Evaluating determinants of attractiveness and their cause-effect relationships for container ports in Taiwan: users’ perspectives

The attractiveness of ports is usually a pre-requisite and necessary condition for ports to achieve competitiveness, as well as the springboard to explore the competitive advantages of ports. To determine whether a port is competitive, it is necessary to explore whether it boasts certain factors that make the port attractive to users. The main purpose of this article is to apply the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) technique to evaluate key determinants of attractiveness and their cause/effect relationships for container ports in Taiwan. The empirical results showed that: (1) Top six determinates of attractiveness for container ports are ‘ample cargo sources,’ ‘favorable port charges,’ ‘dense ship network and routes,’ ‘low transshipment costs,’ ‘efficient wharf operations,’ and ‘adequate wharfs and back-line land,’ respectively. (2) Among the above six determinants of attractiveness, ‘ample cargo sources’ is the cause determinant. Three determinants of port attractiveness, ‘favorable port charges,’ ‘dense ship network and routes,’ ‘low transshipment costs,’ which are the effect determinants. They are affected by the determinants of attractiveness of ‘ample cargo sources’. In addition, this study discusses the above findings and expects to provide the study results to Taiwan’s port authorities for reference.     

Highway voting system: Embracing a possible paradigm shift in traffic data acquisition

The integration of internet and mobile phones has opened the door to a new wave of utilizing private vehicles as probes not only for performance evaluation but for traffic control as well, gradually replacing the role of traffic surveillance systems as the dominant source of traffic data. To prepare for such a paradigm shift, one needs to overcome some key institutional barriers, in particular, the privacy issue. A Highway Voting System (HVS) is proposed to address this issue in which drivers provide link- and/or path-based vehicle data to the traffic management system in the form of “votes” in order to receive favorable service from traffic control. The proposed HVS offers a platform that links data from individual vehicles directly with traffic control. In the system, traffic control responds to voting vehicles in a way similar to the current system responding to prioritized vehicles and providing the requested services accordingly. We show in the paper that the proposed “voting” system can effectively resolve the privacy issue which often hampers traffic engineers from getting detailed data from drivers. Strategies to entice drivers into “voting” so as to increase the market penetration level under all traffic conditions are discussed. Though the focus of the paper is on addressing the institutional issues associated with data acquisition from individual vehicles, other research topics associated with the proposed system are identified. Two examples are given to demonstrate the impact of the proposed system on algorithm development and traffic control.     

Traffic modelling in system boundary expansion of road pavement life cycle assessment

This paper uses a case study of a UK inter-urban road, to explore the impact of extending the system boundary of road pavement life cycle assessment (LCA) to include increased traffic emissions due to delays during maintenance. Some previous studies have attempted this but have been limited to hypothetical scenarios or simplified traffic modelling, with no validation or sensitivity analysis. In this study, micro-simulation modelling of traffic was used to estimate emissions caused by delays at road works, for several traffic management options. The emissions were compared to those created by the maintenance operation, estimated using an LCA model. In this case study, the extra traffic emissions caused by delays at road works are relatively small, compared to those from the maintenance process, except for hydrocarbon emissions. However, they are generally close to, or above, the materiality threshold recommended in PAS2050 for estimating carbon footprints, and reach 5–10% when traffic flow levels are increased (hypothetically) or when traffic management is imposed outside times of lowest traffic flow. It is recommended, therefore, that emissions due to traffic disruption at road works should be included within the system boundary of road pavement LCA and carbon footprint studies and should be considered in developing guidelines for environmental product declarations of road pavement maintenance products and services.     

