Sigal Kaplan

Sigal Kaplan

, Assoc. Prof.
Assoc. Professor

Smart transportation systems

Demand for innovative transport technologies

Human-environment interactions

Data-driven solutions to multi-modal, resilient and safe systems

Bounded rationality in transport behavior

Public transport planning

Active travel and sustainable development

  • Demand for innovative and smart transport technologies
  • M. Fetene , Hirte, G., Kaplan, S., Tscharaktschiew, S. Prato, C.G. 2016. The economics of workplace charging. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 88, 93-118.
  • Dastjerdi, A.M., Kaplan, S., Abreu e Silva, J., Nielsen, O.A., Pereira, F.. , 2019. Use intention of mobility-management travel apps: The role of users goals, technophile attitude and community trust. Transportation Research Part A, 126, 114-135. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 95, pp. 34-48.
  • Tchetchik, A., Zvi, L., Kaplan, S., Blass, V., 2020. The joint effects of driving hedonism and trialability on the choice between internal combustion engine, hybrid, and electric vehicles. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 151, article number 119815.

 

  • Human-environment interactions
  • Kaplan, S., Nielsen, T.A.S., Prato, C.G., 2016. Walking, cycling and the urban form: a Heckman selection model of active travel mode and distance by young adolescents. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 44, 55-65
  • Kaplan, S., Bortei-Doku, S., Prato, C.G., 2018. The relation between the perception of safe traffic and the comprehension of road signs in conditions of ambiguous and redundant information. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour 55, 415-425.
  • Fetene, G.M., Kaplan, S., Mabit, S.L., Jensen, A.F., Prato, C.G., 2017. Harnessing big data for estimating the energy consumption and driving range of electric vehicles. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 54, 1-11.

 

  • Data-driven solutions to multi-modal, resilient and safe systems
  • Kaplan, S., Prato, C.G., 2012. Braking news: the link between crash severity and crash avoidance maneuvers. Transportation Research Record, 2280, 75-88.
  • Kaplan, S., Popoks, D., Prato, C.G., Ceder, A., 2014. Using connectivity for measuring equity in transit provision. Journal of Transport Geography, 37, 82-92.
  • Prato, C.G., Kaplan, S., Patrier, A., Rasmussen, T.K. 2019. Integrating police reports with geographic information system resources for uncovering patterns of pedestrian crashes in Denmark. Journal of Transport Geography 74, 10-23.
  • Yona, M., Birfir, G., Kaplan, S., 2021. Using data science and GIS-based system analysis of transit passenger complaints to improve operations and planning. Journal of Transport Policy, 10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.12.009

 

  • Bounded rationality in transport behavior
  • Kaplan, S., Bekhor, S., Shiftan, Y., 2012. Development and estimation of a semi-compensatory model with a flexible error structure. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 46 (2), 291-304.
  • Kaplan, S., Prato, C.G., 2012. Closing the gap between behavior and models in route choice: the role of spatiotemporal constraints and latent traits in choice set formation. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 15 (1), 9-24.
  • Kaplan, S., Prato, C.G., 2012. The application of the Random Regret Minimization model to drivers’ choice of crash avoidance maneuvers. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 15 (6), 699-709.
  • Wang, Y., Monzon, A., Di Ciommo F., Kaplan S., 2014. An integrated transport planning framework involving a combined utility-regret approach. Transportation Research Record, 2429, 59-66.
  • Fetene, G.M., Kaplan, S., Sebald, A.C, Prato, C.G., 2017. Myopic loss aversion in the response of electric vehicle owners to the scheduling and pricing of vehicle charging. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 50, 345-356.
  • Gitelman, V., Kaplan, S., Hakkert, S., 2024. The causation-prevention chain in infrastructure safety measures: a consideration of four types of policy lock-ins, Accident Analysis & Prevention 195, 107399

 

