The determinants of long distance travel in Great Britain

This study analyses of the determinants of long distance travel in Great Britain using data from the 1995-2006 National Travel Surveys (NTSs). The main objective is to determine the effects of socio-economic, demographic and geographic factors on long distance travel. The estimated models express the distance travelled for long distance journeys as a function of income, gender, age, employment status, household characteristics, area of residence, size of municipality, type of residence and length of time living in the area. A time trend is also included to capture common changes in long distance travel over time not included in the explanatory variables. Separate models are estimated for total travel, travel by each of four modes (car, rail, coach and air), travel by five purposes (business, commuting, leisure, holiday and visiting friends and relatives (VFRs)) and two journey lengths (<150 miles and 150+ miles one way), as well as the 35 mode-purpose-distance combinations.The results show that long distance travel is strongly related to income: air is most income-elastic, followed by rail, car and finally coach. This is the case for most journey purposes and distance bands. Notable is the substantial difference in income elasticities for rail for business/commuting as opposed to holiday/leisure/VFR. In addition, the income elasticity for coach travel is very low, and zero for the majority of purpose-distance bands, suggesting coach travel to be an inferior mode in comparison to car, rail and air. Regarding journey distance, we find that longer distance journeys are more income elastic than shorter journeys.For total long distance travel, the study indicates that women travel less than men, the elderly less than younger people, the employed and students more than others, those in one adult households more than those in larger households and those in households with children less than those without. Long distance travel is also lowest for individuals living in London and greatest for those in the South West, and increases as the size of the municipality declines.     

Vulnerability analysis for large-scale and congested road networks with demand uncertainty

To assess the vulnerability of congested road networks, the commonly used full network scan approach is to evaluate all possible scenarios of link closure using a form of traffic assignment. This approach can be computationally burdensome and may not be viable for identifying the most critical links in large-scale networks. In this study, an “impact area” vulnerability analysis approach is proposed to evaluate the consequences of a link closure within its impact area instead of the whole network. The proposed approach can significantly reduce the search space for determining the most critical links in large-scale networks. In addition, a new vulnerability index is introduced to examine properly the consequences of a link closure. The effects of demand uncertainty and heterogeneous travellers’ risk-taking behaviour are explicitly considered. Numerical results for two different road networks show that in practice the proposed approach is more efficient than traditional full scan approach for identifying the same set of critical links. Numerical results also demonstrate that both stochastic demand and travellers’ risk-taking behaviour have significant impacts on network vulnerability analysis, especially under high network congestion and large demand variations. Ignoring their impacts can underestimate the consequences of link closures and misidentify the most critical links.     

Traffic noise abatement: How different pavements, vehicle speeds and traffic densities affect annoyance levels

In this paper, annoyance ratings from traffic noise recorded on cobblestones, dense asphalt, and open asphalt rubber pavements are assessed with regard to car speeds and traffic densities. It was found that cobblestones pavements are the most annoying; also while open asphalt rubber pavement imposes less annoyance than dense asphalt it is not significantly different. Higher car speeds always lead to greater annoyance, as does higher traffic densities. LAeq and LAmax correlate well with annoyance, but loudness is the best predictor. Roughness and sharpness exhibit inconsistent interactions.     

Developing an enhanced weight-based topological map-matching algorithm for intelligent transport systems

Map-matching (MM) algorithms integrate positioning data from a Global Positioning System (or a number of other positioning sensors) with a spatial road map with the aim of identifying the road segment on which a user (or a vehicle) is travelling and the location on that segment. Amongst the family of MM algorithms consisting of geometric, topological, probabilistic and advanced, topological MM (tMM) algorithms are relatively simple, easy and quick, enabling them to be implemented in real-time. Therefore, a tMM algorithm is used in many navigation devices manufactured by industry. However, existing tMM algorithms have a number of limitations which affect their performance relative to advanced MM algorithms. This paper demonstrates that it is possible by addressing these issues to significantly improve the performance of a tMM algorithm. This paper describes the development of an enhanced weight-based tMM algorithm in which the weights are determined from real-world field data using an optimisation technique. Two new weights for turn-restriction at junctions and link connectivity are introduced to improve the performance of matching, especially at junctions. A new procedure is developed for the initial map-matching process. Two consistency checks are introduced to minimise mismatches. The enhanced map-matching algorithm was tested using field data from dense urban areas and suburban areas. The algorithm identified 96.8% and 95.93% of the links correctly for positioning data collected in urban areas of central London and Washington, DC, respectively. In case of suburban area, in the west of London, the algorithm succeeded with 96.71% correct link identification with a horizontal accuracy of 9.81 m (2σ). This is superior to most existing topological MM algorithms and has the potential to support the navigation modules of many Intelligent Transport System (ITS) services.     

Multi‐objective highway alignment optimization using a genetic algorithm

The available highway alignment optimization algorithms use the total cost as the objective function. This is a single objective optimization process. In this process, travel‐time, vehicle operation accident earthwork land acquisition and pavement construction costs are the basic components of the total cost. This single objective highway alignment optimization process has limited capability in handling the cost components separately. Moreover, this process cannot yield a set of alternative solutions from a single run. This paper presents a multi‐objective approach to overcome these shortcomings. Some of the cost components of highway alignments are conflicting in nature. Minimizing some of them will yield a straighter alignment; whereas, minimizing others would make the alignment circuitous. Therefore, the goal of the multiobjective optimization approach is to handle the trade‐off amongst the highway alignment design objectives and present a set of near optimal solutions. The highway alignment objectives, i.e., cost functions, are not continuous in nature. Hence, a special genetic algorithm based multi‐objective optimization algorithm is suggested The proposed methodology is demonstrated via a case study at the end.     

