Influence of 3D printing on transport: a theory and experts judgment based conceptual model

Consumer 3D printing is on the rise and has the potential to significantly change the transport and logistics sector. Current literature on 3D printing and transport studies does not provide a systematic model of the impact of 3D printing on transport and related (policy relevant) areas, such as traffic safety, location decisions, accessibility and environmental effects. Based on a literature review and two rounds of expert consultation, we propose and refine a conceptual model as a way to approach this gap in the literature. The expert consultation yields that the conceptual model comprises the relevant and important elements for assessing the impact of 3D printing on transport and transport-related challenges. Location, needs and transport resistance are important: (a) city-level hubs are the most likely locations for 3D printers because they can coordinate material flows and gather expertise; (b) mass-individualisation and personification dictates the needs for 3D printers; (c) distribution networks will be organised more efficiently, less empty vehicles, but raw materials still need shipping. However, experts’ opinions diverged on the impact of 3D printing on transport volumes and environmental impacts.     

Environmental reform of West and Central Africa ports: the influence of colonial legacies

West and Central Africa ports have historically not paid much attention to environmental issues. In the past decade, however, environmental concerns are beginning to emerge with pockets of innovative responses to environmental risks as the ports undergo institutional and infrastructural reform – most notably, with concessions to multinational terminal operators. In this article, environmental management processes in the ports of Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Douala (Cameroon), Lagos (Nigeria) and Tema (Ghana) are compared. Three aspects of ecological modernization theory: changing role of the state, growing involvement of economic actors and economic incentives, and shifting roles for civil society organizations are focused on to analyse the dynamics of their environmental reform. Findings suggest that globalization processes are a common major trigger in enhancing a gradual but still fragmented and limited process of environmental reform in West and Central Africa ports, but paces and pathways of the reform are influenced by national politico-administrative arrangements rooted in colonial legacies. Consequently, understanding and advancing environmental reform processes of West and Central Africa ports requires following trends and significant developments but also taking into account national historical trajectories.     

Travel mode choice and travel satisfaction: bridging the gap between decision utility and experienced utility

Over the past decades research on travel mode choice has evolved from work that is informed by utility theory, examining the effects of objective determinants, to studies incorporating more subjective variables such as habits and attitudes. Recently, the way people perceive their travel has been analyzed with transportation-oriented scales of subjective well-being, and particularly the satisfaction with travel scale. However, studies analyzing the link between travel mode choice (i.e., decision utility) and travel satisfaction (i.e., experienced utility) are limited. In this paper we will focus on the relation between mode choice and travel satisfaction for leisure trips (with travel-related attitudes and the built environment as explanatory variables) of study participants in urban and suburban neighborhoods in the city of Ghent, Belgium. It is shown that the built environment and travel-related attitudes—both important explanatory variables of travel mode choice—and mode choice itself affect travel satisfaction. Public transit users perceive their travel most negatively, while active travel results in the highest levels of travel satisfaction. Surprisingly, suburban dwellers perceive their travel more positively than urban dwellers, for all travel modes.     

Electric vehicles revisited: a review of factors that affect adoption

Electric vehicles (EVs) were recently reintroduced to the global car market. These are an improvement over their predecessors in performance and electric driving range. Although the uptake of EVs has been notable in a short period of time, most government goals for adoption have not been met. This paper reviews a growing body of peer-reviewed literature assessing factors affecting EV adoption. Several important gaps in knowledge are identified. First, there is mixed evidence of the effectiveness of government incentives in encouraging EV uptake and particularly little knowledge in regards to issues of timing and magnitude. The literature shows that public charging infrastructure is an important factor associated with EV uptake, though the direction of causality is yet unclear. Public charging infrastructure can ease range anxiety, particularly for battery electric vehicles, but there is little guidance as to the way in which government should best go about ensuring the provision of infrastructure. Lastly, the nascent EV market means that studies primarily rely on surveys about hypothetical situations. There is strong evidence that actual purchases are much lower than consumers’ stated preferences. Improving understanding of this “attitude–action” gap is important to better informing studies of EV uptake over time.     

The market potential for plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles in Flanders: A choice-based conjoint analysis

This paper considers the market potential for battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Flanders, Belgium. Making use of a large-scale survey conducted in 2011 and applying a choice-based conjoint experiment, it is predicted that by 2020, battery electric vehicles could have a market share of about 5% of new vehicles, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could have a share of around 7%. By 2030, these figures could increase to 15% and 29%. The speed of up-take of electric vehicles, however, is sensitive to purchase costs.     