  • Public transport planning
  • Kaplan, S., Prato, C.G., 2012. Risk factors associated with bus accident severity in the United States: A generalized ordered logit model. Journal of Safety Research, 43 (3), 171-180.
  • Kaplan, S., Moraes Monteiro, M., Anderson, M.K., Nielsen, O.A., Medeiros Dos Santos, E., 2017. The role of information systems in non-routine transit use of university students: Evidence from Brazil and Denmark. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 95, 34-48.
  • Sarker, R., Kaplan, S., Mailer M., and Timmermans H.J.P. 2020. Applying affective event theory to explain transit users’ reactions to service disruptions. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 130, 593-605.
  • Da Silva, P.H., Kaplan, S., Taco, P. 2021. Service climate antecedents of transit passenger complaints and temporary opt-out: the case study of Brasília. Research in Transportation Business & Management, 41, 100671.
  • Kaplan, S., Tchetchik, A., Greenberg, D., Sapir, I., 2022. Transit use reduction following COVID-19: The effect of threat appraisal, proactive coping, and institutional trust. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 159, 338-356.

 

  • Active travel and sustainable development
  • Shiftan, Y., Kaplan, S., Hakkert, S., 2003. Scenario building as a tool for planning a sustainable transportation system. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 8 (5), 323-342.
  • Kaplan, S., Prato, C.G., 2013. Cyclist-motorist crash patterns in Denmark: A latent class clustering approach. Traffic Injury Prevention, 14, 725-733.
  • Sigurdardottir, S.B., Møller, M., Kaplan, S., Teasdale, T.W, 2013. Understanding adolescents’ intentions to commute by car or bicycle as adults. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 24, 1-9.
  • Wang, Y., Monzon, A., Di Ciommo F., Kaplan S., 2014. An integrated transport planning framework involving a combined utility-regret approach. Transportation Research Record, 2429, 59-66.
  • Kaplan, S., Luria, R.S Prato, C.G., 2019. The relation between cyclists’ perceptions of drivers, self-concepts, and their willingness to cycle in mixed traffic. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 62, pp. 45-57.
  • Kaplan, S., Wrzesinska, D. S, Prato, C.G., 2019. Psychosocial benefits and positive mood related to habitual bicycle use. Transportation Research part F: Traffic Psychology and behavior. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behavior 64, 342-352.
  • Ingvardson, J.B., Thorhauge, M., Kaplan, S., Nielsen, O.A., Raveau S., 2022. Incorporating psychological needs in commute mode choice modeling: A hybrid choice framework, Transportation, Transportation 49 (6), 1861-1889.

Sigal Kaplan is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Technion. She previously worked at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She served as an “Eleonore Treftz” (German University Excellence Program) guest professor in TU-Dresden, and as an AIANI-Fellow in the University of Innsbruck. She is also an external collaborator with the Transportation Investigation Center (TRANSyT) in the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Sigal research perspective is that in smart, data-intensive, and technologically advanced transportation systems, the main challenge remains a better representation of human choice processes, behavioral patterns, and technology-human interfaces. Her main research themes are the demand for innovative transport technologies, human-environment interactions, data-driven solutions to multi-modal, resilient and safe systems, bounded rationality in transport behavior, Public transport planning, active travel and sustainable development. Her main research interest is improving the relationship between human decision-making and its representation in transport planning and models.

Sigal has supervised 30 international graduate students from 15 countries in four continents (Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa). Her students continued to pursue their academic and professional careers in national and international companies. She serves on an editorial board of the Journals: Transportation, Transportation Research Part D, and Transportation Research Part F. Sigal serves as a Member of the Israeli NTHS Advisory Committee, Ayalon Highways, she contributed to the Public Transportation Strategic Plan, and she currently serves as an advisor for the Trans-Israel Planning Division. Previously she served as the Vice President of the Israel Geography Association (2018) and as a management board member board member of Transport Today and Tomorrow. Sigal participated in leading European projects at the national (e.g., IMPROSA, ACTUM, SUSTAIN) and international level (SELECT, TRANSTOOLS 3).

