TransportLab: January 2026

Semi-annual News from TransportLab at the University of Sydney

Happy New Year to all of you. Welcome to the start-of-year update from TransportLab at the University of Sydney.

We would love to meet you face-to-face, or you can follow us on LinkedIn and Mastodon.

People

Congratulations to Jennifer Kent for her promotion to Associate Professor in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning.

Congratulations to Andrés Fielbaum for his promotion to Senior Lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering.

Emily Moylan will be on Special Studies Leave (sabbatical) visiting Helena Titheridge at UCL— reach out if you’re going to be near there: emily.moylan@sydney.edu.au

Congratulations to Dr Tingsen (Tim) Xian for “satisfying the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney.”

• Thesis Title: “Microscopic Bus Performance Analysis Using Real-time Data in Greater Sydney”

• Lead Supervisor: Dr Emily Moylan

• Co-supervisor: Professor John Nelson.

Congratulations to Dr Durba Kundu for “satisfying the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney.”

• Thesis Title: “Diverse habits, disrupted context and random behaviour in transit demand”

• Lead Supervisor: Dr Emily Moylan

• Co-supervisor: Associate Professor Somwrita Sarkar.

Congratulations to Dr Changle Song for “satisfying the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney.”

• Thesis Title: “Logistics Strategies for Emergency Medical Services”

• Lead Supervisor: Dr Emily Moylan

• Co-supervisor: Professor David Levinson.

Congratulations to Dr Jack Wang for “satisfying the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney.”

• Thesis Title: “Programming Traffic: Design of Micro-decisions in Automated and Mixed Transport Systems”

• Lead Supervisor: Professor David Levinson

• Co-supervisor: Associate Professor Mohsen Ramezani.

Congratulations to Dr Laya Hossein Rashidi for “satisfying the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney.”

• Thesis Title: “Multi-dimensional explorations of distance as a determinant of children's school travel behaviour”

• Lead Supervisor: Dr Emily Moylan

• Co-supervisor: Associate Professor Jennifer Kent.

New Students

Abulhasan (Hasan) Zeynalov

Paul Spasojevic

Zixuan Yang

Visitors

In September, Jennifer Kent hosted a visit from Professor Kevin Krizek from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Funded by the Henry Halloran Urban and Regional Research Initiative, the visit included appearances at the Festival of Urbanism, a slow streets advocacy forum, and a visit to NSW Parliament

Rosa Felix is visiting David Levinson

Events

TransportLab and the TRAM Lab from McGill University hosted a joint Research Colloquium in Sydney in December 2025.

TransportLab hosted delegations from Department of Transportation of Hunan Province, the Hangzhou Transport Delegation, Chongqing International Construction Corporation (CICO) and the China Western Returned Scholars Association.

TransportLab Seminars

In addition to presentations from our PhD students, TransportLab Seminar series hosts speakers from all over the world. If you’d like to join the seminars in person or over Zoom, please contact Emily to join the list (emily.moylan@sydney.edu.au). Our recent speakers include:

Dr Andrea Pellegrini (ITLS, University of Sydney). A habit persistence model of multiple discrete/continuous demand for evaluating charging behaviour of Australian electric vehicle owners. 08/August/2025.

Prof Gi-Hyoug Cho (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Korea). Rethinking Pedestrian Safety through Immersive Virtual Reality: Environment, Interaction, and Emerging Mobilities. 05/September/2025.

A/Prof Adriana-Simona Mihaita (University of Technology Sydney). Understanding Risky Driving Behaviour: Where and Why Does it Happen? 10/October/2025.

