Scheduled paratransit transport systems

In this paper we focus on ways to provide individualized services to people with mobility challenges using existing modes of public transport. We study the design of an interesting case, in which a bus operating in a public transport route may diverge from its nominal path to pick-up passengers with limited mobility and drop them off at their destination. We have modeled the design problem by a mixed integer-linear program, and we developed an exact Branch and Price approach to solve it to optimality. The proposed approach includes a labeling algorithm in which we introduced appropriate dominance rules, which do not compromise optimality. We have compared the efficiency of our approach with that of related algorithms from the literature. Furthermore, we have used the proposed approach to study key aspects of the system design problem, such as the effect of various constraints on the service level, and the tuning of the system’s parameters to address different transport environments.     

城市快速公交专用道道路线形设计分析

以汽车的动力特性和通过特性为理论依据,根据目前快速公交专用车辆大都采用低地板大型铰接底地板车辆的现状,结合其容量比一般普通公交大得多的特点,对快速公交专用道的道路线形设计进行分析,提出设计方法。     

基于CAN总线的船舶自动气象站的研究

为提高船舶气象站的可集成性和维护性,本文构建基于CAN总线的船舶自动气象站。文章对系统总体结构、软硬件设计、传感器选型作了具体描述,以期对实现通用、可扩展的船舶自动气象站具有借鉴作用。     

Understanding the impacts of a combination of service improvement strategies on bus running time and passenger’s perception

Transit agencies implement many strategies in order to provide an attractive transportation service. This article aims to evaluate the impacts of implementing a combination of strategies, designed to improve the bus transit service, on running time and passenger satisfaction. These strategies include using smart card fare collection, introducing limited-stop bus service, implementing reserved bus lanes, using articulated buses, and implementing transit signal priority (TSP). This study uses stop-level data collected from the Société de transport de Montréal (STM)’s automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) systems, in Montréal, Canada. The combination of these strategies has lead to a 10.5% decline in running time along the limited stop service compared to the regular service. The regular route running time has increased by 1% on average compared to the initial time period. The study also shows that riders are generally satisfied with the service improvements. They tend to overestimate the savings associated with the implementation of this combination of strategies by 3.5-6.0 min and by 2.5-4.1 min for both the regular route and the limited stop service, respectively. This study helps transit planners and policy makers to better understand the effects of implementing a combination of strategies to improve running time and passenger’s perception of these changes in service.     

Analytical and simulation approaches to understand combined effects of transit signal priority and road-space priority measures

Transit signal priority (TSP) may be combined with road-space priority (RSP) measures to increase its effectiveness. Previous studies have investigated the combination of TSP and RSP measures, such as TSP with dedicated bus lanes (DBLs) and TSP with queue jump lanes (QJLs). However, in these studies, combined effects are usually not compared with separate effects of each measure. In addition, there is no comprehensive study dedicated to understanding combined effects of TSP and RSP measures. It remains unclear whether combining TSP and RSP measures creates an additive effect where the combined effect of TSP and RSP measures is equal to the sum of their separate effects. The existence of such an additive effect would suggest considerable benefits from combining TSP and RSP measures. This paper explores combined effects of TSP and RSP measures, including TSP with DBLs and TSP with QJLs. Analytical results based on time-space diagrams indicate that at an intersection level, the combined effect on bus delay savings is smaller than the additive effect if there is no nearside bus stop and the traffic condition in the base case is under-saturated or near-saturated. With a near-side bus stop, the combined effect on bus delay savings at an intersection level can be better than the additive effect (or over-additive effect), depending on dwell time, distance from the bus stop to the stop line, traffic demand, and cycle length. In addition, analytical results suggest that at an arterial level, the combined effect on bus delay savings can be the over-additive effect with suitable signal offsets. These results are confirmed by a micro-simulation case study. Combined effects on arterial and side-street traffic delays are also discussed.     

