NTU-CEE Distinguished Seminar Series: Prof. Yin Jiateng

Organized By

CEE Seminar Committee

Host By

Associate Professor Wang Zhiwei

Topic

Equitable Metro Access Through Appointments: A Stable Matching and Network Flow Approach

About the Seminar

Public transit is widely regarded as an equitable mobility solution, yet disparities in accessibility, affordability, and safety remain significant, particularly in cities with aging infrastructure and evolving demographics. Existing policies, such as priority seating and senior discounts, provide some relief but fail to fully address the needs of all passengers, especially in highly congested metro systems. To enhance transit equity, we propose an Appoint-to-Go (AG) service, which introduces a structured reservation system for metro entry. Stations are equipped with priority gates (PGs) and normal gates (NGs), allowing passengers to book travel slots in advance for PG access, thereby mitigating congestion-related delays. However, due to limited PG capacity, an efficient and fair resource allocation mechanism is required.

To achieve this, we model the AG system as a stable matching problem, incorporating a novel network-flow-based formulation that optimizes transit demand distribution while ensuring stability. This approach extends traditional stable matching theory by integrating flow constraints, offering new insights into mechanism design for public transit. We validate our model through an implementation at Tiantongyuan Station, one of the busiest metro stations in Beijing, demonstrating that AG services can significantly improve both fairness and system efficiency. Our findings suggest that structured appointment-based transit access can enhance urban mobility equity and provide a scalable solution for congestion management in public transportation networks.

About the Speaker

Jiateng Yin is a professor at the School of Systems Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, and a visiting professor at the Institute of Operations Research and Analytics, National University of Singapore. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Beijing Jiaotong University in 2012 and 2018, respectively. He has also held visiting positions at the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems, ETH Zurich (2019), and the Center for Transportation & Logistics, MIT (2024).

His research interests include transportation engineering, railway operations, and optimization, with over 50 publications in journals such as TR-B/C/E, JOC, EJOR, NRL and RESS. He currently serves as a guest editor and editorial board member for Transportation Research Part C.

Registration

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