Dr J.K. Cheung (UNSW). Decision support system for real-time rescheduling: A Case study in an Asian city. 14/November/2025

Dr Sharon Di (Columbia University). AI-Powered Safety-Aware Urban Transportation Digital Twin. 21/November/2025

Prof Xiaolei Wang (Tongji University). Predicting the matching probability and ride/shared distance for each dynamic ridepooling order: A mathematical modeling approach. 12/December/2025

Publications

Astell-Burt, T., Sarkar, S., Gilbert, C., Keane, A., Shrestha, P., Chhabra, S., & Mottee, L. (2025). Gentrification and health: Vignettes from Sydney, Australia. In Gentrification and Public Health (pp. 190-201). Routledge. [doi]

Bower, M., Buckle, C., Kent, J., Teesson, L., Patulny, R., McGrath, L., & Rugel, E. (2025). Can Our Housing Environments Impact Loneliness? A Tale of Two Studies. In Social Connection in Everyday Spaces (pp. 89-101). Bristol University Press. [doi]

Cui, Mengying, Lijie Yu, Shaoyu Nie, Zhe Dai, Ying-en GE, and David Levinson (2025) How access and spatial dependency shape metro passenger flows. Journal of Transport Geography. Volume 123, February 2025, 104069 [doi]

Dong, A., Jetton, C. & Sarkar, S. (2025) Estimating the degree of architectural change from introduced innovations. Res Eng Design 36, 20 [doi]

Faqani, M., Nassiri, H., Rezaei, M., & Ramezani, M. (2025). Analysis of the distraction impact on driving performance across driving styles: A driving simulator study in various speed conditions. PloS one, 20(12), e0336480. [doi]

Haider, S., & Kent, J. L. (2025). Built environment and sustainable travel. In Elgar Encyclopedia of Transport and Society (pp. 68-69). Edward Elgar Publishing. [doi]

Hong, Wei-Ting, & Moylan, Emily. (2025). Artificial Intelligence. In Elgar Encyclopedia of Transport and Society (pp. 56-57). Edward Elgar Publishing. [doi]

Hossein Rashidi, L., Kent, J. L., & Moylan, E. (2025). Heterogeneity in distance elasticity of active travel to school. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 18(1), 685–708. [doi]

Kent, J. L. (2025). Active travel and health. In Elgar Encyclopedia of Transport and Society (pp. 8-9). Edward Elgar Publishing. [doi]

Kent, Jennifer L., Alexa Delbosc, Emily Moylan, Laya Hossein-Rashidi, and Hulya Gilbert. 2025. “The Sector Effect: Differences between Public and Private School Travel in Australia.” Findings, August. [doi]

Kent, J. L., & Mulley, C. (2025). Travel with dogs. In Elgar Encyclopedia of Transport and Society (pp. 428-429). Edward Elgar Publishing. [doi]

Levinson, David (2025) “Safety as Access.” Findings, September. [doi]

Levinson, David, and Isaac Mann (2025) “Access Surplus: Valuing Accessibility by Integrating Opportunity Supply and Willingness to Pay.” Findings, October. [doi]

Mann, I. and Levinson, D. (2025) Valuing Travel Time and Reliability from Emerging Connected Vehicle Data. Economics of Transportation. Volume 44, December 2025, 100427 [doi]

Pamuditha, Vidumini and Levinson, D (2025) ‘Numbers in Safety’ for Pedestrians in Melbourne. Findings [doi]

Rana, K., Sperandei, S., Munasinghe, S., Kent, J. L., & Page, A. (2026). Economic deprivation as a mediator in the relationship between housing affordability stress and mental and general health among humanitarian migrants in Australia. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health [doi]

Shaer, Amin, Fielbaum, Andres, and Levinson, David (2026) Detecting Dangerous Driving via Computer Vision: Linking Video-Based Indicators to Road Crashes. Journal of Transportation Safety and Security. [accepted and in press]

Soltani, A., Levinson, D and Ramezani, M. (2025) Communication-free Distributed Control Algorithm for autonomous vehicles at intersections. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies Volume 180, 105309 [doi]

Xian, Tim (Tingsen), & Moylan, Emily. (2025). Bus Priority. In Elgar Encyclopedia of Transport and Society (pp. 70-71). Edward Elgar Publishing. [doi]

Yang, Y., van Renssen, A., & Ramezani, M. (2026). Dynamic on-demand delivery with spatial divisions of labor. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 184, 105509. [doi]

Appearances

Talks

Andres Fielbaum spoke about ‘The Increasing Gap Dynamics in a General Spatial Matching Model’ at the Workshop Stochastic Games and Online Decision Making at Universidad de Chile (December 2025)

Jennifer Kent gave a keynote at the annual WestFest symposium - A half-day knowledge exchange presented by Cumberland City Council, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and Street Furniture Australia.

