Making do: The effects of a mass transit strike on travel behavior

A brief transit strike in early December 1976 disrupted bus services to the city of Pittsburgh and surrounding Allegheny County. That strike provided an opportunity for testing a variety of approaches to increase ride-sharing and to reduce traffic congestion, and for examining the effect of the strike on traffic congestion and on individual travel behavior. Even though over 60% of the commuters to the CBD use transit, the effects of the strike were relatively mild. There was some increase in traffic flow into the CBD and some spreading of the peak period. The largest proportion of the transit commuters who made trips to the CBD during the strike were dropped off by a non-commuter, increasing highway traffic. The most severe impact was felt by those transit commuters who had no cars in the household; 25% of these commuters (only 3% of the total CBD commuters) stayed home from work on the first day of the strike. Most attempts to mitigate the impact of the strike had little effect, largely because most commuters were able to manage adequately during the short strike. The anticipated parking problem, on which much of the contingency planning was focused, did not emerge, largely because of the use of carpooling and drop-off mode by many of the transit users.     

Regulatory reform and freight mode choice

Reform of trucking Vehicle Weights and Dimensions (VWD) regulations in Canada is now underway. The effect these reforms will have on the freight transportation industry are only recently the subject of research. This paper is part of this new research effort, aimed at understanding how regulatory reform in the trucking sector will affect the existing competitive relationship between trucks and the railways. The paper presents the results of study and research into modelling the relationship between mode choice and the service characteristics that are affected by VWD reform.Using several periods of data, a series of econometric models are developed which help to elucidate the relative relationships between the mode service characteristics for both of the principal interprovincial freight modes. A technique is developed and presented to model railway user costs in order to overcome the complex and often unrepresentable pricing activities of Canadian railways.The strength of the developed econometric models is presented, including their significance and statistical reliability. This is further reinforced by the similarities exhibited by all the models in the series. The selected model is applied to predict market service responses required of the railway industry in order to compete with the trucking sector now adapting to the new regulations.The impact of the newly implemented vehicle weight and dimension reform on the rail transportation industry is analyzed and railway industry improvements aimed at maintaining its market share are presented. The results predicted by the model show that railway user cost reductions should be moderate, and likely less than the level of inflation over the period of time when trucking converts its fleet to take advantage of the new regulations.Abbreviations AASHTO American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials - CCMTA Canadian Conference of Motor Transport Administrators - EPI End products, inedible commodity classification - GVW Gross Vehicle Weight - NA 1988 VWD National Agreement - RTAC Roads and Transportation Association of Canada - VWD Vehicle Weight(s) and Dimension(s) - WA 1988 VWD Western Agreement     

Modeling intrametropolitan industrial location realistically

This paper compares intrametropolitan industrial location models to the process of intrametropolitan industrial location as described in the real estate and urban economic literature. It identifies seven areas where industrial location models are at odds with reality, and suggests ways to make them realistic. Specifically, it makes a case for microanalytic/stochastic/recursive/dynamic/economic industrial location models. It goes on to describe an operational model that is realistic in most respects.     

轿车车身静态刚度计算及静态竖直弯曲刚度优化分析

采用UG软件建立了某国产轿车白车身静态分析有限元模型，计算并验证了其主要工况下的静态扭转特性，并进行了轿车车身静态弯曲挠度关于板单元厚度的灵敏度计算分析。针对分析结果进行了具体加强刚度的优化设计。     

CA498柴油机冷却水流LDV测量

为验证柴油机冷却水套CFD计算结果的准确性，利用LDV测速系统测量了CA498柴油机缸盖及缸体内流场12个关键点处的速度，并将试验结果与CFD计算结果进行了比较一结果表明，除了缸体上3个点的实际测量结果与CFD计算结果有较大偏差以外，其他各点试验测得的数据与CFD计算结果有较好的一致性。分析了造成偏差的主要原因。     

基于试验的自动变速器故障诊断分析

通过现有的失速试验、时滞试验、油压试验、道路试验、故障码扫描等多种试验方法，可在变速器解体之前获得故障信息。在深入分析自动变速器结构及各元件功能的基础上，将各种试验进行合理的逻辑组合，对获得的故障信息进行逻辑分析，最终可将故障源限定在最小的范围之内。分析探讨了这种方法的可行性。     

遗传算法在五连杆悬架优化中的应用

针对五连杆悬架的特点，运用多体系统动力学的理论建立了悬架的运动学分析模型，基于遗传算法开发了优化器的核心单元，并解决了它们之间的通讯和协调问题以实现在车轮上下跳动过程中车轮外倾角的运动学特性变化量与目标值之间的偏差最小作为优化设计的目标，说明了遗传算法在五连杆悬架优化中的应用。应用这种优化体系对某型轿车五连杆悬架进行了实例优化分析。     

发动机冷却水套内三维流动的数值模拟研究

应用FIRE软件对某一发动机冷却水套进行了三维数值模拟，得到了冷却液流场速率、换热系数分布、压力损失以及流量分布等流场信息。从计算结果中发现，该发动机缸体水套的第2缸、第3缸等区域存在流动死区．水套进、排气侧流量分布相差较大．整体水套压力损失与同类机型相比偏小等不合理的流动现象，是导致其第2缸、第3缸“拉缸”的主要原因。最后提出了相应的解决方案。