Projects
P.hD. Thesis (Aug 2019 – May 2024)
Impact of telework and online shopping on travel behavior considering purpose, tour-making, and mode use
Abstract:
The large-scale adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), including teleworking and online shopping, impacts travel behavior across multiple dimensions. Prior literature investigated the impacts of teleworking or online shopping on work or shopping trips in isolation, but this approach overlooked the fact that such trips are often embedded in tours, where a tour is a series of consecutive trips for different purposes that are combined. Tour-making creates interdependencies among trips with different purposes, and as a result, teleworking and online shopping can affect travel for many purposes. An example of the interdependencies among trips can be seen with the travel mode use dimension since travel modes are often chosen for entire tours rather than for individual trips. Mode use has implications for transportation sustainability and infrastructure needs, among others, yet in the context of ICT use, it has received limited attention.
With three studies, this dissertation addresses two fundamental questions regarding the impact of teleworking and online shopping on travel behavior. First, what are the relationships among teleworking, online shopping, and tour-making? Second, are teleworking and online shopping associated with individual mode use preferences and different levels of mode utilization? The studies consider travel purpose by assigning a purpose to each tour based on what is deemed to be the most important trip purpose within the tour. The first study examines the simultaneous relationships among teleworking duration, online shopping, and tour-making. Specifically, composite variables are introduced to capture multiple aspects of online shopping and tour-making. The second study investigates the association between ICT use, specifically teleworking and online shopping, and individual mode use preferences, conceptualized as modality styles. The third study examines how teleworking impacts the utilization of different modes for work and non-work tours while considering differences in long-term mode use among travelers.
The findings illustrate that the impact of teleworking and online shopping on travel behavior varies, depending on tour purposes, individual’s mode use preferences and mode utilization. The research presented in this dissertation reveals for the first time that increased teleworking indirectly increases online shopping by reducing work tours. A plausible reason for this relationship is that fewer work trips result in fewer opportunities to conduct shopping trips within work tours, and the shopping activity is subsequently done online. This dissertation also supports the limited prior research suggesting a negative association between ICT use and car ownership by identifying a modality style that simultaneously has relatively low levels of household car ownership and high levels of ICT use. Furthermore, for a subset of travelers, it finds evidence of what is termed a rebound effect, where reductions in work tour frequency due to teleworking are associated with increased travel for non-work purposes.
This dissertation strengthens the body of literature that seeks to understand how technology-driven ways of working and shopping shape travel behavior. Such an understanding can have implications for transportation planning and operations.
M.Tech Thesis (July 2018 – Jun 2019)
Development of Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA) Model for Navi Mumbai Region (MMR) Using Cube AVENUE
Abstract:
In the field of transportation planning, travel forecasting models are used to evaluate the performance of the transportation system with the changes in land use, demographics and transportation facilities. The most important parameters like travel cost and travel time used in static traffic assignment models (STA) are time invariant. Whereas the detailed interaction between travel choices travel cost, travel time and traffic flows can be represented in a time coherent manner using dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) models. Moreover, DTA models are also useful to defeat the limitation of STA models such that: queue spillback, v/c ratio and insensitivity towards advanced applications such as ITS, HOV, HOT lanes etc. However, due to high complexity and less computer efficiency, in India, DTA models are not so popular or attempted. Hence, the challenges available for DTA modelling in developing countries like India provides motivation for this study to develop a DTA model for Navi Mumbai region.
The existing Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) travel demand model is used in this study to extract the required subarea network and input data for Navi Mumbai region. The mesoscopic DTA model was simulated for a morning peak period of 6 am to 11 am, out of which first hour was considered as a warm-up period. Cube Avenue was used as a DTA platform in this study. The Akcelik delay function is used as a travel cost function instead of BPR function used in static MMR model. Additionally, the signals were coded using the IRC guidelines of signal design to incorporate the junction delay. Model validation was carried out by comparing the simulated link volumes with the actual link volumes collected through traffic surveys. Additionally, time dependent zone to zone travel time matrix resulted from the model simulation was compared with the actual travel time matrix extracted from Google Map. This comparison shows that the model simulation is reasonably matching with the actual traffic condition.
Keywords:
Dynamic Traffic Assignment Model, Mesoscopic Simulation Model, Dynamic User Equilibrium, Cube Avenue, Navi Mumbai Region
B.Tech Thesis (July 2016 – May 2017 )
Evaluation of Pedestrian Safety at Unsignalized Intersection Using Surrogate Safety Measures in Mixed Traffic Condition
Abstract:
In developing countries like India, detailed and reliable pedestrian accident data are not available. Hence more effective and proactive safety evaluation technique is required. Therefore, the objective of this work is to propose a surrogate safety methodology to quantify pedestrian safety at the unsignalized intersection under mixed traffic condition by using the proximal safety indicator: Post Encroachment Time (PET). For that, a continuous video graphic survey was conducted at a typical unsignalized intersection in Mumbai and the conflicts were extracted manually. The conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles were grouped as highly severe conflict, severe conflict and normal conflict as per the behaviour of the road users (at the time of conflict). A binary Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm was applied to get threshold PET values of these three groups. Hence, this study is useful to set threshold PET values of the proposed three groups of conflict, and these threshold PET values can be used to check the severity of the conflict and safety of pedestrians at an uncontrolled intersection.
Keywords:
Pedestrian-Vehicle Conflict, Conflict Analysis, Post Encroachment Time(PET), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Uncontrolled Intersection
Internships
Development of Mode Choice Model for Mumbai Region | IIT Bombay | May – July 2017
The aim was to analyze the shift in the mode choice after construction of metro in Mumbai. For that I collaborated with a PhD student to design and conduct fractional factorial Stated Preference (SP) survey and online survey form to conduct a SP survey at various transport hubs. The SP survey consists of three attributes (travel time, travel cost and waiting time) with three levels and two attributes (comfort and no. of transfers) with two levels.
Understanding Effects of Nanomaterial on Phase Separation Behavior of SBS (polymer) Modified Binder | IIT Bombay | May – July 2016
Work was carried out with PhD scholar Mr. Prabin Kumar Ashish to examine the Storage Stability and Phase Separation Behavior of SBS polymer and nano clay modified asphalt binder through advanced rheological performance studies.
Quality Monitoring of Materials and Construction on PMGSY Roads|SVNIT Surat|May – July 2015
The role was to focus on the quality monitoring of materials and the construction process of flexible pavements by conducting various in-situ and laboratory tests.
Consultancy Projects
Study on Residential and Commercial Parking Demand in Navi Mumbai | IIT Bombay | July 2018 - Jun 2019
Comprehensive study was carried out to understand parking related problems in Navi Mumbai. The aim of this study was to analyze the parking space deficiency in Navi Mumbai and propose a revised residential and commercial parking regulations considering comprehensive residential and commercial parking demand survey. Feasibility evaluation of the parking policies directed by the Bombay High Court is also one of the objectives of this study.
Managed and analyzed the data of the scientific parking survey that collected approx. 5500 samples from households and approx. 450 samples from commercial units of Navi Mumbai. Innovative parking methods recommended in addition to revised residential and commercial parking regulations to tackle the shortage of parking space.
Evaluation of the impact of the closure of median gap in Bamroli area Surat | SVNIT Surat | July - Dec 2015
Worked with Ph.D. students to studied the traffic flow characteristics, speed and delay characteristics of the nearby areas of the median gap using the VBOX. The impact of median gap closure on the travel time and congestion were also studied. In recommendation, alternative traffic routes were proposed based on the route choice modeling.