Yardsticks on the road: Regulatory contracts and cost efficiency in the Norwegian bus industry

In this paper a cost frontier model is estimated for an eleven-year panel of Norwegian bus companies (1136 company-year observations) using the methodology proposed by Battese and Coelli (1995). The main objective of the paper is to investigate to what extent different type of regulatory contracts affect company performance. The panel model proposed by Battese and Coelli (1995) allow for year/company specific efficiency measures to be estimated. Thus, unobservable network or other time invariant characteristic of the operating environment can be controlled for by analyzing the dynamics of measured productivity across time for firms regulated under different types of contracts, rather than relying solely on variations across companies during one time period. Therefore, the paper offers methodological and data advantages over previous work on this subject. The main and robust result of the paper is that the adoption of a more high-powered scheme based on a yardstick type of regulation significantly reduces operating costs. The results contained in this paper thus confirms theoretical predictions regarding the incentive properties of high powered incentive schemes and in particular the dynamic benefits of yardstick competition.     

A model for multi-class road network recovery scheduling of regional road networks

Transportation - In this paper, an optimisation model for recovery planning of road networks is presented in which both social and economic resilience is aimed to be achieved. The model is...     

Performance indicators for the road sector

Seeing the trend for public accountability of road administrations and noting the many reform efforts undertaken in transport sectors around the world, the OECD established a Scientific Expert Group on Performance Indicators for the Road Sector in 1996 to provide its member countries a framework for assessing road administrations' performance. The results of the Expert Group's work is presented in this paper.Fifteen indispensable, forty primary, and thirty-five secondary indicators are proposed to portray the road sector from different perspectives. They are designed to be changed in response to human needs and technological development and supplemented by country specific indicators. In keeping with this approach and in support of one of the maxims of the Expert Group that 'useful performance indicators are those which are used', an application in the form of a Field Test is now in progress by an OECD task force.The Performance Indicators proposed are grounded in a mental model adopted by the Expert Group. This model is management by results model, and is useful as a theoretical tool in the many highly fluid contexts in which restructuring is moving forward. In the model, the products and services are judged by standards or criteria; outcomes – derivatives of products and services through user interface – are judged relative to objectives and user satisfaction. The achievement of objectives, however, is not proposed as the only or even primary basis of evaluation. The situation is more abstract and complex. Therefore, the various uses of Performance Indicators – including the opportunities to assist road administrations in becoming learning organizations – are given much emphasis in the paper. The views and conclusions in the paper are those of the author and should not be attributed to the World Bank or its affiliated organizations.     

Transit-network design methodology for actual-size road networks

The main purpose of this study is to design a transit network of routes for handling actual-size road networks. This transit-network design problem is known to be complex and cumbersome. Thus, a heuristic methodology is proposed, taking into account the major concerns of transit authorities such as budget constraints, level-of-service standards and the attractiveness of the transit routes. In addition, this approach considers other important aspects of the problem including categorization of stops, multiclass of transit vehicles, hierarchy planning, system capacity (which has been largely ignored in past studies) and the integration between route-design and frequency-setting analyses. The process developed starts with the construction of a set of potential stops using a clustering concept. Then, by the use of Newton gravity theory and a special shortest-path procedure, a set of candidate routes is formed, categorized by hierarchy (mass, feeder, local routes). In the last step of the process a metaheuristic search engine is launched over the candidate routes, incorporating budgetary constraints, until a good solution is found. The algorithm was tested on the actual-size transit network of the city of Winnipeg; the results show that under the same conditions (budget and constraints) the proposed set of routes resulted in a reduction of 14% of total travel time compared to the existing transit network. In addition the methodology developed is compared favorably with other studies using the transit network of Mandl benchmark. The generality of the methodology was tested on the recent real dataset (pertaining to the year 2010) of the larger city of Chicago, in which a more efficient and optimized scheme was proposed for the existing rail system.     