David Levinson presented a keynote address on “A Web of Nets” at the Briding Transport Research Online Conference on 6 August 2025

David Levinson presented a keynote address on “Transport and Land Use: Research and Prospects” at the 3rd Symposium on Cities and Sustainable Transport Xi’an University on 3 July 2025

Conferences

Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF) in Auckland

Marc Awad and Andres Fielbaum ‘Analysis of commuter mode choice with and without real-time Park-and-Ride information’

Sara Haider, John Nelson Nelson, Jennifer Kent and Sotiris Vardoulakis ‘Contextual factors in active transport infrastructure’

Laya Hossein Rashidi, Akshay Vij, Jennifer Kent and Emily Moylan ‘Modelling distance heterogeneity in active school travel: The latent influence of a permissive family lifestyle’

Yutong Li and Emily Moylan ‘The impact of school speed zones on driving speed’

Miguel Loyola and Jennifer Kent ‘Guiding critical discourse analysis in transport studies: The case of Wales’ 20mph speed limit’

Isaac Mann and David Levinson ‘Capitalising commutes: Estimating the value of travel time in residential property transactions’

Isaac Mann and David Levinson ‘Valuing travel time and reliability from emerging connected vehicle data’

Vidumini Pamuditha Daluwathu Mulle Gamage and David Levinson ‘Numbers in Safety: Pedestrian safety and activity in Melbourne’

Jinjing Ye, Edwina Wang, Xueying Lin, Yang Peng, Gregor Verbic and Emily Molyan ‘Aware of the sunshine? Investigating the alignment of Electric Vehicle charging and solar photovoltaic generation in Australian households’ supported by the University of Sydney Net Zero Institute

Tim Zhang and Emily Moylan ‘Impacts of signalised crossings on pedestrian access to train stations’

Yuting Zhang, Jingyi Shao, John Nelson, Jennifer Kent and Sotiris Vardoulakis ‘The role of infrastructure in shaping active travel behaviours: Experience in Sydney’

Travel Demand Management (TDM) Symposium in Sydney

Laya Hossein Rashidi, Jennifer Kent, Akshay Vij and Emily Moylan Active Travel to School: Policy Insights from Distance, Environment, and Lifestyle Determinants

Amir Elmi, Emily Moylan, Javier Alonso-Mora and Andrés Fielbaum Reducing Unreliability in Ridepooling Systems Through Shareability Shadow

Levinson, D. and Hao, Wenyang User-organized Pre-pooled Ride-hailing: Exploring a New Mode

Valentina Gomez and Andres Fielbaum The divisibility index: a theoretical device to support public transport design

Haoran Zhao and Andres Fielbaum Comparative Analysis of Charging Technologies in Modular Bus Systems

Regine Tejada and Andres Fielbaum Strategic Cost Assessment of Bike-Train Integration: What Should Cities Build? Infrastructure for Shared Bikes, Private Bike Parking, or On-Train Boarding

Xinyu Wang and Andres Fielbaum Optimizing Passenger Walking at Drop-off with Anticipatory Methods in Ridepooling Systems

Zixuan Yang and Andres Fielbaum The Impact of Reservation Order Ratio on the Efficiency of Ride-pooling Service

29th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies (HKSTS)

Amir Elmi, Emily Moylan, Javier Alonso-Mora and Andres Fielbaum “Reducing Unreliability in Ridepooling Systems Through Shareability Shadow”

Miguel Loyola and Jennifer Kent “Framing Green Mobility: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Sustainable Transport Narratives”

