Risk factors and theory building: a study to improve passenger vessel safety

Given the inherent complexity of the maritime transportation system, developing effective policy can be challenging. Using risk factors identified by an elicitation and aggregation of expert judgment, a relative-risk rating scheme was developed in the theory-building tradition of the social sciences. The model was empirically evaluated using 18 months of data from the US small passenger vessel sector. The model identified that the top 10% of relatively highest risk vessels accounted for 50% of all marine casualties during the period of examination. A policy for deploying the model nationally is proposed.     

Shift of reference point and implications on behavioral reaction to gains and losses

It is widely recognized that individual decision-making is subject to the evaluation of gains and losses around a reference point. The estimation of discrete choice models increasingly use data from stated choice experiments which are pivoted around a reference alternative. However, to date, the specification of a reference alternative in transport studies has been fixed, whereas it is common to observe individuals adjusting their preferences according to a change in their reference point. This paper focuses on individual reactions, in a freight choice context, to a negative change in the reference alternative values, identifying the behavioural implications in terms of loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity. The results show a significant adjustment in the valuation of gains and losses around a shifted reference alternative. In particular, we find an average increase in loss aversion for cost and time attributes, and a substantial decrease for punctuality. These findings are translated to significant differences in the willingness to pay and willingness to accept measures, providing supporting evidence of respondents’ behavioural reaction.     

Telemetric system for monitoring and automation of railroad networks

This paper describes a new method of real-time train monitoring based on the ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. The system consists of a mobile device embedded in the moving train which transmits parameter signals that are being measured by a base unit with the help of routers. When applied, the technique monitors and controls vehicles operating on permanent routes, making a real-time evaluation of their performance and location, and allowing an effective planning of trains. It consists of a low cost, low power consumption and safe modular technology capable of monitoring many different variables simultaneously.     

Transport terminal design and passenger orientation

The objective of the internal design of a transport terminal is to minimize the disorientation and confusion of a passenger as he arrives at the terminal and desires to move towards the destination without undue loss of time. The experience of India however shows that most of the rail, bus and air terminals leave much to be desired from the human orientation point of view. To measure the passenger orientation and to enable evaluation of the terminal design an easily tractable quantitative method has recently been evolved. This paper attempts to apply it to two rail terminals in Bombay and to compute some indices to serve as criteria for determining the level of service and suggest directions for improvement.     

Forty Years of the CZMA: Impacts and Innovations

This article addresses federal, state, and local regulatory regimes for controlling commercial advertising in coastal waters. It focuses on a new method of outdoor advertising that utilizes a billboard towed by a tug in coastal waters. Specifically, it explores the extent to which legal action to regulate advertising from floating billboards in U.S. waters could withstand constitutional scrutiny. The issue is examined within the contexts of commercial speech and navigational servitude. Additionally, the article discusses the preservation of viewscapes along the coast and the applicability of the public trust doctrine. Jurisdictional issues are examined along with the role of states' harbor management plans and local ordinances in regulating commerce and providing anchorage limitations. The article argues that regulation of floating billboards must not necessarily be based on aesthetics, but the public trust doctrine. The article concludes that the language of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) and interpretations of its scope, as well as Supreme Court decisions in favor of aesthetic zoning, support the inclusion of such regulations in states' coastal zone management plans.     

Psychological items: a useful addition in modeling travel behavior on managed lanes

Transportation - Managed lanes (MLs) are a tool to more efficiently operate segments of a freeway. As ML prevalence increases in the United States of America, it is important to understand travel...     

Estimation of the value of travel time and of travel time reliability for heterogeneous drivers in a road network

Transportation - Travel time reliability has been recognized as an important factor in cost–benefit analysis in a transportation network. To estimate the benefit and cost of travel time...     

A transit ridership‐revenue model

The paper outlines the theoretical underpinnings of an urban mass transit revenue and ridership model designed to provide medium term forecasts of future trends in situations of data sparsity. The specific example laid out in the paper relates to the Greater Vancouver Regional District but the framework is of general applicability. Much of the informational input at the initial stage is of a general kind and details of the specific transit system and local area are of the sort which should be readily available to most urban authorities. The model developed is designed for use on a desk‐top micro‐computer and offers an inter‐active method of forecasting. The operator has the facility to both consider fare policy sensitivity and review alternative scenarios about future trends in exogenous factors. A selection of forecasts developed for the GVRD is provided to reveal the main features of the approach.     

The vehicle emissions and performance monitoring system: analysis of tailpipe emissions and vehicle performance

This paper describes tailpipe emission results generated by the Vehicle Performance and Emissions Monitoring system (VPEMS). VPEMS integrates on‐board emissions and vehicle/driver performance measurements with positioning and communications technologies, to transmit a coherent spatio‐temporally referenced dataset to a central base station in near real time. These results focus on relationships between tailpipe emissions of CO, CO₂, NO_x and speed and acceleration. Emissions produced by different driving modes are also presented. Results are generally as one would expect, showing variation between vehicle speed, vehicle acceleration and emissions. Data is based upon a test run in central London on urban streets with speeds not exceeding about 65 km/h. The results presented demonstrate the capabilities of the system. Various issues remain with regard to validation of the data and expansion of the system capability to obtain additional vehicle performance data.     

Experimental study and 3D CFD analysis on the optimization of throttle angle for a convergent vortex tube

Seven adjustments of convergent-type Vortex Tube (VT) with different throttle angles were applied. The adjustments were made to analyze the influences of such angles on cold and hot temperature drops as well as flow structures inside the VTs. An experimental setup was designed, and tests were performed on different convergent VT configurations at injection pressures ranging from 0.45 to 0.65 MPa. The angles of the throttle valve were arranged between 30° to 90°, and the numbers of injection nozzles ranged between 2 and 6. Laboratory results indicated that the maximum hot and cold temperature drops ranged from 23.24 to 35 K and from 22.87 to 32.88 K, respectively, at four injection nozzles. Results also showed that temperature drop is a function of hot throttle valve angle with the maximum hot and cold temperature drops depending on the angle applied. We used graphs to demonstrate the changes in the cold and hot temperature drops with respect to hot throttle angle values. These values were interpreted and evaluated to determine the optimum angle, which was 60°. The CFD outputs agreed very well with the laboratory results. The proposed CFD results can help future researchers gain good insights into the complicated separation process taking place inside the VTs.