Nonlinear pricing in linear cities with elastic demands

Nonlinear road pricing charges each traveler based on his/her trip’s corresponding particular attribute level. In order to help authorities in designing road pricing systems at a strategic level, this paper attempts to address two fundamental questions: (i) what is the value of pricing’s nonlinearity for mitigating traffic congestion? (ii) if a nonlinear toll function is implemented, should it be convex, concave or other shape? Specifically, we consider distance-based pricing in linear cities. For linear monocentric cities with heterogeneous travelers, we show that the system optimal distance-based pricing indeed exhibits nonlinearity. It is proved that: (i) the cost-based system optimal toll function is monotonically increasing and concave with respect to the traveled distance; (ii) the time-based system optimal toll function always exists and is unique. If the initial proportion of each traveler group is invariant along a corridor and the demand function is of exponential type, then the time-based system optimal toll function enables the travelers, living further away from a city center, to face a lower toll level per unit distance. For a linear polycentric city, we demonstrate: (i) there always exists the system optimal differentiated (in terms of city centers) toll functions; (ii) it is highly possible that the system optimal non-differentiated toll function does not exist. Hence, we further propose an optimal toll design model, prove the Lipschitz continuity of its objective and adopt a global-optimization algorithm to solve it.     

从一起船舶主机拉缸故障谈柴油机润滑油的选用

通过某LPG船一起主机拉缸案例,阐述船舶柴油机润滑油合理选用和管理的重要性,讨论选用润滑油应根据船舶柴油机的型号、燃油品质等具体情况,充分考虑润滑油的黏度等级和碱度。介绍船用柴油机润滑油国内外主要生产商及其相应的产品牌号。     

Formal scientific research of traffic collision data utilizing GIS

This paper explores the tenuous link between speeding behavior and accident causation, one that has not been well established in the international literature to date. Taking advantage of established engineering conventions and formulae, we were able to set up an a priori hypothesis suitable for testing. Utilizing this formal scientific method (which GIS researchers have been criticised for not using) we establish a statistical link for this relationship. Our methodology can be used to support all police intervention strategies, including the controversial photo radar systems. The results from our research have been entered into a GIS in order to create a map for spatial display. This map illustrates the relative probability or risk of collision occurrence resulting from speeding at all intersections and interchanges within the scope of the study. It is suggested that this methodology could easily be maintained with periodic updates of data, thus creating a dynamic model from which to monitor traffic safety within the city. Furthermore, this model can be utilized to study specific strategies, allowing for the scrutiny of before, during and after effects. The study area is the entire city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and includes all traffic collisions occurring during the year of 1994.     

北京市商业区可达性研究

为建立商业区可达性计算方法,并为未来商业区的选址、设计提供参考,选取北京市较为典型的5个商业区为研究对象,对商业区的特点进行了分析。从理论上探讨了计算商业区可达性包含的4个因素：土地利用、交通系统、时间因素以及个体因素。借鉴潜能模型,提出了可达性理论模型,并给出具体的可达性计算公式。以北京市5个商业区中18个大中型商场为例,计算可达性以及各区域到达这些商业区的可达性分布。     

公交通行能力约束的智能调度优化模型

公交通行能力是解决城市交通拥堵问题、促进城市公共交通系统高效运行的要素之一。介绍了公交通行能力的计算要素,并针对目前我国城市由于盲目调度造成的公交系统运营效率、服务水平下降的问题,提出将公交通行能力作为约束条件对公交调度进行优化。鉴于公交企业制订调度方案时需兼顾公交服务水平和企业效益,将智能调度的目标确定为候车时间满意度、候车空间满意度、车内舒适满意度和企业满意度加权平均值最大,并给出了相应的计算方法。最后讨论了利用遗传算法对模型进行求解的过程。     

基于决策偏好的ETC系统评价指标体系及评价方法

为更好地反映不同决策者对电子收费系统（ETC）评价的偏好,从政府、运营者和付费者三个主要利益主体的角度对ETC系统的评价指标及评价方法进行了研究。根据评价指标体系筛选原则,确定了基于决策偏好的ETC系统评价指标体系;通过综合分析成本-效益法（CBA）和数据包络分析法（DEA）的各自特点,依据基于决策偏好所确定的评价指标,同时引入当前一些比较好的算法来优化CBA,DEA和AHP法,建立数学模型,从而确立了基于决策偏好的综合评价方法。该方法较为全面地对ETC系统社会经济影响进行评价,所建立的指标体系和方法能更直观、更可靠地反映出决策者的决策偏好。     

预应力锚索抗滑桩结构在处治滑坡中的应用

文章结合鹰阳关-莲塘二级公路K54+800处滑坡采用预应力锚索结构施工实践,介绍了预应力锚索抗滑桩结构在滑坡处治中的注意事项及使用效果.