Valuing road noise for residents in Hong Kong

This study estimates the willingness-to-pay value for a one dB(A) change over a range of initial noise levels for a sample population in Hong Kong. It establishes a protocol for estimating the willingness-to-pay values by first establishing an annoyance–dB relationship. The protocol takes into account the characteristics that the probability of being annoyed at a particular level varied with the initial objective noise level, and the annoyance–dB relationship varied for a range of initial annoyance level. The study shows that household income level and initial annoyance levels exert considerable influences on the individual’s willingness-to-pay values. However, age and educational level were found not to exert any significant influence on individual’s willingness-to-pay values.     

Anti-seismic reinforcement strategy for an urban road network

This paper provides a novel practical method for analyzing an anti-seismic reinforcement (ASR) problem involving hundreds of transportation facilities on an urban road network subject to multiple earthquake risks. The relevant properties of the present method are: (i) it evaluates the performance of an ASR strategy, taking into account traffic congestion and travelers’ trip-making or route-choice behavior; (ii) it estimates the realistic damage patterns on the road network and their occurrence probabilities on the basis of recent advances in structural and earthquake engineering; (iii) it has clear, sensible logic and includes neither a black-box nor a “lottery” in the necessary procedures. We examine the computational efficiency and whether the present method is reasonable by applying it to a test scenario of the Kobe urban and suburban area.     

公路隧道监控系统的设计和发展

文章简要地总结了隧道监控系统的设计方法和发展方向,对隧道监控设计模式和隧道监控的智能化发展进行了分析,提出了智能化控制的关键技术和存在的问题.     

GPS-based speed collection method for road traffic noise mapping

One of the most difficult and expensive tasks in making noise pollution maps is the collection and processing of the data needed to create acoustic models. In the case of road traffic noise maps, obtaining speed data for light and heavy vehicles a problem that has usually been avoided by using a road’s speed limit or by making assumptions based on experience from similar road types. Here global positioning systems-based techniques are applied for acquiring vehicle speed data and adapted to fulfill the requirements of noise prediction models.     

Approximation algorithms for the bid construction problem in combinatorial auctions for the procurement of freight transportation contracts

Trucking companies (carriers) are increasingly facing combinatorial auctions conducted by shippers seeking contracts for their transportation needs. The bid valuation and construction problem for carriers facing these combinatorial auctions is very difficult and involves the computation of a number of NP-hard sub problems. In this paper we examine computationally tractable approximation methods for estimating these values and constructing bids. The benefit of our approximation method is that it provides a way for carriers to discover their true costs and construct optimal or near optimal bids by solving a single NP-hard problem. This represents a significant improvement in computational efficiency. We examine our method both analytically and empirically using a simulation based analysis.     

A contribution to environmentally friendly winter road maintenance: Optimizing road de-icing

This article deals with the specific road phenomenon in winter, when driving conditions suddenly become significantly worse, although the global weather conditions have not significantly altered. Recognizing and adjusting to such fast changing conditions has been one of the most difficult and demanding tasks for the winter road maintenance services. Nevertheless, it is known that some events can be predicted. The road temperature pattern is studied formally in terms of the road temperature function, thus enabling predictions about the temperature range on different road sections. It is claimed that the road temperature pattern is predictable when only a very small number of carefully chosen measuring spots are taken into account. Furthermore, the methodology of defining temperature measuring locations is described.     

The New Zealand experience in restructuring road administration New Zealand road reform

Reform in the public sector in New Zealand saw the abolition of the Ministry of Works and Development in 1988, with the commercial activities being transferred into a Government owned company. Further reform saw the client function of roads transferred initially into the Ministry of Transport and then into an independent Crown agency known as Transit New Zealand. Transit New Zealand is led by an Authority of six members, appointed by the Government, and it administers the strategic (national) road network (10,500 kilometres).In 1996 a separate funding body, Transfund New Zealand, was established to distribute funds to Transit New Zealand and local authorities. Transfund New Zealand is funded through a share of the petrol excise, all vehicle registration and licensing fees and all road user charges (an axle-weight/distance charge levied on diesel vehicles, especially trucks). These revenues are paid into a dedicated National Roads Fund, which allows a measure of transparency in funding the road system. The reforms in New Zealand have resulted in large efficiency gains, with no measurable lowering in level of service.The road agency of the future is discussed, along with possible changes in road management.     

