Dr. Fangni Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Data and Systems Engineering at The University of Hong Kong. She holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Beihang University and a Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on transportation economics, analytics, and optimization, with an emphasis on automated, shared, and multimodal mobility systems. Her work addresses critical challenges in planning, operations, and management to advance sustainable and intelligent transportation systems. Her research has been funded by competitive grants from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Transportation
84
Scopus Publications
2640
Scholar Citations
29
Scholar h-index
44
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Air-ground collaborative routing problem for parcel deliveries under soft time windows Rongfei Du, Wenbo Sun, Fangni Zhang, Jinping Guan Transport Economics and Management, 2026 Rapid growth in e-commerce is putting unprecedented pressure on urban logistics to reduce costs, emissions, and delivery times. Leveraging complementary strengths of ground vehicles and drones, this study investigates an Electric Vehicle and Drone Routing Problem with soft Time Windows (EVRPD-TW) for parcel deliveries. Specifically, the system consists of multiple Electric Unmanned Ground Vehicles (E-UGVs), each capable of deploying a drone at one node to serve a customer and retrieving it at another. Therefore, customers may be served by either E-UGVs or drones, depending on energy-endurance constraints. The objective is to minimize the total cost, including the travel cost, vehicle activation fees, and penalties for early or late deliveries beyond time windows. To solve the proposed problem, we design a two-level Hybrid Genetic Algorithm with Dynamic Iteration (HGA-DI). The HGA-DI adopts a permutation chromosome that encodes the sequence of customer visits for each E-UGV, and explores the space of ground routes by classical genetic operators. Moreover, the HGA-DI is integrated with a dynamic iteration method that optimizes drone launches for every candidate route, guaranteeing solution feasibility. We evaluate the proposed problem in a real-world scenario in Shenzhen, China. The HGA-DI can achieve the optimal solutions on small instances over thirty times faster than Gurobi. Compared to vehicle-only delivery, the E-UGVs and drones collaborative system can better meet the time windows and reduce the total cost by 1.2%. Sensitivity analyses reveal that the total cost is most sensitive to the relative per-kilometer travel cost of E-UGVs and drones, followed by time-window penalty rates and drone endurance. These findings demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of applying air-ground collaborations and offer practical insights for implementing the proposed system in urban logistics.
Parking management and operation: A bibliometric analysis and comprehensive review Zhuoye Zhang, Yihan Gao, Fangni Zhang, Wei Liu Transport Economics and Management, 2026 This paper presents a bibliometric analysis and comprehensive review of parking-related issues, driven by the rise in private car ownership, limited urban land resources, and the advent of advanced technologies and innovative business models. By synthesizing state-of-the-art research on parking, the study aims to identify future development trends and potential research directions. The review begins with a bibliometric analysis that examines the characteristics of existing literature, including journals, publications, authors, and keywords. This analysis provides a foundation for understanding the evolution of the parking research field and its scholarly landscape. Subsequently, a critical review of existing studies is conducted from both empirical and theoretical perspectives, covering various aspects such as parking choice behaviors, operational strategies, regulatory frameworks, and emerging technologies. For each research topic, we discuss current progress, identify research gaps, and suggest opportunities for further investigation. The findings of this study serve as a reference for the future development of efficient and sustainable parking systems.
Unveiling the impacts of on-demand transit service on ridership and its growth Yili Tang, Zaima Tasneem, Fangni Zhang Multimodal Transportation, 2026 On-demand transit has demonstrated promising potential to tackle challenges related to extended wait times, connectivity gaps, and operational inefficiencies, particularly in low-density urban environments. From the passengers’ perspectives, the service has the potential to improve accessibility with reduced travel times and transfers, whereas transit agencies can benefit from the opportunity of improvement in ridership and operations. As such, this study proposes a framework to analyze the impacts of on-demand transit on ridership and its trend leveraging a combination of transit activities, land use and operation data. The case study is conducted with a multi-year pilot program of on-demand transit service operated in the City of Regina, Canada considering nighttime services and low-demand transit stops. The impacts of on-demand transit on ridership at stop level as well as the cross-year growth are assessed with difference-in-difference methods for both the overall transit network and different land use zones including residential, commercial and public service areas. Density and distance of various amenities within the transit stops are also considered such as food, school and health amenities. Results provide evidence of positive relationships between ridership and on-demand transit service on the entire transit network, while the benefits vary in different land use zones. Results also show increasing impacts of the service on ridership across years which contribute to the ridership growth. The developed method and findings can provide planning and policy references for both the existing service evaluation and long-term development for on-demand transit.
