A conceptual model and an analytical framework for public transportation have been developed based on cognitive systems engineering, models for transportation systems analysis, and elements of control and human-machine systems theories. The systems approach includes a hierarchy of functional levels describing five processes in public transportation, i.e. the accessibility, the travel, the transport, the traffic and the motion systems and their dynamic interrelationships, and the toolbox has been applied and validated in the Gothenburg context. The relation between control and data filtering needs on each functional level and the quality of public transportation is crucial and it is argued that the resulting distributed nature of dynamic decision-making will require new ways, based on new technologies, to cope with modern concepts, e.g. intermodality. (A*)
Abstract