Motorway crash duration and its determinants: do durations vary across motorways?

Traffic congestion has been a growing issue in many metropolitan areas during recent years, which necessitates the identification of its key contributors and development of sustainable strategies to help decrease its adverse impacts on traffic networks. Road incidents generally and crashes specifically have been acknowledged as the cause of a large proportion of travel delays in urban areas and account for 25% to 60% of traffic congestion on motorways. Identifying the critical determinants of travel delays has been of significant importance to the incident management systems, which constantly collect and store the incident duration data. This study investigates the individual and simultaneous differential effects of the relevant determinants on motorway crash duration probabilities. In particular, it applies parametric Accelerated Failure Time (AFT) hazard‐based models to develop in‐depth insights into how the crash‐specific characteristic and the associated temporal and infrastructural determinants impact the duration. AFT models with both fixed and random parameters have been calibrated on one year of traffic crash records from two major Australian motorways in South East Queensland, and the differential effects of determinants on crash survival functions have been studied on these two motorways individually. A comprehensive spectrum of commonly used parametric fixed parameter AFT models, including generalized gamma and generalized F families, has been compared with random parameter AFT structures in terms of goodness of fit to the duration data, and as a result, the random parameter Weibull AFT model has been selected as the most appropriate model. Significant determinants of motorway crash duration included traffic diversion requirement, crash injury type, number and type of vehicles involved in a crash, day of week and time of day, towing support requirement and damage to the infrastructure. A major finding of this research is that the motorways under study are significantly different in terms of crash durations; such that motorway 1 exhibits durations that are on average 19% shorter compared with the durations on motorway 2. The differential effects of explanatory variables on crash durations are also different on the two motorways. The detailed presented analysis confirms that looking at the motorway network as a whole, neglecting the individual differences between roads, can lead to erroneous interpretations of duration and inefficient strategies for mitigating travel delays along a particular motorway.     

A havelock source panel method for near-surface submarines

A panel method is described for calculating potential flow around near-surface submarines. The method uses Havelock sources which automatically satisfy the linearized free-surface boundary condition. Outputs from the method include pressure field, pressure drag, wave resistance, vertical force, trim moment and wave pattern. Comparisons are made with model tests for wave resistance of Series 58 and DARPA SUBOFF hulls, as well as with wave resistance, lift force and trim moment of three length-to-diameter variants of the DSTO Joubert submarine hull. It is found that the Havelock source panel method is capable of determining with reasonable accuracy wave resistance, vertical force and trim moment for submarine hulls. Further experimental data are required in order to assess the accuracy of the method for pressure field and wave pattern prediction. The method is implemented in the computer code “HullWave” and offers potential advantages over RANS-CFD codes in terms of speed, simplicity and robustness.     

Port authorities view state coastal management programs

Abstract

An estuarine sanctuary is a store of public values due to the ecological, cultural, recreational, aesthetic, historic, and economic services provided by the preserve. These values may be expected to increase over time because of (1) growth in the population demanding estuarine services, (2) growth in the willingness to pay for such services, and (3) growth in the actual quality and quantity of services which are provided by a protected natural system. Thus an estuarine sanctuary will be more valuable to future generations than to current generations. When weighing the cost and benefits of a preservation or development decision, a preservation decision which seems currently undesirable may in fact be socially beneficial when growth in the value of estuarine services is included.     

The characteristics,uses and potentials of taxicab transportation

Taxicab transportation is a significant segment of urban transportation. Taxicabs, along with other “paratransit” type systems, provide service with characteristics between the automobile and mass transportation. Consequently, they are well suited to a number of special purposes. Taxicabs currently serve a wide range of trip purposes by travellers with varied socio-economic characteristics. Taxicab transportation is most attractive for serving lower density area and off-peak travel particularly where there is only minimal mass transit service. In this regard, taxicabs are a supplement to conventional mass transit. The use of taxicabs for collection and distribution functions for both passengers and freight is gradually being realized. The multiple use of taxicabs offers advantages of increasing taxicab productivity and reducing individual trip costs. Many of the problems related to taxicabs are regulatory and institutional in nature. Unless these constraints are eased or removed, wider application of taxicab transportation, including productivity gains, will be limited.     

美国铁路车钩缓冲装置的发展（续完）

3　关节式连接器和牵引杆3.1　关节式连接器 　　关节式连接器在客车上已有多年的使用历史，主要用于20世纪30年代一些轻型流线型客车上，但很少在货车上运用。1968年为切萨皮克*俄亥俄铁路制造的活顶漏斗车，其车体间的连接采用由美国铸钢公司研制的关节式连接器，不过并没有收到此类车的订单。20世纪70年代后期，开始使用长途拖车，这时使用单节具有足够长度的车体运载2个拖车已不再合理。虽然可以制造用于运载单节拖车的较短的普通车辆，但这种车辆不能有效利用2个四轮转向架的承载能力。1977年制造出了采用关节式连接器、6节编组的列车，每个车体都运载1个拖车。关节式连接器以切萨皮克*俄亥俄漏斗车连接器为设计原型，相邻车体共同支承在1台四轮转向架上，允许相互间在水平和垂直方向上有一定转角。位于端部2节车的外端以常规方式支撑在独立的转向架上。这样，6节车体（1个车组）仅由7台转向架支承，如按普通结构则需要12台转向架。这种车每辆有10个车体，取得了很大成功。