Effectiveness of travel time reliability indicators in the light of the assessment of dynamic managed lane strategy

ABSTRACT

The aim of traffic management is to ensure a high quality of service for a maximum number of users by decreasing congestion and increasing safety. Uncertainty of travel times decreases the quality of service and leads end users to modify their plans regardless of the average travel time. Indicators describing travel time reliability are being developed and should be used in the future both for the optimization and for the assessment of active traffic management operations. This article discusses the efficiency of certain reliability indicators in an ex-post assessment of a traffic management strategy. Ex-post assessment is based on an observational before–after study. As some factors other than the studied management strategy may intervene between the two periods, and as most reliability indicators require knowledge of the full travel time distribution and not only its average, a methodology is developed for the identification of the impact of these exogenous factors on the whole distribution. Many reliability indicators are split into different parts allowing the identification of the part due to the management strategy impact. The methodology is tested numerically on a managed lane operation consisting of Hard Shoulder Running (HSR) at rush hour on a section of a French motorway. The variation of some reliability indicators appears misleading, whereas the splitting of the indicators increases our understanding of the strategy and highlights its impact. The paper gives the reliability assessment of the HSR field test and discusses different reliability indicators to identify their potential performances and shortcomings.     

Robust traffic assignment model: Formulation,solution algorithms and empirical application

ABSTRACT

The deterministic traffic assignment problem based on Wardrop's first criterion of traffic network utilization has been widely studied in the literature. However, the assumption of deterministic travel times in these models is restrictive, given the large degree of uncertainty prevalent in urban transportation networks. In this context, this paper proposes a robust traffic assignment model that generalizes Wardrop's principle of traffic network equilibrium to networks with stochastic and correlated link travel times and incorporates the aversion of commuters to unreliable routes.

The user response to travel time uncertainty is modeled using the robust cost (RC) measure (defined as a weighted combination of the mean and standard deviation of path travel time) and the corresponding robust user equilibrium (UE) conditions are defined. The robust traffic assignment problem (RTAP) is subsequently formulated as a Variational Inequality problem. To solve the RTAP, a Gradient Projection algorithm is proposed, which involves solving a series of minimum RC path sub-problems that are theoretically and practically harder than deterministic shortest path problems. In addition, an origin-based heuristic is proposed to enhance computational performance on large networks. Numerical experiments examine the computational performance and convergence characteristics of the exact algorithm and establish the accuracy and efficiency of the origin-based heuristic on various real-world networks. Finally, the proposed RTA model is applied to the Chennai road network using empirical data, and its benefits as a normative benchmark are quantified through comparisons against the standard UE and System Optimum (SO) models.     

小型直喷式柴油机燃用生物质能燃料的性能研究

文章主要研究了生物质能混合燃料在柴油机上的应用,通过在一台小型直喷式柴油机上进行不同组分柴油-生物柴油-乙醇混合燃料的燃烧、油耗和排放性能对比试验,分析了乙醇含量的改变对混合燃料的发动机燃烧压力、滞燃期、放热规律、比油耗和排放的影响．     

城市灯控平面交叉口的自行车交通设计研究

城市灯控平面交叉口混合交通流安全和效率的核心研究对象应该是自行车与机动车交通流间的相互影响。本丈在大量的理论分析和实践的基础上,探讨时空分离法的自行车交通设计的基本原则和交通空间设计方法,即自行车右转弯专用车道设计、左转自行车二次过街以及自行车与行人过街一体化设计,并进行了南京市太平北路与珠江路交叉口的应用实例分析。本文的城市灯控平面交叉口自行车的交通设计方法可为解决城市灯控平面交叉口混合交通问题提供借鉴。     

基于FDS公路隧道火灾仿真研究

针对公路隧道突发火灾事故问题,采用模拟软件对隧道发生的火灾进行研究。分析火灾条件下公路隧道内被困人群的疏散行为特点,给出隧道内人员疏散的安全依据,按照隧道火灾条件下通风风速不同时火灾烟气蔓延情况,确定火灾可利用疏散时间(ASET),通过分析人员疏散特点计算出所需的疏散时间(RSET),通过对比得出:通风风速至少为3m/s时才能保证人员的安全疏散。     

单交叉口公交信号优先控制策略建模研究

为研究公交信号优先策略对交叉口公交车及社会车辆的影响,建立公交信号优先控制模型及延误模型,以采取公交优先方式后交叉口所有车辆的人总延误减小为控制目标,引入效益指数PI,以信号交叉口优先相位获得的效益与非优先相位损失效益的差值来衡量整体效益,使得每一次采取的公交优先策略都能提高信号交叉口的整体效益。结果表明:在信号交叉口采取信号优先控制策略后,交叉口车辆的人总延误显著降低。本研究成果对其他信号优先控制方式模型、交叉口群公交优先协调控制等具有一定的参考价值和理论意义。     

基于时间约束的铁路空车调配系统可靠性分析

为弥补现有铁路空车调配系统缺乏空车调配可靠性研究的缺陷,在传统空车调配优化模型的基础上,本文提出了一种新的基于时间约束的空车调配可靠性分析方法。通过深入分析铁路空车调配过程,建立效益最大化目标函数,生成约束条件,以规定时间内的实际到达空车数与需求空车数之比计算出各需求站的空车调配可靠性,再利用各需求站可靠性均值求解空车调配系统的可靠性。最后,使用LINGO软件进行算例分析,论证了该方法的可行性和有效性。     

沉船油舱抽油加热过程的热力学分析

本文对沉船倾斜油舱抽油过程进行了数值模拟研究,在相同的蒸汽加热功率,不同的加热位置条件下,分析了油舱内重质燃油和原油的加热过程,分别取得了在不同时刻油舱内重质燃油和原油的温度分布情况,以及油温随加热时间的变化规律。     

考虑多人相互影响的舰船通道最短路径规划

将时间维引入既定舰船通道网络,把考虑多人相互影响的动态最优路径规划问题转化为时间依赖网络中的最优路径搜索问题。首先,论文的算法为所有人员随机生成走行路径,为了预测网络中的弧(路段)的走行时间,按人员速度从慢到快的顺序依次计算并记录人员到达路径中的各路段首节点的时刻,先记录到的人员将成为后记录到的人员的动态障碍。然后,将遗传算法与网络中弧的走行时间预测方法相结合,借助遗传算法的个体多样性天然地解决了人员走行任意性问题,因而获得了全局动态最优路径算法,并仿真计算了两人以及三人的最短时间路径;经与不考虑人员间相互影响时获得的最优路径相比较,论文的算法获得了人员遇到障碍时(或跟行或绕行)的最优走行路径。最后,借助时间依赖网络中的最优路径充要条件定理,说明了算法的有效性。     

球扁钢肋骨三角形加热仿真研究

针对球扁钢肋骨三角形加热矫正纵向弯曲变形,利用ANSYS软件和APDL语言编写仿真程序,实现了热-结构耦合场的数值模拟,得到了加热过程中温度场和结构场的求解结果。对于不同的加热速度与气流输入量,计算了肋骨表面最高温度和高度方向的变形量,利用MATLAB曲面拟合,得到了最高温度和变形量关于加热速度和气流流量的函数。并对这两个参数进行了优化,得到了满足温度约束下变形量最大的参数组合。研究内容和结果对球扁钢肋骨三角形加热的更深入研究和现场施工提供了一定的参考和指导。