Trip generation and distribution: the inconsistency problem and a possible remedy

There are many shortcomings commonly associated with the conventional urban transportation modeling process. This paper focuses on one of the more important problems — the inconsistency between trip generation and distribution components — and suggests a possible way of alleviating it. The suggested approach involves sorting out the independent effects on tripmaking of origin, destination and travel cost characteristics, and introducing accessibility measures explicitly into the modeling process. The resulting modeling framework can be used to obtain consistent estimates of trip generation and distribution quantities which are responsive to changes in the transportation and spatial systems.     

A flexible terminal/mobile lounge system for expanding the capacity of existing airports

One of the great dilemmas facing major airports is the problem of capacity and seasonal surges of activity. This paper suggests a system of small, inexpensive Airport Terminal Modules, which together with a new type of Mobile Lounge, could make available a considerable degree of flexibility. The ATM's are designed to allow maximum variations of aircraft type and passenger load as well as high ground utilization. This concept would allow major airports to be extended with a minimum of inconvenience as demand becomes apparent, thereby allowing financial expenditure to be carefully controlled and more evenly spread.     

Estimating travel time functions for urban roads: options and issues

Travel time functions specify the relationship between the travel time on a road and the volume of traffic on the road. Until recently, the parameters of travel time functions were rarely estimated in practice; however, a compelling case can be made for the empirical examination of these functions. This paper reviews, and qualitatively evaluates, a range of options for developing a set of travel time functions. A hierarchy of travel time functions is defined based on four levels of network detail: area, corridor, route and link. This hierarchy is illustrated by considering the development of travel time functions for Adelaide. Alternative sources of data for estimating travel time functions are identified.

In general, the costs and benefits increase as the travel time functions are estimated at finer levels of network detail. The costs of developing travel time functions include data acquisition costs and analysis costs. The benefits include the potential for reducing prediction errors, the degree of application flexibility and the policy sensitivity of the travel time functions.     

Alternative fuels for transportation

The alternatives to the oil based fuels for transportation are considered and analysed. These are the synthetic fuels, made from coal, the liquid petroleum gases of propane and butane, compressed natural gas and methanol. The problems associated with the use of electric vehicles are discussed; the main problem being that of range.

The possible use of hydrogen as a fuel is analysed in some detail. Since its supply can be tied directly to nuclear energy sources, rather than hydrocarbon feed stocks, it could be an alternative in the long term. The main problems of the storage of hydrogen on the vehicle and of its propensity to “back‐fire” into the engine intake are discussed. The first can be ameliorated and the second eliminated by dual fuelling; with petrol. It is advocated that the on‐board storage of hydrogen be by the use of hydrides for private cars. However, it is expected that it may be as liquid hydrogen for some forms of transport and will certainly be in this form for aircraft.     

Measuring community reaction to urban transportation impacts using Von Neumann‐Morgenstern utility theory

This paper attempts to measure the impacts of urban transportation system improvements or changes on the community. The community's perceptions of the impacts are represented by its utilities (or disutilities) over various ranges of values of the multiple attributes representing these impacts. The utility technique used in the evaluation is based upon von Neumann‐Morgenstern (vN‐M, 1947) Utility Theory, and is applied using Raiffa's (1970) Fractile Method.

The paper specifically applies the technique to model the perceptions of five subgroups within a community to the impact of a new light rail transit system that is being incorporated in the transportation system of the City of Calgary.

Results of the modeling indicate explicitly how the community changes its perception over ranges of values of the attributes evaluated. Biases of various subgroups within the community over these attributes are also shown. Statistical tests indicate that aggregated utility perceptions can represent the utility perceptions of the individual subgroups quite reasonably.     

The design of a terminal for dangerous goods

This paper aims at examining the possibility of setting up a model terminal for the transportation of dangerous goods. It should be designed in such a manner that its use would be possible for any kind of transportation.

This consideration has been prompted by the interface between transportation planning and technology, as well as by the tendency for harmonizing international recommendations pertaining to the transportation and handling of dangerous goods, especially during the last decades where unified transport has gained ground due to the advantages provided for the safe consignment of dangerous cargoes.

Since the large increase in terminal productivity is due to the heavy investments that were effected in terminal installations and to the modernization of the administration‐management of terminals, a mathematical simulation has been adopted to assist the determination of the capacity of a terminal for dangerous goods.

It is evident that different criteria and various assumptions have been taken into account in order to facilitate a deeper analysis, without ignoring the contribution of dangerous goods to the socio‐economic development.

From the outset of the study, it was already clear that the said process will make it possible to present—as a model—a simple but well defined situation for the purpose of drawing useful conclusions.     

Design and evaluation of an integrated inventory and transportation system

This paper proposes the adoption of an integrated inventory and transportation system (IITS) to minimize the total costs of inventory and transportation. A non-linear programing is developed by analyzing transportation and inventory costs with one supplier and many retailers in the distribution environment. The paper compares the proposed model with the traditional approach in computing total costs with numerical data. The results indicate that the total costs can be optimized by adopting integrated programing rather than the traditional approach, along with achieving improved customer service levels. In particular, sensitivity analysis is applied to determine the performance of the IITS under various transportation costs, holding costs and shortage costs. It shows that the transportation cost per unit is most sensitive in the proposed model. In this situation, the IITS is more effective for cost saving when set-up cost, holding and shortage costs are high, but is less effective for situations involving high per-unit transportation costs.     

Improving the estimation of total and direction-based heavy-duty vehicle annual average daily traffic

Abstract

The estimation of annual average daily traffic (AADT) is an important parameter collected and maintained by all US departments of transportation. There have been many past research studies that have focused on ways to improve the estimation of AADT. This paper builds upon previous research and compares eight methods, both traditional and cluster-based methodologies, for aggregating monthly adjustment factors for heavy-duty vehicles (US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) vehicle classes 4–13). In addition to the direct comparison between the methodologies, the results from the analysis of variance show at the 95% confidence level that the four cluster-based methods produce statistically lower variance and coefficient of variation over the more traditional approaches. In addition to these findings – which are consistent with previous total volume studies – further analysis is performed to compare total heavy-duty monthly adjustment factors, both directions of traffic, with direction-based monthly adjustment factors. The final results show that the variance as well as the coefficient of variation improve on average by 25% when directional aggregate monthly adjustment factors are used instead of total direction.     

Dynamics of LRT growth: Karlsruhe since 1975

The public transport system of Karlsruhe, in particular its innovative services on jointly used heavy rail lines, has received substantial attention throughout the past 20 years. The discussion of the system and of its development has been rather limited in the past, mostly highlighting technical aspects. This paper provides an overview of the development, including the urban development, of the region and of the funding system. The ridership and financial development of the operator is documented in detail. Three case studies focus on the integration of the system development in the general political process of the region and demonstrate the limitations of the operator under its current ownership structures.