Fang, Bowen (Columbia University), Yang, Zixiao (Columbia University), Di, Xuan (Columbia University)

TraveLLM: Could You Plan My Public Transit Alternatives in Face of a Network Disruption?

Scheduled for presentation during the Video Session "On-Demand Video Presentations" (VP-VP), Saturday, November 22, 2025, 08:00−18:00, On-Demand Platform

2025 IEEE 28th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), November 18-21, 2025, Gold Coast, Australia

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 2, 2026

Abstract

Existing navigation systems often fail during urban disruptions, struggling to incorporate real-time events and complex user constraints, such as avoiding specific areas. We address this gap with TraveLLM, a system using Large Language Models (LLMs) for disruption-aware public transit routing. We leverage LLMs' reasoning capabilities to directly process multimodal user queries combining natural language requests (origin, destination, preferences, disruption info) with map data (e.g., subway, bus, bike-share). To evaluate this approach, we design challenging test scenarios reflecting real-world disruptions like weather events, emergencies, and dynamic service availability. We benchmark the performance of state-of-the-art LLMs, including GPT-4, Claude 3, and Gemini, on generating accurate travel plans. Our experiments demonstrate that LLMs, notably GPT-4, can effectively generate viable and context-aware navigation plans under these demanding conditions. These findings suggest a promising direction for using LLMs to build more flexible and intelligent navigation systems capable of handling dynamic disruptions and diverse user needs.