Communication problems inherent in a cross-cultural manning environment

The globalization of shipping means that the industry needs cosmopolitan managers who can negotiate with—and manage—people of different cultures. The causes and consequences of cultural differences are explained in the paper with particular reference to power differentials and rule orientation. The dangers of stereotypes are high-lighted. Communication problems are discussed in the context of transmitting values.     

TRESIS: A transportation,land use and environmental strategy impact simulator for urban areas

The Institute of Transport Studies has developed a Transportation and Environment Strategy Impact Simulator (TRESIS) as a decision support system to assist planners to predict the impact of transport strategies and to make recommendations based on those predictions. A key focus of the simulator is the richness of policy instruments such as new public transport, new toll roads, congestion pricing, gas guzzler taxes, changing residential densities, introducing designated bus lanes, implementing fare changes, altering parking policy, introducing more flexible work practices, and the introduction of more fuel efficient vehicles. The appropriateness of mixtures of policy instruments is gauged in terms of a series of performance indicators such as impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, accessibility, equity, air quality and household consumer surplus. In this paper we introduce TRESIS to the research community, focussing on the structure of the system and the diversity of applications. Applications are presented to illustrate the diversity and richness of TRESIS as a policy advisory tool.     

Ridership estimation procedure for a transit corridor with new bus rapid transit service

Ridership estimation is a critical step in the planning of a new transit route or change in service. Very often, when a new transit route is introduced, the existing routes will be modified, vehicle capacities changed, or service headways adjusted. This has made ridership forecasts for the new, existing, and modified routes challenging. This paper proposes and demonstrates a procedure that forecasts the ridership of all transit routes along a corridor when a new bus rapid transit (BRT) service is introduced and existing regular bus services are adjusted. The procedure uses demographic data along the corridor, a recent origin–destination survey data, and new and existing transit service features as inputs. It consists of two stages of transit assignment. In the first stage, a transit assignment is performed with the existing transit demand on the proposed BRT and existing bus routes, so that adjustments to the existing bus services can be identified. This transit assignment is performed iteratively until there is no adjustment in transit services. In the second stage, the transit assignment is carried out with the new BRT and adjusted regular bus services, but incorporates a potential growth in ridership because of the new BRT service. The final outputs of the procedure are ridership for all routes and route segments, boarding and alighting volumes at all stops, and a stop‐by‐stop trip matrix. The proposed ridership estimation procedure is applicable to a new BRT route with and without competing regular bus routes and with BRT vehicles traveling in dedicated lanes or in mixed traffic. The application of the proposed procedure is demonstrated via a case study along the Alameda Corridor in El Paso, Texas. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identifying a behaviourally relevant choice set from stated choice data

Stated choice experiments are designed optimally in a statistical sense but not necessarily in a behavioural choice making sense. Statistical designs, and consequently model estimation, assume that the set of alternatives offered in the experiment are processed by respondents with a specific processing strategy. Much has been studied about attribute processing using discrete choice methods in travel choice studies, but this paper focuses more broadly on processing of alternatives in the choice set offered in the experiment. This paper is motivated by the primary idea that the distribution of predicted choice probabilities associated with a set of alternatives defining a given choice set might provide strong evidence on the strategies that agents appear to use when choosing a preferred alternative. In an empirical setting of a choice set of size three, four model specifications are considered including a model for the selection of the best alternative in the full choice set and three variants of a best–worst regime. Using state choice data on road pricing reform, the empirical analysis examines which model specification delivers the most accurate prediction of the chosen alternative. The results suggest which alternatives really matter in choice making and hence the alternatives that might be included in a choice set for model specification.     

Stability analysis of the classical car-following model

This paper investigates the stability of the classical car-following model (for example, Chandler et al., Operations Research, 6, 165–184, 1958; Herman et al., Operations Research, 7, 86–106, 1959; Wilhelm and Schmidt, Transportation Engineering Journal (ASCE) 99, 923–933, 1973). Conditions for local and asymptotic stability as defined in the references cited are established for the linear model. These differ from those in the literature in two ways. First, it will be shown that, in the autonomous model when the product of the coefficient of proportionality α and the reaction time τ is less than or equal to 1/e, there exist oscillatory solutions with higher frequencies than 2π, although there are none with lower frequencies. Secondly, asymptotic stability is considered along with local stability. The derived condition for asymptotic stability is both necessary and sufficient. In addition, the condition depends on the frequency of the forcing term, with the sufficient condition for the asymptotic stability found in the literature being included as a special case. The nonlinear model is considered by linearization and numerical integrations. Some practical values of parameters are tested for the stability of the model. The analyses in this paper are extended to consider different values of α and τ for different drivers in the line.     

Changes in real incomes and the demand for taxicabs

This paper comments on the possible future of the taxicab industry within the context of a familiar economic-growth model. The future capability of the taxicab industry to check increases in real costs is shown to be an important determinant in the industry's long-term viability. More importantly, the effect of rising real incomes on the demand for taxicabs is postulated also to have a strong effect on future demand. The strength of this effect and the exact position of the taxicab in the transit tree have important implications not only for the future demand for taxis but also for the more traditional modes of public transport.     

New methods of controlling vehicle ownership and usage in Singapore

Over the years Singapore has introduced several fiscal measures aimed at restraining car ownership and usage and thus preventing traffic congestion. Two new methods have recently been added: the Vehicle Quota System which limits the number of new vehicles registered each month and the Weekend Car Scheme which allows cars to be registered for use during off-peak hours only, with substantial financial savings to the owners. The Vehicle Quota System involves monthly public tenders for Certificates of Entitlement needed to register new cars. Over the past 30 months the cost of COE's has been increasing and now constitutes between 12% and 27% of the on-the-road price of a new car. The fluctuations in the COE premiums for different vehicle categories are presented and analysed. The initial problems and the recent modifications made as a result of public pressure are also described. It seems that the increases in COE premiums are likely to continue under strong economic growth conditions as the demand for cars is more income-elastic than price-elastic.     

Assessing systematic sources of variation in public transport elasticities: Some comparative warnings

There is an extensive and continually growing body of empirical evidence on the sensitivity of potential and actual users of public transport to fare and service levels. The sources of the evidence are disparate in terms of methods, data collection strategy, data paradigms, trip purpose, location, time period, and attribute definition. In this paper, we draw on a data set we have been compiling since 2003 that contains over 1100 elasticity items associated with prices and services of public transport, and car modes. The focus herein is on direct elasticities associated with public transport choice and demand, and the systematic sources of influence on the variations in the mean estimates for fares, in-vehicle time, and headway obtained from 319 studies. The major influences on variations in mean estimates of public transport elasticities are the time of day (peak, all day vs. off-peak), the data paradigm (especially combined SP/RP vs. revealed preference (RP)), whether an average fare or class of tickets is included, the unit of analysis (trips vs. vkm), specific trip purposes, country, and specific-mode (i.e., bus and train) in contrast to the generic class of public transport.     

Multi-fleet ferry service network design with passenger preferences for differential services

This paper investigates a multi-fleet ferry routing and scheduling problem that takes into account ferry services with different operation characteristics and passengers with different preferred arrival time windows. The logit model is used to represent passengers’ service choices. The full problem is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear programming problem and solved with a heuristic procedure that first fixes the demand and then decomposes the resultant model by ferry services. At each iteration of the algorithm, the demand is updated and the relaxed problem is re-solved. Numerical results for the case of ferry service network design in Hong Kong are provided to illustrate the properties of the model and the performance of the heuristic.