Objective: The purpose of this research is (i) to understand the complex and disruptive interactions that arise between customers in and around Shanghai’s Metro (rail) stations and that limit station access; (ii) to devise innovative ways of improving these chaotic and unsafe operations; and (iii) to deploy and test these innovations via demonstration projects.

Background: Shanghai has a population of 18 million people, 4 million of whom currently reside in the city’s “inner ring,” an area of about 100 sq. km. Many of them, along with numerous industries and a substantial portion of the 14 million people who now reside in the periphery, are being re-located to 10 "sub-centers" that encircle the inner ring. Large numbers of trips between these sub-centers and the inner ring will be generated as a result of this major re-location.

The Problem: Shanghai’s Metro system is being expanded in anticipation of this massive re-location. But Metro stations tend to be difficult for riders to get to. Often, they are surrounded by very wide and very busy arterials. And riders approach them by multiple modes (on foot, by bicycle, transit and so on), which adds to the conflicts. Conventional means of improving access have had little effect. 

General Research Approach: Solutions will be developed once station operations have been rationalized and the major sources of conflict and queuing have been diagnosed. Much of our efforts will be directed at devising innovative, lower-cost solutions involving the integration of policy and technology. Several candidate sites (stations) have been identified for study.  The ideas developed in this work could be field tested as part of demonstration projects.  This latter effort in particular should help promote wider-scale deployment of our ideas in Shanghai, as well as in other cities of the world where access to transit stations is problematic.

Nairobi Breakout Group: "Bus Rapid Transit and 'Matatu' Rapid Transit" Elliott Sclar, Samer Madanat, Chris Cherry and Nikolaos Geroliminis

Background: Africa is the world's most rapidly urbanizing continent, and Kenya is urbanizing almost twice as quickly. Nairobi is growing at 6% a year, faster than the needed urban infrastructure can be built.

A major source of traffic congestion and air pollution in central Nairobi are matatus, small jitney vans. Additionally, accident rates in Nairobi are very high; many involve pedestrians being hit by motorized vehicles (a leading cause of death for children under 10).

The Kenyan minister of transport wishes to ban matatus from the Nairobi city center and build matatu terminals around the periphery, where the jitneys could load and unload passengers.  Passengers would then transfer to taxis or buses for the remainder of their trips.

Possible technological/transportation system solutions: a Bus Rapid Transit system for central Nairobi, with routes starting at the major matatu terminals. Complementing this BRT system, the team proposes the development of a “Matatu Rapid Transit” (MRT) system for the outlying areas of the city. Another technology that we propose to investigate is electric bicycles, such as those used in Chinese cities. For all three technologies, the first step will be to determine costs and benefits. 

Policy Questions: Several policy questions are associated with these proposed technological solutions. The most immediate ones are: whether and how subsidies should be given to permit the upgrading of the bus and matatu systems; the regulation and management of the MRT system; possible application of the carbon-trading scheme under the Kyoto protocol; and possible land use adjustments.

Chengdu Breakout Group: "Land Use, Congestion Management and Transit Networks" Julie Touber, Yuwei Li, Alexandre Bayen, Alex Skabardonis, and Anthony Patire.

Background: Chengdu is the provincial capital of Sichuan, China's most populous province and a cultural and economic center for western China. It has a population of roughly 5 million.

There are three ring roads which delimit the geography of the city, with most of the city's activity happening within the first one. The city's features are thus very circular. This is important in shaping potential research topics.

The bus system is fairly developed and is very dense inside the first ring road, but it has potential problems: people have to walk long distances to access bus lines, especially in the outer rings, and there are long waits at some bus stops. Electric and non-powered bikes seem prevalent and well developed. Additionally, a large share of mode split is taken by cars and taxis. The city is building a north-south metro line. Others are being planned.

Potential problems and research questions: The team investigated five areas:

• land use policies that can be better coordinated to make development more sustainable, especially in terms of creating transportation infrastructure that can keep pace with growth;
• methods to forecast congestion and impose controls to reduce it;
• systems and infrastructure to monitor traffic, either through sensors, probe vehicles or other data that can serve as proxies for direct observation;
• developing infrastructure to best utilize the current bus network and complement that network, which would involve using measures of traffic, accessibility and land use impacts;
• equity issues involving fare-setting policies and trip distances.