Project Notables:
- Due Thursday, 17th April
- Expected job time - 1-3hrs
- Thorough understanding of MatLab/Microsoft Excel and similar programs and how to analyse data
- 4th year Engineering Assessment
Project Details:
This semester I am completing a subject at university which involves me writing a thesis on a topic of my choice. The topic I have chosen is 'A Performance Evaluation on the Brisbane Ferries and CityCat.' Along with the chosen topic, I was advised by my topic supervisor to direct my topic in one direction (as a performance evaluation includes such a broad scope) - and from there I decided to analyse 4 components that have have a significant effect on the ferry's performance. They include:
- Ferry on-time performance
- How the increase in fare prices reduces passenger volumes
- How terminal Dwell times effect the overall efficiency of the ferry's.
- The change of Translink Peak Hour times ([login to view URL])
I have been supplied with data for the analysis. The data is in the form of excel spreadsheets. (they are 4 spreadsheets - March, April, May and June 2013) I would say each row is a passenger touch on the Gocard (for people unaware of the Gocard ticketing system - [login to view URL]) reader, and each column shows a piece of information for that touch (e.g. time, stop ID, fare)
All data is on Dropbox so if interested, I will invite you to the containing folder.
The metadata provided shows the meaning of each column (feature) of each Gocard transaction
e.g.
operator VARCHAR(25) NULL,
operations_date DATETIME NULL,
run VARCHAR(8) NULL,
route VARCHAR(20) NULL,
service VARCHAR(8) NULL,
direction VARCHAR(8) NULL,
scheduled_start DATETIME NULL
This means that the 1st column is Operator, 2nd column is Operation date, etc. For your analysis you might be interested in operations_date, smartcard,boarding_time,direction,fare. Just a suggestion, look for the column you need for your analysis.
What I am aiming for is being able to recognize a trend in the data over the course of the 4 month period - and then being able to elaborate on the way in which these variables have effected the ferry network performance.
Additional Ferry Information:
- [login to view URL]
- [login to view URL]
Thanks,
Tom