Zhuopeng Xie, Mohsen Ramezani, Zhaohan Wang and David Levinson “Game-Theoretic Lane-Free Control for Autonomous Vehicles: Experimental Validation of a Two-Dimensional Trajectory Controller with a Reduced-Scale Robotic Testbed”

4th Australian International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Managment in Melbourne

Regine Tejada and Andres Fielbaum “Strategic Planning for Bike-Train Integration: A Comparative Cost Analysis of Strategies Using Continuous Approximation”

State of Australian Cities Conference (SOAC) in Brisbane

Jennifer Kent led a co-design session on children’s travel: “School Runs and Soccer Practice”

Media

Emily Moylan was interviewed by ABC Melbourne on the increase of driving kids to school

Andres Fielbaum was interviewed by the scientific magazine Spektrum about the impact of metros and trams on cities

David Levinson was interviewed on ABC Radio: Evenings with Renee Krosch about Sydney’s Toll System ( 2025 December 11).

David Levinson was quoted by Daniel Lo Surdo in The Sydney Morning Herald’s story on “Why this set of Sydney traffic lights could change how we cross the road” (2025 November 17)

David Levinson was quoted by Matt O’Sullivan in The Sydney Morning Herald’s story on “State reaps $800m from extra charge on airport train passengers over decade” (2025 November 16)

David Levinson was interviewed on NSW Afternoons with James O’Loghlin about “What’s a Road?” ( 2025 October 31).

David Levinson was quoted by Ahmed Yussuf for ABC News Australia’s story titled “Most OECD countries get to work within 30 minutes. This is how Australia compares.” (2025 October 20)

David Levinson was interviewed on Breakfast with Amelia Bernasconi and Paul Culliver about “The Hunter Transport Plan” ( 2025 October 3).

David Levinson was interviewed on ABC Radio: Evenings with Renee Krosch about Toll Roads ( 2025 September 29).

David Levinson was quoted by Penry Buckley for The Guardian’s story titled “Is an end to Sydney’s ‘tollmania’ in sight? Negotiations for a fairer and simpler system slow to a crawl” (2025 September 28)

David Levinson was quoted by Peter Jenkins for The Daily Telegraph’s story titled “New Sydney airport will be passenger-free for first 12 months” (2025 September 21)

David Levinson was interviewed on CBC Radio on “Trucks and Road Capacity” (2025 September 16 )

David Levinson was interviewed by Ian Buck for the Streets.mn podcast story on “An Oral History of Streets.mn” (2025 September 01)

David Levinson was interviewed by Will Thorpe from CityHub on “Should Woollahra Station be opened?” (2025 August 16 )

David Levinson was interviewed by Emily Bobis for the Byte Size Podcast by CompassIOT on the topic of “Mobility Isn’t Enough, We Need Better Accessibility” (2025 August 14)

David Levinson was quoted by Mostafa Rachwani in the Sydney Morning Herald’s story titled “Josh’s toll bill is about to rise 233 per cent. He’s not alone” (2025 July 10)

David Levinson was interviewed by Paul Turton on ABC Radio about NSW Buses (2025 June 19)

Jennifier Kent was interviewed for Drive with Chris Bath on ABC Radio Sydney (November), Life Matters on Radio National (November) and FiveAA Radio Adelaide (October).

Jennifer Kent featured on SBS Insight where she addressed the ways cities accommodate companion animal ownership, specifically provisions for dog owners to take dogs on public transport.

Projects

Emily Moylan is leading an iMOVE CRC project on optimising ambulance logistics for time-critical emergencies collaborating with the Faculty of Medicine and Health and ambulance services across Australia

Mohsen Ramezani, David Levinson and Chen Cai are the chief investigators of the project “Evaluation of automated disruption contingency plans for public transport operations” funded by INIT GmbH.

Mohsen Ramezani has been invited as a member of the editorial board of Transportation Research Today, a new open-access Elsevier journal.