Peak period tolls: Precepts and prospects

This article presents the economic rationale for road pricing and provides some scale on the magnitude of peak period tolls that might be justified. It discusses the impacts of such tolls on congestion, air quality and economic development and suggests a long term strategy towards areawide implementation of peak period pricing. It discusses current trends which are increasing the likelihood for implementation of congestion pricing and toll roads in the future. In particular, it discusses some aspects of the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) which will eliminate some of the current restraints on congestion pricing and toll highways.Abbreviations ETC Electronic toll collection - FHWA Federal Highway Administration - HOV High occupancy vehicle - ISTEA Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act - LOS Level of service - TCM Transportation control measure - V/C Volume-to-capacity ratio - VMT Vehicle mile(s) of travel - vphpl Vehicles per hour per lane     

Partial-profilogram reconstruction method to measure the geometric parameters of wheels in dynamic condition

The present work poses a method for the measurement of geometric parameters of rail wheels in a dynamic condition, by reconstructing the profilogram from a portion of the wheel surface wear with artificial vision. The suggested procedure can work with a two-dimensional laser displacement transducer or by processing a sole image from a single camera with a structured light source. These two procedures require fewer devices and simpler implementation processes and allow the use of mathematical algorithms that demand less information processing, thus generating more accurate results. Railway operators may implement this method to perform predictive maintenance to their rolling stock at a fraction of the regular cost; thus achieving better precision, availability, maintenance performance and improving safety. Results were compared to those given by commercial equipment, showing similar precision but a better cost–benefit relation.     

Aging characterization of metals for exhaust systems

The mechanical characteristics of four materials used in automotive exhaust systems have been compared after an aging treatment to evaluate the combined effects of thermo-mechanical fatigue and corrosion. For this purpose, an experimental aging procedure has been developed. This procedure is composed of chemical, thermal and mechanical cycles, which are combined and repeated to simulate the actual operating conditions of automotive exhaust systems. Three austenitic steels (AISI 309, AISI 316Ti, and AISI 321) and a nickel-based alloy (Inconel 625) are tested. The results show that Inconel 625 and AISI 309 are less affected by the aging process than the other materials.     

Discerning the operational state of a vehicle’s distributed electronic systems from vehicle network traffic for use as a fault detection and diagnosis tool

This paper suggests a novel approach to finding faults in a vehicle’s electronic systems by monitoring the network traffic directly and generating statistical traits. The nature of the data in a CAN network is considered, and a case for the use of statistical analysis presented. Statistical traits extracted from the temporal behavior of network messages are investigated as a metric for fault detection. It is shown how this trait information can be extracted from network data, and how this information could be used for fault detection of an unknown fault on a CAN network. It is then demonstrated that combining multiple types of trait data can be used to correctly identify a fault once detected.