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Prof. John Polak Prof.JohnPolak
Professor of Transport Demand, Head of Centre for Transport Studies, Director of MSc Course
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Contact Information
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E-mail:
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j.polak@imperial.ac.uk
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Address:
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Room 616, Skempton Bldg. Imperial College London SW7 2AZ |
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Telephone:
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+44(0)20 7594-6089 |
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Fax:
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+44(0)20 7594-6102 |
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Related Webpage:
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Academic Information
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Research Interests |
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website. |
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- Transport data collection methods
- Analysis and modelling of travel behaviour
- Behavioural dynamics and traveller learning
- Trip scheduling and activity based modelling
- Microsimulation modelling
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CV:
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Home, Top of page and photo, Publications, Projects, news items
Summary of Publications 
This is not necessarily a complete list of publications by the staff member.Publications before 1999 are not included.Please download the CV for full details.
Publication Format: Working Paper
Publication Format: Journal - In press
North, R.J., Cohen, J. Wilkins, S.,. Richards, M., Hoose, N., Polak, J.W., Bell. M., Blythe, P.,
Sharif, B., Neasham, Visalakshmi, S., Galatioto, F., Hill,. G, 2010, Field deployments of the MESSAGE system for environmental monitoring
, Forthcoming in Traffic Engineering and Control (In Press)
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Cohen, J., North, R.J., Wilkins, S., Darlington, J., Guo, Y., Hoose, N., Ma, Y., Polak, J.W., 2009, Creating the MESASAGE infrastructure, Forthcoming in Traffic Engineering and Control (In Press)
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Publication Format: Journal
Han, J., Polak, J.W., Barria, J. and Krishnan, R., 2010, On the estimation of space-mean-speed from inductive loop detector data, Transportation Planning and Technology, 33 (1), pp.91-104
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Publication Format: Book
AXHAUSEN, K.W., MADRE, J-L., POLAK, J.W. and TOINT, P. (Eds), 2004, Long Distance Travel: Current Measurement Approaches and Issues, Research Science Press, London.
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Publication Format: Book Chapters - In press
Publication Format: Book Chapters
Polak, J.W., Madre, J-L, Herry, M. and Armguum, J., 2004, Weighting and correction methods for surveys of long-distance travel behaviour, Edited by Axhausen, K.W., Madre, J-L., Polak, J.W. and Toint, P., Long Distance Travel: Current Measurement Approaches and Issues, Research Science Press, London
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Polak, J.W., Han, X-L., and Armguum, J., 2004, Imputation techniques for surveys of long-distance travel behaviour, Edited by Axhausen, K.W., Madre, J-L., Polak, J.W. and Toint, P., Long Distance Travel: Current Measurement Approaches and Issues, Research Science Press, London
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Plaxton, J.M. and Polak, J.W., 2004, The design and evaluation of a Web based interviewing tools for travel surveys, Edited by Axhausen, K.W., Madre, J- L., Polak, J.W. and Toint, P., Long Distance Travel: Current Measurement Approaches and Issues, Research Science Press, London
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THORPE, N., BELL, M.G.H., POLAK, J.W.AND NOLAND, R.B., 2002, A Telephone Survey of Stated Travel Responses to Fuel Shortages, Edited by G. Lyons, and K. Chatterjee, Transport Lessons from the Fuel Tax Protests of 2000, pp.161-182, Ashgate, Aldershot
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Publication Format: Conference Proceedings (Published)
Krishnan, R., Hodge, V., Austin, J., Polak, J.W. and Lee, T-C., 2010, On Identifying Spatial Traffic Patterns using Advanced Pattern Matching Techniques, Proceedings of the 89th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, CD-ROM
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Lee, T-C., Polak, J.W., Bell, M.G.H. and Wigan, M.R., 2010, The PCU Values of Motorcycles in Congested Flow, Proceedings of the 89th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, CD-ROM
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Lee, T.-C., Polak, J.W. and Bell, M.G.H., 2009, A new approach to modelling mixed traffic containing motorcycles in urban area, presented at the 88th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., USA
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Publication Format: Conference Proceedings (unpublished)
Han, J., Krishnan, R., Polak, J.W. and Barria, J., 2010, A new method for probabilistic traffic state identification using loop detector data: theory and empirical results, Presented at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Universities Transport Study Group, Plymouth, UK, 5-7 January 2010.