Special Issue: “Applications of Big Data in Public Transportation Systems” Ryan Cheuk Pong Wong, Jintao Ke, Fangni Zhang Applied Sciences Switzerland, 2026 This Editorial aims to summarize the contents of the five scientific papers included in the Special Issue “Applications of Big Data in Public Transportation Systems”.
An Exact Algorithm to Solve Vehicle Routing Problem with Drones for Delivery and Surveillance Tasks After Disasters Wenbo Sun, Lingxiao Wu, Fangni Zhang Transportation Science, 2026 Disasters cause severe economic and human losses, and delays in rescue efforts can lead to more deaths due to damaged infrastructure. To enhance post-disaster response efficiency, this study proposes a collaborative truck-and-drone system that leverages the high capacity of trucks and the speed and flexibility of drones to overcome road accessibility challenges. Although truck-drone collaborations have been studied in commercial logistics, their application in disaster relief remains understudied, particularly for simultaneous delivery and surveillance tasks, which are critical for saving lives and assessing damage. Unlike cost- or time-focused commercial logistics, humanitarian operations require prioritizing urgency, where tasks with higher mortality risks should be prioritized. This study addresses the truck-and-drone routing problem with flexible collaboration strategies for delivery and surveillance tasks to minimize the priority and penalty costs in the disaster response. We model the problem as a mixed integer linear programming model and develop an exact method based on the branch-and-bound algorithm and the Benders decomposition approach to solve the problem. Several valid inequalities are derived based on problem properties to improve the computational efficiency. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art solver Gurobi in terms of objective function value, optimality gap, and computational time. The proposed flexible truck-and-drone collaboration can significantly enhance rescue efficiency in disaster response. Funding: The work described in this paper was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72371216 and 72301230] and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, China [Grants 17205124, 25223223, and T32-707-22]. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2024.0987 .
AUCTION MECHANISM AND NETWORK DESIGN FOR FREIGHT-AS-A-SERVICE (FAAS) Proceedings of the 29th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2025 Smart Mobility, 2025
ON THE NETWORK EQUILIBRIUM OF AN INTEGRATED AIR-GROUND URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM Proceedings of the 28th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2024 Technology and Service Innovation in Transportation, 2024
TRAJECTORY CONTROL OF CONNECTED AND AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES IN A MIXED TRAFFIC CORRIDOR Proceedings of the 26th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2022, 2022
SERVICE NETWORK DESIGN FOR BUS-INTEGRATED FREIGHT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS UNDER UNCERTAINTY Proceedings of the 26th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2022, 2022
MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT DEMAND FORECASTING VIA FEDERATED LEARNING Proceedings of the 26th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2022, 2022
AIRLINE'S FLEET SIZING AND PRICING STRATEGIES FOR PASSENGER AND CARGO SERVICES UNDER DEMAND UNCERTAINTY Proceedings of the 26th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2022, 2022
URBAN CO-MODALITY WITH ELASTIC PASSENGER AND FREIGHT DEMANDS Proceedings of the 26th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2022, 2022
SPATIO-TEMPORAL RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN BUS-INTEGRATED FREIGHT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS Proceedings of the 25th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2021 Sustainable Mobility, 2021
A SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF EFFECTS OF AIRPORT EXPANSION CONSIDERING AIRLINE AND PASSENGER RESPONSES Proceedings of the 25th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2021 Sustainable Mobility, 2021
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF RIDE-POOLING SERVICES WITH ENDOGENOUS POOLING SIZES Proceedings of the 25th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2021 Sustainable Mobility, 2021
A GAME THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF METRO-INTEGRATED CITY LOGISTICS SYSTEMS Proceedings of the 25th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2021 Sustainable Mobility, 2021
Effects of high-speed rail megalopolis on regional economic growth Proceedings of the 24th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2019 Transport and Smart Cities, 2019