Driving cycle prediction model based on bus route features

Bus fuel economy is deeply influenced by the driving cycles, which vary for different route conditions. Buses optimized for a standard driving cycle are not necessarily suitable for actual driving conditions, and, therefore, it is critical to predict the driving cycles based on the route conditions. To conveniently predict representative driving cycles of special bus routes, this paper proposed a prediction model based on bus route features, which supports bus optimization. The relations between 27 inter-station characteristics and bus fuel economy were analyzed. According to the analysis, five inter-station route characteristics were abstracted to represent the bus route features, and four inter-station driving characteristics were abstracted to represent the driving cycle features between bus stations. Inter-station driving characteristic equations were established based on the multiple linear regression, reflecting the linear relationships between the five inter-station route characteristics and the four inter-station driving characteristics. Using kinematic segment classification, a basic driving cycle database was established, including 4704 different transmission matrices. Based on the inter-station driving characteristic equations and the basic driving cycle database, the driving cycle prediction model was developed, generating drive cycles by the iterative Markov chain for the assigned bus lines. The model was finally validated by more than 2 years of acquired data. The experimental results show that the predicted driving cycle is consistent with the historical average velocity profile, and the prediction similarity is 78.69%. The proposed model can be an effective way for the driving cycle prediction of bus routes.     

基于LightGBM算法的公交行程时间预测

在城市公交网络运行中,公交车的站点间行程时间会受到道路和环境条件的影响. 本文对公交车运行过程中的车辆速度特征、道路特征及天气特征等进行了分析.建立了基于特征的 LightGBM (Light Gradient Boosting Machine)公交行程时间预测模型,通过调整 LightGBM算法中的相关参数,以分配各个影响特征和因素的权重大小.然后利用天津市某条公交线路 24天的公交车 GPS数据对模型进行了训练和验证,并与基于历史平均值和卡尔曼滤波的行程时间预测模型进行对比.比较结果表明,LightGBM模型在 MAE (Mean Absolute Error)和 MAPE (Mean Absolute Percentage Error)这两个指标上均大幅度优于其他两个模型,说明 LightGBM模型在公交车行程时间预测上具有很好的稳定性和应用前景.     

多线路公交停靠站停靠组织研究

针对多线路公交停靠站公交车辆进出站排队现象严重,站点延误大,运行效率低等问题,分析了不同停靠组织形式和不同主辅站设置类型对公交运营效率的影响。运用Vissim对3泊位直线式和港湾式公交停靠站点的顺序停靠组织和不同组合的划线停靠组织分别进行仿真研究,从公交延误、车辆总延误、行程时间以及通过车辆数4个方面对不同停靠组织形式在不同条件下的交通运行效果进行评价,得到不同形式公交停靠站的最佳停靠组织形式;在此基础上,对不同组合型式的6泊位主辅站停靠组织进行仿真评价,得到了最优的主辅站设置类型。仿真结果表明:对3泊位公交停靠站采用直线式停靠站,总延误平均降低38.4%,采用港湾式公交停靠站,总延误平均降低40.6%;对6泊位主辅站采用双港串联设置,总延误降低22.8%。      

基于模糊控制的公交信号优先控制方法研究

面对城市公共交通优先发展中遇到的交叉口公交信号优先控制问题,以降低交叉口人均延误和公交车延误为目标,提出了基于3层模糊控制器的交叉口公交信号优先主动控制模型,通过改进针对车流交通需求强度、相位放行顺序、绿灯时间优化的3层模糊推理控制器,最终输出相位绿灯放行时间延长和相序提前2种控制策略.仿真算例分析表明,与普通固定配时控制相比,公交车平均延误和人均延误分别降低27%,14.2%;与公交信号优先感应控制相比,公交车平均延误和人均延误分别降低13.7%,21.7%,说明了所提方法的有效性.      

基于出行成本分析的公交系统乘车均衡模型与制度安排

公交优先是缓解城市拥堵的重要方法.按照Wardrop 用户均衡原则,通过考虑乘客候车时间成本、乘车时间成本、换乘时间成本和车内拥挤成本,对包含两条线路（一条为一票直达线路,一条为支线干线线路）的公交系统建立出行选择均衡模型,并基于乘客个人出行成本的分析,得到了固定需求下用户均衡时两条线路选择人数和系统最优时两线路的最优发车频率.还在弹性需求情形下比较了系统最优和公交公司垄断情形两种不同政策所导致的均衡出行人数、公交票价、发车频率、公司利润和社会净收益等指标.算例结果验证了理论分析,得到了与传统经济学理论研究一致的结果,为相关管理政策的制定提供了理论科学依据.