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Krishnan, R., Hodge, V., Austin, J. and Polak, J.W., 2010, A computationally efficient method for online identification of traffic control intervention measures, Presented at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Universities Transport Study Group, Plymouth, UK, 5-7 January 2010.
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Lee, T-C., Krishnan, R. and Polak, J.W., 2010, Data blurring: modelling the imperfections of traffic sensor data in a microscopic traffic simulator, Presented at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Universities Transport Study Group, Plymouth, UK, 5-7 January 2010.
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Han, J., Polak, J.W., Barria, J. and Krishnan, R., 2009, On the estimation of space mean speed from inductive loop detector data, Presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Universities Transport Study Group, London, UK, 5-7 January 2009.
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Publication Format: PhD Thesis
Publication Format: Research Report
Lucas, K., Jones, P., Polak, J., Gilliard, E., Le Vine, S., 2009, The Car in British Society, The Royal Automobile Club Foundation for Motoring
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Evans, R., Crookell, A., Ochieng, W.Y., Sheridan, K., Walker, M., Randolph, W., Polak, JW., Noland, R.B and Briggs, D., 2004, The Vehicle Performance and Emissions Monitoring System Design Document, Final Report to the DTI, Centre for Transport Studies, Imperial College London
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Ochieng, W.Y., Polak, J.W., Noland, R.B., Elliott, P. and Briggs, D., 2004, The Development and Demonstration of a Vehicle Performance and Emissions Monitoring System (VPEMS), Final Report to the EPSRC
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Summary of Projects
Discrete choice modeling with an inter-temporal resource constraint
J Polak, F Bastin, J-D Schmöcker
The recent projects on mode choice behaviour of older and disabled paper led to this follow-on work. In the London Borough of Newham elderly were given a trip budget for special transport services. The users were given 40 “Saver trips” per month which could be used for local services booked in advance and 6 “Standard trips” per month which could be used for immediate travel needs. A simple choice model has been developed in the precursor project. The research question in this work is broadened and the objective is to develop a dynamic discrete choice model that explains user choice when inter-temporal budget constraints exist. Such problems arise also in other contexts such as with certain forms of pre-paid public transport ticket products. The salient characteristic of such problems is that, over some relevant time horizon, there exists a constraint (direct or indirect) on the frequency with which certain choices can be made. Such constraints induce complex inter-dependencies amongst decisions in different time periods.
Utility theoretic models of activity timing and duration
O. Ashiru, J.W. Polak and D. Ettema (Utrecht University)
The objective of this project is to develop a utility theoretic model to describe how travellers select the timing and duration of activities. The model assumes that marginal utility derived from activities encompasses two distinct components; one derived from duration of activity involvement and the other derived from activity participation at a particular time-of-day. An operational model is developed, which is calibrated on a stated preference data set collected in London as part of a study, to test travellers’ responses to road pricing schemes. The estimation results suggest that utility derived from work is partly duration dependent and partly time-of-day dependent. The inclusion of both components has implications for the prediction of potential responses to travel demand management policies, such as road user charging.
The scheduling of commuter tours in congested networks with pricing
J.W. Polak and B. G. Heydecker (UCL)
An extensive literature exists on the equilibrium scheduling of peak period trips in idealised networks and the welfare impacts of alternative forms of pricing. Such models are useful in that they provide insights into the underlying structure of more complex systems. However, they are limited because they consider the scheduling only of single trips, rather than complete tours. The aim of this project is to extend these existing models to accommodate tours and to explore the welfare impact of alternative pricing regimes.
An informatics grid for e-science at Imperial College London
J.W. Polak with J. Darlington (Department of Computing), S. Richardson, J. Scott, C. Higgens and B. Robertson (Medical School)
The aim of this project, which is supported under the Research Council’s Joint Research Infrastructure Initiative, is to provide facilities for the storage and analysis of very large scale datasets, of the sort that arise in many scientific, engineering and medical disciplines. The Centre for Transport Studies will use the facility to undertake the analysis of a range of very large spatio-temporal datasets arising in a number of areas of its activity, including data from instrumented vehicle fleets, the simulation traces of highly detailed microsimulation models of traffic systems and large Monte Carlo simulation work.
