The problem of misdeclared container weight: perspectives from New Zealand and implications for its law

This paper addresses the problem of misdeclaring container weights, which causes accidents on land and sea, with serious consequences. It reviews the current international law, and the verification of container weight mandated in the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention, and relates them to New Zealand law and practice as an example. It concludes that the SOLAS plan, simply written into local law, is unlikely to be enough by itself to fix the problem. It considers the points in the supply chain where responsibility could be placed for weighing and proposes a “chain of responsibility” approach with initial weighing by the shipper and check weighing later, especially at ports, with misdeclared containers being reportable as incidents. Such a system should deal comprehensively with the problem.     

Flexible substitution patterns in models of mode and time of day choice: new evidence from the UK and the Netherlands

Modelling the temporal response of travellers to transport policy interventions has rapidly emerged as a major issue in many practical transport planning studies and is recognised to hold particular challenges. The importance of congestion and its variation over the day, together with the emergence of time-dependent road user charging as a policy tool, emphasise the need to understand whether and how travellers will change the timing of their journeys. For practical planning studies, analysts face a major issue of relating temporal changes to other behavioural changes that are likely to result from policy or exogenous changes. In particular, the relative sensitivity of time and mode switching has been difficult to resolve. This paper describes a study undertaken to determine the relative sensitivity of mode and time of day choice to changes in travel times and costs and to investigate whether evidence exists of varying magnitudes of unobservable influences in time of day switching. The study draws on data from three related stated preference studies undertaken over the past decade in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands and uses error components logit models to investigate the patterns of substitution between mode and time of day alternatives. It is concluded that the magnitude of unobserved influences on time switching depends significantly on the magnitudes of the time switches considered. With time periods of the magnitude generally represented in practical modelling, i.e. peak periods of 2–3 hours, time switching is generally more sensitive in these data than mode switching. However, the context of the modelling and the extent to which relevant variables can be measured will strongly influence these results.     

Bus accidents,bus deregulation and London

Local bus services were deregulated in October 1986 in all areas of Britain except London. Government policy is to extend deregulation to London, though not in the current parliament. This paper analyses statistics on bus accidents from the national road accident database from 1981 to 1991 to compare results for London and the rest of Great Britain, and to consider whether deregulation has affected safety. The conclusions depend on the assumption that accident recording practice was not itself affected by deregulation.Bus accident rates are higher in London than on built-up roads elsewhere, partly apparently because of road traffic conditions in London, and partly because open-platform buses have higher accident rates involving occupants, including boarding and alighting accidents, than buses with doors.The main safety effects of deregulation operate through its effects on bus activity, though there is also some evidence that the rate per bus-kilometre of accidents involving other road users fell slightly. This may be due in part to the trend towards smaller buses associated with deregulation. Deregulation has led to a fall in bus patronage, and thus to a fall in occupant casualties; and to a rise in bus-kilometres, and thus to a rise in casualties among other road users in accidents involving buses. The number of fatal and serious casualties among other road users involved in bus accidents is larger than the number among bus occupants, so deregulation in London could lead on balance to a small rise in fatalities involving buses. On the other hand, the number of slight casualties among other road users involved in bus accidents is smaller than the number among bus occupants, so deregulation in London could lead to a fall in the number of slight casualties involving buses.Although there were fears that changes in the management of bus operations or financial pressures might lead to increased accident rates following deregulation, there no evidence in the findings to support such fears.This paper was first presented at the 3rd International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Surface Public Transport at Mississauga, Canada on 25–29 September 1993. The author is grateful to the Department of Transport for the speed and efficiency with which they provided special tabulations from the road accident database for this study.     