  • Developing a New Route Choice Set Generation method based on Ecological Rationality. Sigal Kaplan, Shlomo Bekhor

Project status: ongoing 2024

Open for students 

 

This study improves route choice set generation in terms of its behavioral realism, and computational complexity by looking at route choice set generation through the lens of ecological rationality. Ecological rationality postulates that people make decisions by drawing choice strategies from an adaptive toolbox containing logic, statistics, and heuristics. We postulate that a better understanding of the choice set simplification process before considering the available alternatives can generate behaviorally realistic routes with good predictive ability and tractability. The results will help to improve route choice in activity-based agent-based models and navigation apps. The study explores three directions: i) generating network availability heuristics by relating mental maps to spatial syntax, ii) understanding the use of network simplification heuristics for making inferences about travel time, iii) developing a neural network model for representing a two-stage choice set generation process, to predict simplified mental maps and extract the considered choice set.

ISF Research Grant.

 

 

 

  • Using gamification as a tool for promoting sustainable use of Mobility-as-a-Service.

Sigal Kaplan, Shlomo Bekhor

Project status: ongoing 2024 

Open for students

 

We explore effective gamification strategies to encourage voluntary travel behavior change towards active travel. The study aims to understand what are the most effective gamification elements, and whether we can identify an appealing reward system by player type. The study investigates the attractiveness and effectiveness of a simple scoring scheme versus elaborated reward schemes, including a quest’s storytelling, earning virtual coins, unlocking additional tasks (mini-games) to advance the game, and acquiring items necessary to win the game. The effectiveness and attractiveness of game elements are explored by two field experiments. Two game apps are developed and tested in the project. A tailor-made gamification app tracking travel behavior will test the reward scheme’s effectiveness on real-world travel behavior. The first app compares two games: Walking Challenge and Urban Influencer. The second app will compare a point-based game to a story-telling (quest) based game. The data will be analyzed using discrete choice models. The results will provide insights related to cost-effective strategies for encouraging active travel.

The Israel Center for Smart Transportation Grant 2024.

  • Ph.D. theses in progress
  • Dalit Harel 2021-2025 “Overcoming challenges and barriers for increasing urban resilience through coping with Covid-19” Sigal Kaplan, Gilad Rosen, HUJI.

 

  • MSc theses in progress
  • Maytal Aharon Sirote, 2024. Network availability generation in route choice models based on spatial cognitive maps. Sigal Kaplan, Shlomo Bekhor.
  • Omer Rake 2024 “Exploring gamification for changing travel behavior”. Sigal Kaplan, Amit Birenboim, HUJI.
  • Yodfat Ben-shalom 2024 “Using Big Data science and passenger complaints for debugging public transport”. Sigal Kaplan, Yair Grinberger, HUJI. Yodaft’s received a prize with her presentation in the ERSA Summer School on Digital Futures of Smart Cities to present her initial results.

 

  • Completed Ph.D. theses
  • Rumana Sarker Islam, 2020. “Application of behavioral theories to increase the resilience of transit systems with user-operator interaction”. Sigal Kaplan, Markus Mailer, University of Innsbruck. Rumana has won three prizes related to her thesis, the most recent one being the prestigious European Friedlich List Prize 2021. She is a research fellow at Monash University, Australia.
  • Guillermo Velasquez, 2019. “Behavioral Factors Underlying The Adoption Of Smart Mobility Solutions” Sigal Kaplan, Andrés Monzón de Cáceres, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid
  • Aliasghar Mehdizadeh Dastjerdi, 2019. “ATIS and Modal Shift: The Role and The Effectiveness of Information Provision and Perception” Sigal Kaplan, Francisco Camara-Pereira, Technical University of Denmark.
  • Jesper Bláfoss Ingvardson, 2017. “Attractiveness of public transport systems in a metropolitan setting.” Sigal Kaplan, Otto Anker Nielsen, DTU. Jesper is an Assistant Professor in DTU-Management.
  • Gebeyehu M. Fetene, 2016. “Consumer acceptance of intelligent charging of electric vehicles”. Sigal Kaplan, Carlo Prato, DTU. Gebeyehu works as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Addis Ababa University.
  • Kira H. Janstrup. 2016. “Statistical modeling of the frequency and severity of road accidents”. Sigal Kaplan, Carlo Prato, DTU. Kira works as an Assistant Professor at DTU-Management.