Modelling travel time variability with applications to the monitoring of transport network performance
S. Robinson (supervisor: J.W. Polak)
Network models have traditionally characterised network performance in terms of an average travel time associated with each link in the network, which varies according to the level of traffic using the link. However, this characterisation ignores the influence of both recurrent and non-recurrent network events, which give rise to significant variability in link travel times. This variability in turn, leads to unreliability in system performance, which is typically identified as amongst the most important factors influencing travellers’ behaviour and satisfaction. The objective of this research is to develop methods to enable data from automatic sources such as loop detectors, ANPR cameras and GPS traces to be used to estimate network performance and reliability. An application of the methods developed to the London network will be undertaken.
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Summary of News Items
December 2006
Congratulations to Robin North who successfully defended his PhD dissertation entitled "Assessment of real-world pollutant emissions from a light-duty diesel vehicle". Dr. North was supervised by Dr. Washington Ochieng, Dr. Robert Noland and Professor John Polak and supported through an EPSRC Doctoral Training Award. Additional research funding was provided by the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund. He will continue as a Research Associate at the Centre for Transport Studies, working on the MESSAGE project.
August 2006
Dr Stephane Hess wins the Eric Pas Dissertation Prize. Congratulations to Dr Stephane Hess whose PhD thesis “Advanced Discrete Choice Models with Applications to Transport Demand” was completed in CTS under the supervision of Professor John Polak was awarded the 2005 Eric Pass Dissertation Prize at the 11th International Conference of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research, held in Kyoto. The Eric Pas Prize is the most prestigious PhD award in the field of travel demand and travel behaviour research.
May 2006
CTS wins £3.5m EPSRC grant to extend its work on modelling the environmental impacts of transport. Traffic makes a significant contribution to air pollution in inner cities. Governments devise policies and traffic management schemes to minimise the impact of air pollution. More detailed knowledge of how traffic-generated pollution behaves in the urban environment could greatly enhance these policies and schemes. A research consortium lead by the Centre for Transport Studies has been awarded a £3.5m grant under the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s e-Science demonstration programme to develop e-Science and grid technologies to enable data from a network of mobile environmental sensors to be gathered and interpreted. The project is jointly funded by the EPSRC and the Department for Transport. The Pervasive Environmental Sensor Grids (PMESG) project brings together leading research teams from Imperial College London, and the Universities of Cambridge, Southampton, Newcastle and Leeds who will work closely with one another and with a number of major industrial partners and local authorities. Professor John Polak, who heads the project comments “The PMESG project offers an enormously exciting opportunity for us to bring about a step change in the quality and timeliness of the data available for modelling the environmental impacts of traffic in urban areas. This is an opportunity that we relish”. Further information on the project can be obtained from www.pmesg.org.uk
CTS and China Academy of Transport Science jointly establish new China Urban Sustainable Transport Research Centre in Beijing. The Centre for Transport Studies is part of a successful consortium of European and Chinese research organizations, headed by the China Academy of Transport Sciences that has been awarded a grant from the Volvo Research and Education Foundations to establish the China Urban Sustainable Transport Research Centre. Professor John Polak was a guest at the inauguration of the Centre in Beijing and has been invited to serve Academic Advisory Committee of CUSTReC. During his visit, he also contributed a keynote presentation to China-EU workshop on sustainable urban transport, which was also held in Beijing.
March 2006
CTS wins call-off contract to provide advice on rail modelling issues to UK Department for Transport. The Centre for Transport Studies, working as part of a consortium headed by the Jacobs Consultancy has been selected provide advice on a variety of transport modelling and analysis questions on a call-off basis to the Network Analysis and Modelling/Rail Technical and Professional Directorate of the UK Department for Transport, over the period 2006-9. Professor John Polak commented “We are delighted to have the opportunity to extend further our policy-related modelling work with the DfT, especially in the area of rail systems, where through the work of the Railway and Transport Strategy Centre, we have considerable experience of applied policy work in the rail sector”.Home, Top of page and photo, Publications, Projects, news items
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