Changing ownership structures in the Dutch fleet

The new Dutch shipping policy has given rise to high expectation and curiosity in the world of shipping. This, together with the obvious difficulties of an ex-post study of the effectiveness of such innovative policy, has prompted the authors to take an interest in attempting to investigate changes in ownership of the Dutch fleet 2 years after the new policy has been introduced. To do this, a rather new concept of ‘flagging out’ has been adopted, which is interpreted as a process leading to different degrees of ‘foreignness’ in a shipping operation. In this paper, a method to structure is presented, and ownership information, and changes in it are presented, that are essentially based on the theory of stochastic processes. The data used is the Dutch fleet data, which includes information on the nationality of the flag, parent ownership and management over the period 1994–1998. The results yield interesting insights in the shifts in the ownership and operational structure of shipping companies induced by the new policy. In particular, they allow one to establish the origin of new vessels, in which stage of ownership/operation it is most likely that shifts occur, and to determine the relationship between the different stages of the ‘flagging out’ process. These results, thus, enable an evaluation of the areas in which the policy can be expected to yield results.     

Fuzzy-logic-based incident detection for signalized diamond interchanges

This paper documents a fuzzy-logic-based incident detection algorithm for signalized urban diamond interchanges. The model is capable of detecting lane-blocking incidents whose effects are manifested by patterns of deterioration in traffic conditions that require adjustments in signal control strategies. As a component of a real-time traffic adaptive control system for signalized diamond interchanges, the algorithm feeds an incident report (i.e., the time, location, and severity of the incident) to the system's optimization manager, which uses that information to determine the appropriate signal control strategy.The performance of the model was studied using a simulation of an actual diamond interchange. The simulation study evaluated the model's performance in terms of detection rate, false alarm rate, and mean time to detect. The model's performance was encouraging, and the fuzzy-logic-based approach is considered promising.     

Assessing the CO2 impact of current and future rail track in the UK

This paper investigates the CO₂ impact of current and future UK rail track and estimates the material, process and transport emissions associated with construction, maintenance and end-of-life activities for designs at high and low traffic loads. Analysis shows that for current track configurations, track with concrete sleepers has the lowest CO₂ impact, followed by steel, hardwood and softwood. Several potential future rail track designs have been analysed including embedded rail and double and quadruple-headed rail. All future track designs have a lower impact than current designs, but this improvement is more marked at high traffic loads. Up to a 40% reduction in CO₂ impact could be achieved if the UK rail network was to move from conventional track design to a double-headed embedded rail design. Key levers for reducing the CO₂ impact of track are identified as service life extension, traffic load reduction and the selection of low impact track designs.     

An integrated model system and policy evaluation tool for maximizing mobility under environmental capacity constraints: A case study in Dalian City,China

This paper presents an integrated model system for mobility maximization based on a quantified specification of environmental capacity, and evaluates policy interaction and effectiveness by simulating a number of policy scenarios. The system is designed to specify the maximum level of car ownership and number of trips by private and public modes subject to an environmental capacity constraint defined as the frontier emission under maximum system efficiency. Four types of hypothetical policies (population change, urban sprawl, land-use pattern and network improvement) are designed and the effects of 13 policy scenarios are simulated using data of Dalian City, China. Results reveal that the integrated model system reacts sensitively to policy interventions. The urban sprawl reflected in a changing residential distribution from central to suburban areas is most instrumental from the perspective of pollution alleviation. If the goal is to simultaneously reduce emissions while accommodating mobility, two combinational policy scenarios outperform all others.     

Contracting in highway maintenance and rehabilitation: Are spatial effects important?

Highway agencies around the world strive to improve practices for infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation, using project delivery policies that range from total ‘in-house’ responsibility to complete privatization, with a number of flexible contracting policies such as performance-based contracting, variants of design-build-maintain, and lane rentals among others between these two extremes. In this paper, we present a methodology that duly accounts for underlying spatial effects and estimates the expected cost savings of innovative contracting policies for highway maintenance and rehabilitation relative to in-house execution of these activities. Spatial econometric modeling is used to analyze highway contract data from 49 countries. We also investigate the marginal effects of key explanatory variables on contract cost savings using spatial multipliers. Our findings show that there are significant relationships between cost savings and contract characteristics, and that there is an apparent direct relationship between the average cost savings of contracts in a country and contract average cost savings and contract sizes in neighboring countries.     

Red-light cameras at intersections: Estimating preferences using a stated choice model

Red-light cameras placed at intersections have the potential to increase safety, but they are often viewed as an invasion of privacy. Preferences for these cameras were explored using a stated choice model that presents key attributes of camera placements. Stated choice models involve careful experimental design, akin to experimental control in laboratory settings. A variety of design approaches were used, settling on a composition of the choice sets people face in the survey. To illustrate the approach, an internet survey was used with a convenience sample containing a high percentage of college students. The results show that while not the case independently, as the number of cameras and fines for violators are simultaneously increased, the preferences for one particular red light cameras program are likely to improve.     

Economic analysis of Japanese air pollution regulation: An optimal retirement problem under the vehicle type regulation in the NOx–particulate matter law

This paper examines the vehicle type regulation that was introduced under the Automobile Nitrogen Oxides–Particulate Matter Law to mitigate air pollution in Japanese metropolitan areas. The vehicle type regulation effectively sets the timing for vehicle retirement by initial registration year and type. However, there was no consideration of cost or efficiency in choosing the timing of retirement. We solve an optimal problem to maximize the social net benefit under the current framework of the vehicle type regulation. The analysis finds that the net benefit can more than double if the optimal retirement timing is chosen. Further, we find that even a simple alteration of the retirement timing can increase the social net benefit by 13%.     

小,从何谈起?

说起汽车大家会滔滔不绝地说到很多很多经典车,但这125年来的汽车发展已经改变了人们原有的思维模式。而我们这期讲的都是以小为题的内容,但这个小可以是质量的小,也可以是观点的小,这也就是我从9月份的法兰克福车展说起的原因,这是一个揭示未来汽车发展趋势的展览,也是和国内车展本质上的区别,因为国内的车展更像一个展销会。而针对法兰克福车展我个人认为带来了两个方面的信息,第一就是汽车的小排放,第二就是汽车的小众化。     

高速磁悬浮列车测速定位系统过接缝问题研究

高速磁浮列车长定子轨道的接缝会使测速定位系统相对位置传感器的检测信号产生畸变,并导致牵引设备过流或过压保护甚至烧毁.为消除轨道接缝的影响,测速定位系统使用了两路相对位置传感器.本文依据自适应滤波器原理,设计了一种自适应预测滤波器,根据相对位置传感器输出的历史值对当前输出值进行预测,通过比较预测值与实际观测值判断检测信号是否产生畸变,并以此为基础对两路传感器的信号进行选择与切换.经过仿真验证,这种方法在传感器存在安装误差和干扰的情况下也可以很好的消除因信号畸变带来的不良影响.     

Evaluation of factors for carrier selection in the China Pearl River delta

The efficient integration of logistics modes is critical for international cargo shipping. The local transportation connecting to the export port then plays a vital role in such integration. This paper investigates the problems of carrier selection in the China Pearl River delta area, with respect to international shipping. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) model is constructed based on a comprehensive industrial interviews and statistical analysis. Rather than simply ranking the given alternatives, we use AHP is used to analyse the weakness and strength of impacting factors in carrier selection. The model is implemented under different types of shipper. Seven criteria are statistically summarized from the questionnaire for evaluating eight different modes. The results are useful to those liner companies serving the PRD region in relationship to port selection and fleet deployment.