Interactive Operations Research

Tools Vs Dashboards

Tools are commonly mistaken for dashboards despite their structural differences. Dashboards provide a visual data interface that presents a consolidated and appealing view of key information and metrics for easy comprehension. While users can interact with data filters in a dashboard, they cannot manipulate the data itself since the dashboard, by nature, is a data visualizer and not a data manipulator. In contrast, a tool is a data visualizer and a data manipulator, allowing mobility modelers and full-stack developers to embed optimization and prediction models on the front/back end to perform user-defined processes.

Use Case of Mobility Growth Plans

A mobility growth (master) plan is a comprehensive and long-term plan developed by transportation authorities or consultancies within the relevant industry to address and manage the growth of transportation systems within a region. The outcome of the plan is a detailed report that summarizes the main findings, recommendations, and strategies for the region's transportation development. These reports are invaluable resources for guiding transportation investments and policy decisions over the long term. A drawback is that they are typically static documents that are updated infrequently (e.g., every 4-5 years), disallowing planners to adapt to changing circumstances or explore alternative scenarios.

Addressing this limitation, the proposed tools from interactive-OR are designed to complement and, in some cases, replace traditional growth plans. The tools permit planners to conduct a wide range of "what-if" scenarios in the design process and respond to evolving transportation challenges and opportunities in a more agile manner than traditional mobility growth plans alone. In addition to growth plans, the tools can be used in operational day-to-day decision-making, such as micro-mobility bike-charging logistics or drone delivery routing.