 

  • Completed MSc theses
  • Ana Artzev, 2022. “Investigating the characteristics of mobile navigation app for cyclists and electric scooters: cluster analysis approach” Sigal Kaplan
  • Nir Porat, 2022. “The impact of working from home on the emotional commitment of employees in the Israeli labor market” Sigal Kaplan
  • Nimrod Shaulski, 2022. “Factors Predicting Local Public Support and Opposition to Wind Farm Projects in Israel” Sigal Kaplan, Eran Feitelson.
  • Yogev Hillel 2021. The factors affecting the installation of advanced vehicle safety systems among socio-economically weak groups.” Sigal Kaplan.
  • Pedro Henrique Da Silva 2020. “Modelagem comportamental das reclamações dos passageiros do transporte público de Brasília perante a ocorrência de eventos disruptivos utilizando equações estruturais”. Sigal Kaplan, Pastor Willy Gonzales Taco, Universidade de Brasília (Brazil)
  • Dalit Harel, 2020. The role of urban co-working spaces for young people as an anchor for community resilience: Tel-Aviv case study.” Sigal Kaplan.
  • Hiba Bawardi 2019. “Factors influencing the residential preferences of young Palestinians in Israel.” Sigal Kaplan, Eran Feitelson, HUJI. Hiba is Project Manager at AVIV AMCG Urban Planning and Consulting.
  • Gil Dover 2021. “Environmental information, Health risk information and the willingness to pay for emission reductions: consumer preference analysis” Sigal Kaplan, Anat Techtchik, Orit Rotem Mindali, Bar Ilan University.
  • Ravid Luria, 2018 “From spatial partition to spatial sharing: The power relations and interactions between cyclists and drivers sharing the road”. Sigal Kaplan.
  • Tamara Kerzhner 2018. “Barriers to Mobility in A Divided City: Palestinian Women in Jerusalem”. Sigal Kaplan, Dr. Emily Silverman, HUJI.
  • Kostas Vavatsoulas, 2013. “Cyclists’ accidents: analyzing patterns and modeling severity” Sigal Kaplan, Carlo Prato, DTU. Kostas is currently the Business Development Team Leader in Consortis
  • Dmitrijs Popoks, 2013. “Assessing connectivity as an equity indicator in the public transport system of the Greater Copenhagen Area”, Sigal Kaplan, Carlo Prato, DTU.
  • Francesco Manca, 2014. “Bike-sharing use intentions and patterns: the Go-Bike case-study in Denmark” Sigal Kaplan, Carlo Prato, DTU. Francesco did his doctoral studies at Imperial College London and currently working as a senior consultant at Amey.
  • Peter Yi Huai, 2016. “Intentions to use an advanced bike-share system in China” Sigal Kaplan, Thomas Alexander Sick-Nielsen.
  • Alexandre Patrier, 2016. “Spatial Temporal Patterns of Pedestrian Accidents in Denmark” Carlo Prato (main supervisor), Sigal Kaplan, Thomas Kjær Rasmussen. Alexandre is currently working as an Infrastructure Engineer at Egis.
  • Dagmara Wrzesinska, 2016. “The role of existence, relatedness, and growth in adapting from a car-oriented to a cycling-oriented culture” Sigal Kaplan, Carlo Prato, DTU. Dagmara finished her doctoral studies at UC-Louvain and now works as a MaaS & Urban Mobility Specialist at Trafi, Belgium.
  • Shaun Bortei-Doku, 2016. “The role of information provision in perceived traffic safety”, Sigal Kaplan, Carlo Prato, DTU.

 

  • Visiting Students
  • Yang Wang Wang, 2014. An integrated transport planning framework involving a combined utility-regret approach. Collaboration with Andrés Monzón de Cáceres, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid.
  • Boshuai Qiao, 2023. Study on Demand forecast, capacity allocation, and operation Optimization of charging and replacing facilities in expressway service area, Collaboration with Jie He, Southeast University China.

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