Travel Time Variability in Urban Mobility: Exploring Transportation System Reliability Performance Using Ridesharing Data

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The topic of this paper is interesting, and this work is fair as well as the contribution. Before considering for acceptance, the following revisions must be made.

1.  Explore transportation system reliability performance using ridesharing data. Then any improvement with this approach? The authors should compare with other research.

2. The resolution of the figures in this article is too low. It is recommended to use high-resolution ones.

3. Suggest to add a paragraph at the end of Section 1 to introduce the structure arrangement of this paper.

4. In terms of the structural arrangement, the authors should discuss the results, highlight the improvements or contributions, and analyze the potential shortcomings of this paper.

5. For the references, many lost the pages or volume number, for instance, 2, 6, 10, 11 and so on. Please check and update carefully. Additionally, the quantity of references is relatively small, indicating that the latest relevant work in the field has not been comprehensively sorted out. Moreover, there are too few articles in authoritative journals in the field of transportation.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The research proposed by the authors is of scientific and practical interest, novelty and relevance. However, I believe that the manuscript raises a number of serious methodological questions.

 

In their manuscript, the authors indicate the following as the purpose of their research:

"This study aims to identify TTV metrics for assessing traffic performance across different cities, each with its unique socio-economic background, and to compare findings between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods"

-However, the findings do not reflect in any way what the unique socio-economic features of the selected cities are and how these features are taken into account in the study.

-Accordingly, it is necessary to highlight whether the proposed methodology can be used for research in other cities and regions, for example, other countries. What parameters should these cities have: population size, population density, number of cars, etc.?

-The conclusions drawn by the authors are quite general. It is obvious that during peak hours passengers will be late, and the reliability of transportation will decrease. Accordingly, it is necessary to substantiate in more detail what exactly research calculations provide in increasing the efficiency of urban traffic

-The authors use machine learning methods in their work. However, the literature review contains few references to research in the field of machine learning in transportation. It is necessary to highlight in more detail why the authors chose this particular method and what its advantages are.

- Necessary diagrams in Fig. 3 indicate units of measurement

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The concerns raised in the last round are well addressed, therefore, it is recommended to accept.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

I hope this message finds you well.

I wanted to take a moment to sincerely thank you for your positive feedback and recommendation to accept our manuscript. We are truly grateful for the time and effort you put into reviewing our work.

We look forward to the next steps in the publication process.

Best regards,
Ying Chen

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Overall, the authors have tried to improve the manuscript according to my comments. However, literary sources have not been significantly added. In general, the article can be published. But adding literary sources would improve the manuscript even further.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

I wanted to take a moment to sincerely thank you for your positive feedback and recommendation to accept our manuscript. We are truly grateful for the time and effort you put into reviewing our work.

We have extended the literature review in our final revisions according to your suggestion. We believe these changes have further strengthened the manuscript.

Once again, thank you for your support and for recognizing the value of our research. We look forward to the next steps in the publication process.

Best regards,
Ying Chen
Assistant Professor
Northwestern University