Freight transportation demand: A survey of recent econometric studies

This paper surveys econometric studies of freight transportation demand which have been published since the mid-1970s. It describes the variables, data sources, and estimation procedures utilized by the studies. In addition, it summarizes their statistical results. The studies included in this survey typically accounted for freight rates and service characteristics (e.g., transit time and reliability). Data sources often varied across the studies.Based on the data they utilized, the surveyed studies are classified as either aggregate or disaggregate. The data in the aggregate studies consist of information on total flows by modes at the regional or national level, while the data in the disaggregate studies pertain to individual shipments. The earlier aggregate studies estimated linear logit models. It has been pointed out that when they are estimated on aggregate data these models are subject to certain shortcomings. To avoid these shortcomings, more recent aggregate studies have estimated flexible forms such as translog functions. The disaggregate studies surveyed in this paper used either logit or probit models.Statistical results often varied with the commodities analyzed, making it somewhat difficult to generalize the findings of the different studies. One finding common to several studies is that freight rates have a significant impact on shipment decisions. This paper discusses certain theoretical and empirical limitations of the surveyed studies. It also offers suggestions for future research in freight transport demand. Freight demand models can be used to examine various effects of the recent deregulation in freight transportation.     

Biases in response over time in a seven-day travel diary

Data from multi-day travel or activity diaries might be biased if recording inaccuracies and tendencies for respondents to skip certain types of trips or activities increases (or decreases) from day-to-day over the diary period. One objective of the research reported here is to test for such temporal biases in a seven-day travel diary. A second objective is to calculate correction factors which can be applied to the data in the case that biases are found. The analyses were conducted using regression and analysis-of-variance techniques. The variables investigated included total trips per day, total travel time per day, and trips per day by various modes (such as walking, car driver and car passenger). Results showed that most biases per capita statistics are due to increases over time in the percentage of respondents reporting no travel at all for an entire day. However, even after accounting for this bias by measuring statistics in terms of per mobile person, there remains a decrease over time of about 3.5 percent per day in the reporting of walking trips. This appears to be the main factor in the overall bias of about one percent per day in total trips per mobile person per day. No significant differences were found among population segments in terms of the levels of their biases.     

Novel Application of High Voltage Electrostatics Corona Ions Discharge Related to Treatment,Sanitization and Disinfection of Biological Matter Such HIV-AIDS Infected Blood

A novel high-voltage electrostatics corona ions pre-charger apparatus and methods were invented earlier by Hamade related to treat various types of receptors such as but not limited to electret polymer, air filters, particulates, catalytic converters, bioaerosols, fluids, pollutants, virus, and bacteria. It is shown in this article that his work led to the construction of various prototype chargers, customized differently for each type of a receptor. In particular his recent development of biological matter corona charger (BMCC) prototype related to expose, treat, sanitize, and disinfect bioaerosols, virus, bacteria, and contaminated fluids and blood such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) - acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is shown in this paper that each previous investigated research contemplated ionized corona charger attendant to a charging process and the corona, imparts and provides enough treatment charges to receptors including the aforementioned receptors. Researchers often relied on adopting prior corona charger methods that do not necessarily and effectively solve the problems associated with them or utilize them for optimum treatment effect. The inventor exhaustively studied the characteristics of corona discharge, and has found that the greatest difficulty in corona discharge has to do with the maintenance of the corona, particularly when the receptor is being charged. This is due to variations in either the dielectric value between the corona electrode and a grounded base or flaws in the design as the receptor passes there between suppressing or hindering corona and its effectiveness. What is needed in-the-art is an apparatus and method to achieve maximum possible charge on a receptor, a charge order of magnitude greater than that used by other investigators. This often requires customizing each apparatus and method and does not just merely use one type of a charger to satisfy all applications. To satisfy this need, we build a low cost prototype BMCC that generates self-sustaining charge corona, eliminates many previous design flaws such as spark over, and make it ready for testing remotely or with apparatus.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Not</Emphasis> driving alone? American commuting in the twenty-first century

This paper investigates recent commuting trends by American workers. Unlike most studies of commuting that rely on data from the American Community Survey this study utilizes the American Time Use Survey to detail the complex commuting patterns of modern-day workers. Changes in the price of gasoline in recent years suggest that the incidence of “driving alone” should be on the decline. Indeed, results show that the sensitivity of modal commuting with respect to changes in gasoline prices appears to be relatively large. We estimate the gasoline-price elasticity of driving alone to be 0.057 and the gasoline-price elasticity of carpooling to be 0.502. Additional factors also affect commuting, including socio-economic characteristics and social desires. However, it is changes in gasoline prices that appear to account for nearly all of the recent variation in the mode chosen for commuting.     