On the parking sharing problem in a linear monocentric city Transportation Systems in the Connected Era Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2018, 2018
Managing the multimodal transportation system with roadway space distribution and responsive bus services Proceedings of the 20th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2015 Urban Transport Analytics, 2015
Examining the effectiveness of variable speed limit from a long-term equilibrium perspective with empirical data Proceedings of the 19th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2014 Transportation and Infrastructure, 2014
The Downs-Thomson Paradox with monopoly transit operator and heterogeneous commuters Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2013 Travel Behaviour and Society, 2013
Improving travel efficiency by non-rigid expirable parking reservation Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2013 Travel Behaviour and Society, 2013
The Downs-Thomson Paradox under transit dispatching and pricing schemes Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies Hksts 2012 Transportation and Logistics Management, 2012
RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Global causal-aware impact modeling for traffic networks with graph-integrated transfer entropy J Ye, C Li, F Zhang Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 189, 105706 , 2026 2026
Service network design for a metro-based crowdsourced urban delivery system under demand and supply uncertainty S Shao, J Lin, F Zhang Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 188, 105695 , 2026 2026
Unveiling the impacts of on-demand transit service on ridership and its growth Y Tang, Z Tasneem, F Zhang Multimodal Transportation, 100314 , 2026 2026
Route optimisation of truck-and-drone systems for multi-type rescue tasks: a heuristic approach W Sun, F Zhang, L Wu, YH Kuo Transportmetrica A: Transport Science, 1-32 , 2026 2026
Air-ground collaborative routing problem for parcel deliveries under soft time windows R Du, W Sun, F Zhang, J Guan Transport Economics and Management , 2026 2026
Order allocation and vehicle routing with collaborative pickup and delivery by crowdsourced and contracted couriers in a two-echelon urban logistics system D Li, W Sun, F Zhang Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 207, 104598 , 2026 2026 Citations: 2
Robust optimization for truck-and-drone collaboration with travel time uncertainties W Sun, L Wu, F Zhang Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 204, 103378 , 2026 2026 Citations: 6
Parking-and-Charging-as-a-Service: Online admission and allocation policies for an integrated parking and charging reservation system J Lin, F Zhang, Y Yin Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 204, 103375 , 2026 2026
An Exact Algorithm to Solve Vehicle Routing Problem with Drones for Delivery and Surveillance Tasks After Disasters W Sun, L Wu, F Zhang Transportation Science 60 (1) , 2026 2026 Citations: 3
Parking management and operation: A bibliometric analysis and comprehensive review Z Zhang, Y Gao, F Zhang, W Liu Transport Economics and Management , 2026 2026 Citations: 1
The emergence of rideshare buddy-pooling behavior: Dynamic user choices and mobility platform operation decisions Z Zhang, J Lin, Z Gong, F Zhang Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 182, 105427 , 2026 2026
To park or to share your autonomous vehicle? Z Zhang, F Zhang, W Liu Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 200, 103305 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
Resource allocation for an air-rail-integrated co-modality platform considering both demand and supply uncertainties X Zhu, W Liu, F Zhang Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 105294 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
Transforming Urban Freight Transportation: Service Network Design for Synergy with Passenger Transportation in Transit Systems J Lin, F Zhang Computers & Industrial Engineering, 111405 , 2025 2025 Citations: 3
Towards cyber-physical internet: A systematic review, fundamental model and future perspectives H Wu, M Li, C Yu, Z Ouyang, K Lai, Z Zhao, S Pan, S Wang, RY Zhong, ... Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 197, 104051 , 2025 2025 Citations: 29
Interdependency in transportation system resilience: Review and discussion S Li, Y Zhou, F Zhang Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 140, 104618 , 2025 2025 Citations: 19
Predictive and prescriptive analytics for robust airport gate assignment planning in airside operations under uncertainty C Zhang, Z Jin, KKH Ng, TQ Tang, F Zhang, W Liu Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 195, 103963 , 2025 2025 Citations: 8
