John Attanucci
Research Associate MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics
- Cambridge MA
John Attanucci specializes in public transport management, fare policy, information technology, and short-term planning and operations.
MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics
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Biography
For 14 years he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Multisystems, Inc., a national public transportation planning and management firm, and he has extensive experience in transportation planning, transit management and operations, and transit information and decision support systems. In addition, he has managed numerous consulting projects including several large transit strategic planning projects, performance audits and management information system installations.
At MIT, he specializes in public transport management, fare policy, information technology, and short-term planning and operations, and manages several graduate student research projects sponsored by large public transport and private agencies in London, Chicago and Boston.
Areas of Expertise
Languages
- English
Media Appearances
New Access MIT program offers free public transit to MIT employees
MIT News online
2016-06-14
“The decision used to be whether to buy an annual pass and drive every day, or not,” notes John Attanucci, research associate and manager of the MIT Transit Research Program. “With this new approach, commuters will be able to drive one day then ride the T the next and save money in parking fees. By having options, we can begin changing the way people think about commuting.”
Research Papers
Mixed Methods Case Study of Bus Operator Work Preferences at the Chicago Transit Authority
Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research BoardAmelia Baum, Jackie Johnston, John Attanucci, Haris N. Koutsopoulos
2026-03-01
Transit agencies in the U.S. have faced significant challenges in recruiting and retaining bus operators, both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Bus driving often involves working long hours and performing physically demanding tasks involved with operating a large commercial vehicle, while constantly interacting with the public. The physically and mentally demanding nature of the job, coupled with increased personal safety concerns, further exacerbates retention issues. Additionally, a restrictive working environment and a lack of scheduling flexibility, coupled with competitive opportunities in ride-hailing and delivery services, contribute to high turnover rates.
An open-source program for spatial decomposition of bus transit networks
Environment and Planning B Urban Analytics and City ScienceNicholas Caros, Anson F Stewart, John Attanucci
2023-04-01
Comparing transit operations and performance over time is often challenging due to changes in route identifiers and service patterns. It is particularly difficult if the analysis period spans a major network design change where bus routes are realigned and renamed. This paper presents a new open-source software package that simplifies longitudinal transit performance analysis by decomposing a bus network into block-length segments that remain stable over time. The package then matches transit networks across time periods using segment geometry rather than potentially unstable route or stop identifiers. This package provides an efficient method for transit planners, advocacy groups, policy makers and urban scientists to analyze changes in transit performance over time without any prior knowledge of network design changes.
Ridership and Operations Visualization Engine: An Integrated Transit Performance and Passenger Journey Visualization Engine
Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research BoardNicholas Caros, Xiaotong Guo, Anson Stewart, John Attanucci
2022-06-01
Transit agencies collect a vast amount of data on vehicle positions, passenger loading and, increasingly, origin–destination flows. Collecting and synthesizing these data to support operations and planning are significant challenges and can be constrained by information silos within transit agencies. In this paper, an open-source bus performance and journey visualization dashboard, Ridership and Operations Visualization Engine, is presented, which integrates multiple disparate data sources into a flexible and iterative analysis tool. It differs from existing commercial products by including origin–destination flows along with standard performance metrics, and is designed to be adaptable and relevant to any transit agency.