对城市道路隧道消防系统设施配置的探讨

针对隧道发生火灾的起因和特点,介绍国外消防部门对隧道消防的不同看法,以及近期欧洲一些消防公司在隧道内进行的A类泡沫液灭火试验和研究;分析上海几条越江隧道内的消防设施,提出对城市道路隧道内消防设施选择的看法。     

道路运输企业降低油耗的可行措施

随着国际原油价格的上扬,国内成品油价格也呈现出高位运行,交通运输业首当其冲,运输成本大幅上扬.为此,我们分别对浙江省不同地区的10家交通专业运输企业进行了重点调查.发现:企业油料成本普遍占经营总成本的20%～30%,较上年提高了5%～10%.     

公铁竞合全对策

依照运输经济学理论,铁路在400公里以上具有成本的绝对优势,而在400公里以内的公路经济里程内,铁路部门也不放弃,不断修建的快速客运专线和城际列车蚕食着道路客运的传统市场。面对铁路客运在中长线以及短线上具有的速度、成本以及安全性优势,人们不禁要问．道路客运,你拿什么跟高速铁路客运竞争？     

Empirical speed models for cycling in the Oslo road network

Transportation - Knowing the speed at which a cyclist travels is important in route and mode choice modelling. Empirical evidence suggests that it varies significantly in accordance...     

On the distribution of urban road space for multimodal congested networks

Transport systems in real cities are complex with many modes of transport sharing and competing for limited road space. This work intends to understand how space distributions for modes and interactions among modes affect network traffic performance. While the connection between performance of transport systems and general land allocation is the subject of extensive research, space allocation for interacting modes of transport is an open research question. Quantifying the impact of road space distribution on the performance of a congested multimodal transport system with a dynamic aggregated model remains a challenge. In this paper, a multimodal macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD) is developed to represent the traffic dynamics of a multimodal transport system. Optimization is performed with the objective of minimizing the total passenger hours traveled (PHT) to serve the total demand by redistributing road space among modes. Pricing strategies are also investigated to provide a higher demand shift to more efficient modes. We find by an application to a bi-modal two-region city that (i) the proposed model captures the operational characteristics of each mode, and (ii) optimal dynamic space distribution strategies can be developed. In practice, the approach can serve as a physical dynamic model to inform space distribution strategies for policy makers with different goals of mobility.     

Short-term work team scheduling models for effective road repair and management

Abstract

In this study, we focus on the development of work team routing/scheduling models incorporating stochastic travel and repair times. Robust and expected optimization concepts, combined with a time–space network technique, are used to develop the models. We perform numerical tests based on operational data for Taoyuan County in Taiwan. The test results show the good performance of the models.     

Deploying public charging stations for electric vehicles on urban road networks

This paper explores how to optimally locate public charging stations for electric vehicles on a road network, considering drivers’ spontaneous adjustments and interactions of travel and recharging decisions. The proposed approach captures the interdependency of different trips conducted by the same driver by examining the complete tour of the driver. Given the limited driving range and recharging needs of battery electric vehicles, drivers of electric vehicles are assumed to simultaneously determine tour paths and recharging plans to minimize their travel and recharging time while guaranteeing not running out of charge before completing their tours. Moreover, different initial states of charge of batteries and risk-taking attitudes of drivers toward the uncertainty of energy consumption are considered. The resulting multi-class network equilibrium flow pattern is described by a mathematical program, which is solved by an iterative procedure. Based on the proposed equilibrium framework, the charging station location problem is then formulated as a bi-level mathematical program and solved by a genetic-algorithm-based procedure. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the models and provide insights on public charging infrastructure deployment and behaviors of electric vehicles.