for traffic relief is introduced from two perspectives, with some examples from dense Asian urban contexts to demonstrate this. Firstly, jobs–housing balance suggests the return of production activities to residential areas and sufficient provision of diverse space/housing options to deal with work-related traffic. The second approach is to promote the street as a multi-activity destination rather than a thoroughfare to access dispersed daily needs, and to advocate more street life to diminish non-commuting traffic. Based on this, suggestions for better transport planning policies are put forward.