A continuum model for the dispersion of traffic on two-lane roads

A continuum model for two-lane traffic flow is developed using the theory of kinematic waves in which the wavespeeds in the two lanes are assumed constant but unequal. The transient behaviour is found exactly using Riemann's method of characteristics and an asymptotic model of the long time flow is described. It is shown, that for large times, the traffic concentration moves with a weighted mean wavespeed of the two lanes and disperses about this mean speed as a result of interlane concentration differences generated by the relative wavespeeds. The dispersion can be described by a virtual coefficient of diffusion proportional to the square of the differences of the two wavespeeds and inversely proportional to the rate of lane changing. The technique is extended to describe three-lane traffic flow and to include the dependence of wavespeed upon concentration.     

Hydrodynamic derivatives investigation of unconventionally arranged pusher-barge systems

Unconventional arrangements of pusher-barge systems were studied in this paper. Pusher-barge systems consisting of 4, 6, and 8 barges with one pusher were tested in various combinations. Captive model testing was performed on the various combinations at the Hiroshima University towing tank. Hydrodynamic derivatives of the systems were obtained from the model test data by using the least-square analysis method. For asymmetric conditions, the hydrodynamic derivatives and N′_ββ were added to the force and moment equations in order to obtain better fitting of the least-square curves. Motion equations were modified to cover the asymmetric cases of pusher-barge systems with lateral force and yaw moment due to the asymmetry arrangement. Turning simulations (with 20° sudden angle change) were carried out and a comparison of advance distance and tactical diameter made. An erratum to this article can be found at     

混合动力是唯一的选择吗?--高燃油税对欧洲动力技术发展的影响

“欧洲人已经学会了如何面对昂贵的燃油价格 (主要是指燃油税)。数十年来,欧洲社会一直努力去适应较高的燃油价格,而且已经建立了许多有效的机制     

ROAD KILL CARPET

这地毯血腥了点,其实它很有爱心。由于出品方是设计了树枝U盘(Wooden USB Stick)的荷兰Studio OOOMS,我很相信OOOMS这次又是在发挥对自然的热爱——地毯上那只血肉模糊的狐狸,是设定为被飞驰的汽车谋杀而死。那么你不妨将这地毯送给你粗心大意而又迷恋疾速驾驶的朋友,提示他以后通过野生动物栖息地的时候,将车速放慢些,眼睛睁大些。当然,如果他听取了意见,你也不必反对他拿狐狸尸体的那部分当做枕头,躺在这地毯上打盹。2009年春季上市,纯手工,纯羊毛制造。尺寸:165×240cm/65×94.5inch     

The 2008 New Zealand public transport management act: Rationale, key provisions, and parallels with the United Kingdom

In January 2009, following a lengthy industry review and consultation process, the New Zealand Public Transport Management Act (PTMA) came into force. The Act allows Regional Transport Authorities, as the primary procurers of public transport services, to place either a control or a contracting requirement upon services that are registered as commercial requiring no subsidy. The imposition of either the control or the contracting requirement is designed to facilitate greater system integration, improve service continuity and enhance services to the customer, andallow the Authority to invest in key strategic projects, such as integrated fares and ticketing, so as to grow patronage.The PTMA’s other objective is to ensure improved value for public subsidies. Recent years have seen significant subsidy inflation for seemingly little commensurate benefits. The Act will allow the Regional Transport Authority to achieve greater value for money through improved farebox, a shift to longer, larger contracts to increase competition in the market, a more appropriate allocation of risk, and the removal of the ability of operators to ‘game’ the current system by using strategically placed commercial services as barriers to competition.Similar concerns have also stimulated new legislation in the UK and this paper illustrates the parallels in the environment and proposed response.     

International Learning Pathways for Coastal Professionals: A Japan–UK Example

This article reports on the Learning Exchange Programme (LEP) model of capacity building for Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) professionals. The LEP model of capacity building involves international group-based exchange visits during which a structured program of experiential learning events is undertaken to meet specific capacity gaps. An application of the LEP model in Japan and the United Kingdom is presented and evaluated, which shows that while refinements could be identified, a group-based, tailored exchange model focused on filling specific capacity gaps is an effective model of capacity building for ICM.