Dynamic truck-and-drone routing problem with multiple tasks after disasters W Sun, F Zhang 104th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting (05/01/2025-09/01 … , 2025 2025
ORDER ALLOCATION AND VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEMS WITH CROWDSOURCED AND PROFESSIONAL COURIERS D Li, W Sun, F Zhang 104th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting (05/01/2025-09/01 … , 2025 2025
Economic analysis of parking, vehicle charging and vehicle-to-grid services in the era of electric vehicles Z Zhang, F Zhang, W Liu Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 191, 103133 , 2025 2025 Citations: 13
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
Air transport and economic growth: a review of the impact mechanism and causal relationships F Zhang, DJ Graham Transport Reviews 40 (4), 506-528 , 2020 2020 Citations: 358
Roles of accessibility, connectivity and spatial interdependence in realizing the economic impact of high-speed rail: Evidence from China J Jiao, J Wang, F Zhang, F Jin, W Liu Transport Policy 91, 1-15 , 2020 2020 Citations: 218
Quantifying the substitutability and complementarity between high-speed rail and air transport F Zhang, DJ Graham, MSC Wong Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 118, 191-215 , 2018 2018 Citations: 162
A novel permit scheme for managing parking competition and bottleneck congestion W Liu, H Yang, Y Yin, F Zhang Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 44, 265-281 , 2014 2014 Citations: 117
The effects of high-speed rail development on regional equity in China F Zhang, Z Yang, J Jiao, W Liu, W Wu Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 141, 180-202 , 2020 2020 Citations: 96
The Downs–Thomson Paradox with responsive transit service F Zhang, H Yang, W Liu Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 70, 244-263 , 2014 2014 Citations: 87
Impact of entry restriction policies on international air transport connectivity during COVID-19 pandemic S Li, Y Zhou, T Kundu, F Zhang Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 152, 102411 , 2021 2021 Citations: 86
Parking sharing problem with spatially distributed parking supplies F Zhang, W Liu, X Wang, H Yang Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 117, 102676 , 2020 2020 Citations: 83
Modelling the traffic in a mixed network with autonomous-driving expressways and non-autonomous local streets W Wu, F Zhang, W Liu, G Lodewijks Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 134, 101855 , 2020 2020 Citations: 79
Modeling and managing ridesharing in a multi-modal network with an aggregate traffic representation: A doubly dynamical approach B Wei, M Saberi, F Zhang, W Liu, ST Waller Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 117, 102670 , 2020 2020 Citations: 74
A spatiotemporal analysis of the robustness of high-speed rail network in China J Jiao, F Zhang, J Liu Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 89, 102584 , 2020 2020 Citations: 69
On the joint impact of high-speed rail and megalopolis policy on regional economic growth in China Z Yang, C Li, J Jiao, W Liu, F Zhang Transport Policy 99, 20-30 , 2020 2020 Citations: 69
Interactive travel choices and traffic forecast in a doubly dynamical system with user inertia and information provision W Liu, X Li, F Zhang, H Yang Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 85, 711-731 , 2017 2017 Citations: 66
A game theoretical analysis of metro-integrated city logistics systems M Ma, F Zhang, W Liu, V Dixit Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 156, 14-27 , 2022 2022 Citations: 65
The Downs–Thomson paradox with imperfect mode substitutes and alternative transit administration regimes F Zhang, R Lindsey, H Yang Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 86, 104-127 , 2016 2016 Citations: 63
Modeling and managing morning commute with both household and individual travels W Liu, F Zhang, H Yang Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 103, 227-247 , 2017 2017 Citations: 58
Commuting behavior and congestion satisfaction: Evidence from Beijing, China W Wu, MX Wang, F Zhang Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 67, 553-564 , 2019 2019 Citations: 55
A systematic analysis of multimodal transport systems with road space distribution and responsive bus service F Zhang, N Zheng, H Yang, N Geroliminis Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies 96, 208-230 , 2018 2018 Citations: 52
An economic analysis of integrating bike sharing service with metro systems F Zhang, W Liu Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 99, 103008 , 2021 2021 Citations: 50
A risk-averse distributionally robust optimisation approach for drone-supported relief facility location problem Z Jin, KKH Ng, C Zhang, W Liu, F Zhang, G Xu Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 186, 103538 , 2024 2024 Citations: 47