Introducing advanced electronic driver support systems: An exploration of market and technological uncertainties

R&D in the field of driver support systems is increasingly paid attention to. These systems can contribute significantly to public traffic goals. However, there is much uncertainty about future technology developments, market introduction, and impacts on driver and traffic behaviour. An international Delphi study collecting expert opinions on these issues is partly described here. The Delphi study was organized in three rounds. Opinions of 50 experts from the USA, Japan and Europe were collected. The paper is limited to market introduction, and technological and driver-behavioural barriers. The main conclusion is that future developments are less obvious than often assumed.     

Towards an ‘inland terminal centred’ value proposition

The two main value propositions in international container transport are ‘port-to-port’ services and ‘door-to-door’ services. In port-to-port services, buyers ‘just’ purchase maritime transport from a shipping line. Door-to-door services comprise the total transport chain and include land-based transport. Carriers as well as forwarders offer these door-to-door services. In this paper we provide a qualitative assessment of an emerging third value proposition that is centred around inland terminals (ILTs). Such a value proposition consists of transport up to the ILT, and may have advantages over port-to-port services, such as better leverage of scale economies, better repositioning of empty containers and better alignment with the business model of forwarders. This paper conceptually and empirically explores such a value proposition.     

Optimization of bow shape for a non ballast water ship

In this research,a commercial CFD code ＂Fluent＂ was applied to optimization of bulbous bow shape for a non ballast water ships（NBS）.The ship was developed at the Laboratory of the authors in Osaka Prefecture University,Japan.At first,accuracy of the CFD code was validated by comparing the CFD results with experimental results at towing tank of Osaka Prefecture University.In the optimizing process,the resistances acting on ships in calm water and in regular head waves were defined as the object function.Following features of bulbous bow shapes were considered as design parameters： volume of bulbous bow,height of its volume center,angle of bow bottom,and length of bulbous bow.When referring to the computed results given by the CFD like resistance,pressure and wave pattern made by ships in calm water and in waves,an optimal bow shape for ships was discovered by comparing the results in the series of bow shapes.In the computation on waves,the ship is in fully captured condition because shorter waves,λ/Lpp 0.6,are assumed.     

Modelling Externalities using Dynamic Traffic Assignment Models: A Review

Recently, there has been a growing interest in externalities in our society, mainly in the context of climate and air quality, which are of importance when policy decisions are made. For the assessment of externalities in transport, often the output of static traffic assignment models is used in combination with so-called effect models. Due to the rapidly increasing possibilities of using dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) models for large-scale transportation networks and the application of traffic measures, already several models have been developed to assess the externalities using DTA models more precisely. Different research projects have shown that there is a proven relation between the traffic dynamics and externalities, such as emissions of pollutants and traffic safety. This means that the assessment of external effects can be improved by using temporal information about flow, speed and density, which is the output of DTA models. In this paper, the modelling of traffic safety, emissions and noise in conjunction with DTA models is reviewed based on an extensive literature survey. This review shows that there are still gaps in knowledge in assessing traffic safety, much research is available concerning emissions, and although little research has been conducted concerning the assessment of noise using DTA models, the methods available can be used to assess the effects. Most research so far has focused on the use of microscopic models, while mesoscopic or macroscopic models may have a high potential for improving the assessment of these effects for larger networks.     

Quantifying the transport-related impacts of parental school choice in England

School travel is becoming increasingly car-based and this is leading to many environmental and health implications for children all over the world. One of several reasons for this is that journey to school distances have increased over time. This is a trend that has been reinforced in some countries by the adoption of so-called ‘school choice’ policies, whereby parents can apply on behalf of their child(ren) to attend any school, and not only the school they live closest to. This paper examines the traffic and environmental impacts of the school choice policy in England. It achieves this by analysing School Census data from 2009 from the Department for Education. Multinomial logit modelling and mixed multinomial logit modelling are used to illustrate the current travel behaviour of English children in their journey to school and examine how there can be a significant reduction in vehicle miles travelled, CO₂ emissions and fuel consumption if the ‘school choice’ policy is removed. The model shows that when school choice was replaced by a policy where each child only travelled to their ‘nearest school’ several changes occurred in English school travel. Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) by motorised transport fell by 1 % for car travel and 10 % for bus travel per day. The reduction in vehicle miles travelled could lead to less congestion on the roads during the morning rush hour and less cars driving near school gates. Mode choice changed in the modelled scenario. Car use fell from 32 to 22 %. Bus use fell from 12 to 7 %, whilst NMT saw a rise of 17 %. With more children travelling to school by walking or cycling the current epidemic of childhood obesity could also be reduced through active travel.