Prediction of work Travel mode choice is one of the most important parts of travel demand forecasting. Planners can achieve sustainability goals by accurately forecasting how people will get to and from work. In the prediction of travel mode selection, machine learning methods are commonly employed. To fit a machine-learning model to various challenges, the hyperparameters must be tweaked. Choosing the optimal hyperparameter configuration for machine learning models has an immediate effect on the performance of the model. In this paper, optimizing the hyperparameters of common machine learning models, including support vector machines, k-nearest neighbor, single decision trees, ensemble decision trees, and Naive Bayes, is studied using the Bayesian Optimization algorithm. These models were developed and optimized using two datasets from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey. Using several criteria, including average accuracy (%), average area under the receiver operating characteristics, and a simple ranking system, the performance of the optimized models was investigated. The findings of this study show that the BO is an effective model for improving the performance of the k-nearest neighbor model more than other models. This research lays the groundwork for using optimized machine learning methods to mitigate the negative consequences of automobile use.

Bike-sharing is known as a sustainable form of transportation. This travel mode is able to tackle the “last mile” transit issue and deliver financial, well-being, and low-carbon lifestyle advantages to users. To date, many studies have analysed the influence of various factors, including built environments, on bike-sharing ridership. However, no study has exclusively synthesised these findings regarding the association between built-environment attributes and bike-sharing ridership. Thus, in this study, a systematic literature review was conducted on 39 eligible studies. These studies were assessed with respect to (1) bike-sharing usage, (2) studies’ geographical distribution, (3) data collection and analysis method, and (4) built environment factor type. Most studies were carried out in the US and Chinese cities. Variables associated with diversity, density, and distance to public transport stations and public transport infrastructure were frequently employed by the studies reviewed. It was found that BS stations with an average capacity of 24.63 docks and street network systems with an average length of 12.57 km of cycling lanes had a significant impact on the bike-sharing ridership. The findings of these studies were combined, and a series of recommendations were proposed based on them for bike-sharing service providers and researchers in academia. The findings of this evaluation can help practitioners and scholars understand the important built environment elements that influence bike-sharing ridership. Knowledge in this field will enable bike-sharing service providers to direct their resources sufficiently to enhance the more essential aspects of bike-sharing users’ satisfaction.

Over the past three decades, more than 8000 pedestrians have been killed in Australia due to vehicular crashes. There is a general assumption that pedestrians are often the most vulnerable to crashes. Sustainable transportation goals are at odds with the high risk of pedestrian fatalities and injuries in car crashes. It is imperative that the reasons for pedestrian injuries be identified if we are to improve the safety of this group of road users who are particularly susceptible. These results were obtained mostly through the use of well-established statistical approaches. A lack of flexibility in managing outliers, incomplete, or inconsistent data, as well as rigid pre-assumptions, have been criticized in these models. This study employed three well-known machine learning models to predict road-crash-related pedestrian fatalities (RCPF). These models included support vector machines (SVM), ensemble decision trees (EDT), and k-nearest neighbors (KNN). These models were hybridized with a Bayesian optimization (BO) algorithm to find the optimum values of their hyperparameters, which are extremely important to accurately predict the RCPF. The findings of this study show that all the three models’ performance was improved using the BO. The KNN model had the highest improvement in accuracy (+11%) after the BO was applied to it. However, the ultimate accuracy of the SVM and EDT models was higher than that of the KNN model. This study establishes the framework for employing optimized machine learning techniques to reduce pedestrian fatalities in traffic accidents.

More than 8000 pedestrians were killed due to road crashes in Australia over the last 30 years. Pedestrians are assumed to be the most vulnerable users of roads. This susceptibility of pedestrians to road crashes conflicts with sustainable transportation objectives. It is critical to know the causes of pedestrian injuries in order to enhance the safety of these vulnerable road users. To achieve this, traditional statistical models are used frequently. However, they have been criticized for their inflexibility in handling outliers and missing or noisy data, and their strict pre-assumptions. This study applied an advanced machine learning algorithm, a Bayesian neural network, which has the characters of both Bayesian theory and neural networks. Several structures of this model were built, and the best structure was selected, which included three hidden neuron layers—sixteen hidden nodes in the first layer and eight hidden nodes in the second and third layers. The performance of this model was compared with the performances of some other machine learning techniques, including standard Bayesian networks, a standard neural network, and a random forest model. The Bayesian neural network model outperformed the other models. In addition, a study on the importance of the features showed that the individuals’ characteristics, time, and circumstantial factors were essential. They greatly increased model performance if the model used them. This research lays the groundwork for using machine learning approaches to alleviate pedestrian deaths caused by road accidents.

The investigation of travel mode choice is an essential task in transport planning and policymaking for predicting travel demands. Typically, mode choice datasets are imbalanced and learning from such datasets is challenging. This study deals with imbalanced mode choice data by developing an algorithm (SVM_AK) based on a support vector machine model and the theory of adjusting kernel scaling. The kernel function’s choice was evaluated by applying the likelihood-ratio chi-square and weighting measures. The empirical assessment was performed on the 2017 National Household Travel Survey–California dataset. The performance of the SVM_AK model was compared with several other models, including neural networks, XGBoost, Bayesian Network, standard support vector machine model, and some SVM-based models that were previously developed to handle the imbalanced datasets. The SVM_AK model outperformed these models, and in some cases improved the accuracy of the minority class classification. For the majority class, the accuracy improvement was substantial. This algorithm can be applied to other tasks in the transport planning domain that deal with uneven data distribution.

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been progressing rapidly in urban transport systems given their potential in reducing emissions and energy consumptions. The Shared Free-Floating Electric Scooter (SFFES) is an emerging EV publicized to address the first-/last-mile problem in travel. It also offers alternatives for short-distance journeys using cars or ride-hailing services. However, very few SFFES studies have been carried out in developing countries and for university populations. Currently, many universities are facing an increased number of short-distance private car travels on campus. The study is designed to explore the attitudes and perceptions of students and staff towards SFFES usage on campus and the corresponding influencing factors. Three machine learning models were used to predict SFFES usage. Eleven important factors for using SFFESs on campus were identified via the supervised and unsupervised feature selection techniques, with the top three factors being daily travel mode, road features (e.g., green spaces) and age. The random forest model showed the highest accuracy in predicting the usage frequency of SFFESs (93.5%) using the selected 11 variables. A simulation-based optimization analysis was further conducted to discover the characterization of SFFES users, barriers/benefits of using SFFESs and safety concerns.