Tuesday, February 25, 2025 | 12:00 – 1:00 PM (ET)
The COVID‐19 pandemic has had a profound impact on travel behavior, particularly in the realm of public transportation. This presentation discusses the findings of a study on the long‐term effects of the pandemic on the transportation system, with a focus on transit ridership and congestion in dense urban areas in the US. The research team utilized large‐scale traffic and transit data to examine and forecast congestion levels post‐pandemic. The research performed, including the analysis of transit data, estimation of daily passenger miles traveled, and evaluation of mode shares, provides valuable insights for understanding the effects of the pandemic on transportation systems. These findings can help policymakers, urban planners, and transportation agencies in developing strategies to manage congestion, improve public transit, and adapt infrastructure to meet changing transportation needs.
About the Presenters:
Mr. Vivek Gupta is an Assistant Research Engineer at Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). Mr. Gupta is a seasoned professional specializing in traffic congestion analysis, road safety evaluation, and network-level pavement management systems. His research at TTI has contributed to projects for organizations such as the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the National Institute of Congestion Reduction (NICR), and Support for Urban Mobility Analysis (SUMA) FHWA pooled fund study. Additionally, he plays a pivotal role in developing traffic control plans and coordinating special events on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station. A proficient user of AutoCAD and ArcGIS, Mr. Gupta is also dedicated to advancing machine learning-based algorithms to forecast travel demand using socio-economic data. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Texas.
Mr. Kartik Jha is an Assistant Research Scientist at Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). Since joining TTI in 2014, Mr. Kartik Jha has been involved in urban mobility and travel reliability measurement, freight mobility, transportation equity, and special event traffic management projects. He has helped with research in areas involving exploration and application of travel time databases, system performance measurement for FHWA pooled fund study, developing port-level multi-modal freight fluidity performance management concept, using crowd-sourced data for traffic signal performance measurement and access management evaluation, using FAF database to determine value of truck freight flow between urban regions and on US roadways, as well as utilizing the National Performance Management Research Data Set (NPMRDS) for MAP-21 performance monitoring. His areas of interest lie in innovative applications of new-age data sources and transportation statistics in transportation system performance monitoring, transportation equity, and informed decision-making.
Prior to joining TTI, Mr. Jha worked as a highway design engineer with a design consultancy in India. During this time, he also gained some experience in projects in the areas of transportation planning, survey optimization and city transit planning.