The revenue and environmental benefits of new off-peak commuter rail service: the case of the Pascack Valley line in New Jersey

Although researchers have long argued in favor of off-peak transit service, studies that have empirically estimated its benefits regarding revenue generation, trip diversions, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission are rare. This study provides important evidence about the benefits of off-peak commuter rail service by focusing on the Pascack Valley line in New Jersey, where off-peak service was introduced in October 2007. The research involved two focus groups and an onboard survey of passengers. Benefits were estimated regarding additional revenue generation and reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and GHG emission. The research shows that the new off-peak service potentially reduced VMT by more than 12 million annually due to diversions from other modes. Although diversions from other modes resulted in a substantial reduction in GHG emissions, due to the additional diesel fuel used by the new trains, the net GHG savings were in the range of 28–49 %. The research further shows that both peak period and off-peak riders benefited from the new off-peak service. Evidence is found about an increase in new transit riders and a modest increase peak period usage because of the off-peak service.     

Integration of vehicle routing and resource allocation in a dynamic logistics network

A shipper plans daily hub-to-hub transports within a hub and spoke network. Since a limited number of swap containers is available for transportation, two problems arise. 1. Swap containers have to be routed as pickup and delivery requests in multi-hub tours. 2. Day-by-day routing may lead to an imbalance of swap containers requiring a dynamic allocation. Neglecting interdependencies between vehicle routing and resource allocation seems inferior. An integration of the two problems overcomes this deficiency. We formulate mathematical models and propose integration approaches. The advantages of these approaches are discussed based on a computational study.     

安全性的关键可扩展且灵活的ESC系统

为所有的轿车、轻型商用车和高性能车型，以及使用各种动力的车辆，包括从传统的内燃发动机车到纯电动车，提供全系列产品，是TRW的EBC460ESC产品目前面临的挑战。     

Exploring temporal fluctuations of daily cycling demand on Dutch cycle paths: the influence of weather on cycling

In the pursuit of sustainable mobility policy makers are giving more attention to cycling. The potential of cycling is shown in countries like the Netherlands, where cycling covers 25 % of all person trips. However, the effect of policy interventions on cycling demand is difficult to measure, not least caused by difficulties to control for changing context variables like weather conditions. According to several authors weather has a strong influence on cycling demand, but quantitative studies about the relationship are scarce. We therefore further explored this relationship, with the aim of contributing to the development of a generic demand model with which trend and coincidence in bicycle flows might be unraveled. The study is based on time-series between 1987 and 2003 of daily bicycle flows, collected on 16 cycle paths near two cities in the Netherlands. The regression analyses show that, not surprisingly, recreational demand is much more sensitive to weather than utilitarian demand. Most daily fluctuations (80 %) are described by weather conditions, and no less than 70 % of the remaining variation is locally constrained. The regression can therefore mainly be improved by incorporating path specific, as yet unknown, variables. We used the regression results to calculate weather-inclusive bicycle flow predictions and found indications of a downward trend in recreational demand. This trend has been off-set in the observed flows by more favorable weather conditions over the years considered.     

Reducing car dependence in the heart of Europe: lessons from Germany,Austria, and Switzerland

Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, and Zurich – the largest cities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland – have significantly reduced the car share of trips over the past 25 years in spite of high motorisation rates. The key to their success has been a coordinated package of mutually reinforcing transport and land-use policies that have made car use slower, less convenient, and more costly, while increasing the safety, convenience, and feasibility of walking, cycling, and public transport. The mix of policies implemented in each city has been somewhat different. The German cities have done far more to promote cycling, while Zurich and Vienna offer more public transport service per capita at lower fares. All five of the cities have implemented roughly the same policies to promote walking, foster compact mixed-use development, and discourage car use. Of the car-restrictive policies, parking management has been by far the most important. The five case study cities demonstrate that it is possible to reduce car dependence even in affluent societies with high levels of car ownership and high expectations for quality of travel.