Novel Electrically Stimulated Catalytic Converter Prototype for Replacement of Conventional Auto Exhaust Emission Converters

High voltage electrostatics and corona discharge are utilized for various applications in pollution and environmental control. The traditional applications have many flaws due to improper construction of electrode design and assembly that cause system failure, in particular when electrically stimulated devices are exposed to high humidity. A new innovative-patented design by Hamade, electrically stimulated catalytic converter(ESCC),eliminates such flaws and shows the wide practical applications of the new design. The new design utilized previous patented designs and work of the same inventor but retrofitted for catalytic auto exhaust emission control. The current and previous patents include: employing electrically stimulated filtration(ESF) to replace high efficiency particulate air(HEPA) filters, treatment of biological and infectious diseases, electret fabrication, and, most notably, the invention of a new electrically stimulated catalytic converter(ESCC). The electrically stimulated catalytic converter invention includes an exhaust conduit fed from the engine exhaust port with a housed corona charger apparatus. The opposite end is opened to the atmosphere outside of the vehicle or connected to a reduced-size catalytic converter. The corona charger is intrusively or non-intrusively associated with a main flow path defined by the exhaust conduit. The corona charger includes at least one electrode, which may be recessed away from, the main flow path. A plurality of corona chargers may be used in various combinations, optimally a two dimensional grid. The electrically stimulated catalytic converter is adapted to treat and eliminate auto exhaust pollution emission to air.     

Modelling and control of a new differential steering concept

This paper presents a new steer-by-wire concept using an all-wheel drive vehicle layout with in-wheel motors while completely omitting the application of any dedicated steering device. Steering is based on the so-called differential steering principle which generates the necessary steering moment about the kingpins by a traction force difference between left and right sides of the vehicle. In order to investigate the behaviour of the vehicle and to design the underlying control algorithms, a planar vehicle model is presented, where the vehicle is described as constrained non-holonomic system requiring a special treatment. A state feedback linear controller for controlling of the lateral dynamics of the vehicle at higher speeds and a simple PI angle controller for low-speed manoeuvring are developed. The resulting behaviour of the system is investigated by various simulation experiments demonstrating a comparable steering performance of the new steering concept as that of conventional passenger cars.     

Vehicle sensor data-based analysis on the driving style differences between operating indoor simulator and on-road instrumented vehicle

Abstract

Indoor simulator and on-road instrumented vehicle are the most popular ways to analyze driving behaviors by using collected Vehicle Sensor Data (VSD). However, for a same driver, the driving performance could be different in the real world and in the simulated world. Even though many studies have been conducted to discover the differences of driving behaviors in these two circumstances, little research has focused on analyzing the differences in driving style, which can provide more integrated knowledge of a driver from the natural structure, stimulus–response mechanism, of driving behaviors. Therefore, in this paper, the driving styles in both the real world and the simulated world are extracted by implementing the nonnegative matrix factorization method on the collected VSD data. Through this analysis, the driving style differences can be quantitatively described and discussed in detail. It is found that the drivers tend to be more unstable and sometimes aggressive when driving the simulator and the deviation in the perception of temporal gap in two circumstances is also discovered. The research findings are particularly valuable to calibrate the driving simulator and construct more reliable driving behavior models.     

Crew resource management training in the maritime industry: a literature review

The study is based on a literature review of recent empirical research on crew resource management (CRM) training in the maritime industry, organised around what non-technical skills to learn and how. The review indicates that existing work is dominated by individualistic theories of learning with less focus on learning as a social process. Five main categories of skills that need to be trained are identified: assertiveness, decision-making, communication, situation awareness and team coordination. We argue that it is necessary to operationalise these broad concepts further, emphasising the work context and crew-specific needs. The review also shows that a combination of classroom lectures and simulator-based exercises is commonly used in maritime education and training in these skills. The learning effect seems to be suffering from training programmes that are exported ‘as is’ from aviation and not adjusted to the maritime domain or to operation-specific needs. This paper examines maritime crew resource management training from a social learning perspective, involving the view that learning is a context bound, social process that might take place in communities of practice (CoP). A CoP is a group (e.g. a crew) wherein members share an activity and learn from each other. It is argued that CRM training programmes will benefit from including a social learning perspective. Factors that enable the assessment of teams are discussed, and it is argued that the training should be tailored to existing crews, emphasising a learning environment as close to reality as possible.     

Assessing a maritime service website prototype in a ship bridge simulator: navigators’ experiences and perceptions of novel e-Navigation solutions

The aim of this study was to assess proof of concept and usability of a maritime service website prototype in a full-mission ship bridge simulator through Swedish mariners’ experiences and perceptions. This test was part of the European Commission’s EfficienSea2 project for e-navigation. The prototype was intended as an aid to existing standard systems and methodologies for planning, executing and monitoring voyages. The study began with 5 days of simulator trials focused on today’s standard practices. This served as a baseline to compare to subsequent 4 days of simulator trials testing the prototype. For data collection, observations, video footage, interviews, and eye tracking were used. Data analysis included breaking apart the qualitative data to capture the perceptions of the participants, and a preliminary analysis of eye-tracking data as a complement. The results suggested that the prototype could be more suitable for a route planning stage, that the participants were familiar with similar existing solutions from other manufacturers, and that the contents of the tool would be most beneficial if integrated within the Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS). There is a pressing need for the novel solutions to be user needs-driven, integrated with the existing technologies, and standardized across the domain, and these processes must go hand-in-hand with accounting for all involved stakeholders, procedures, regulations, and training, as this will alter the course of shipping.