Express guideway transit: A case for further development in transit automation

Safe and reliable coupling and decoupling of cars from a moving train is feasible with further developments in linear motor propulsion and control of transit vehicles. This allows the last car of a train to decouple and stop at a station for a relative long dwell time, before it accelerates and is coupled to a following train. Controlled doors in front and rear of the transit vehicle permit passengers to walk through the train to the car which stops at their destination. A proposed transit system using these features is described and compared to Bombardier's Advanced Rapid Transit. Potential advantages are high schedule speed, uncrowded trains, smaller and more stations, low energy requirements and a smaller vehicle fleet.     

Measuring the safety impact of road infrastructure systems on driver behavior: Vehicle instrumentation and real world driving experiment

Featured in this pilot experimental study is the construction and design of an instrumented vehicle that is able to capture vehicle trajectory data with an extremely high level of accuracy and time resolution. Once constructed and properly instrumented, the various data collection systems were integrated with one another and a driving experiment was conducted on northern Virginia roadways with 18 participants taking part in the study. Trajectory data were collected for each of the drivers as they traversed a predefined loop of four roadway segments with varying numbers of lanes and varying shoulder widths. Data collected from the experiment were then used to calibrate the parameters of the prospect theory car-following model through a genetic algorithm calibration procedure. Once all model parameters were successfully calibrated, significance testing was carried out to determine the impacts that the varying roadway infrastructure had on driving behavior. Results indicated that there were significant changes in behavior when comparing one lane roadways to their two lane counterparts—specifically in cases where the roadway featured a wide shoulder. Additional testing was conducted to ensure that there was no variation based on gender, as nine study participants were female and nine were male. The successfulness of this first study conducted with the newly constructed instrumented vehicle creates the opportunity for a variety of additional studies to be conducted in the future.     

大都会游侠——斯堪尼亚香港双层巴士

由斯堪尼亚和香港的巴士运营商九龙巴士联合开发的两辆斯堪尼亚新款三轴双层巴士已抵达香港,以满足香港这座国际大都会的的特殊交通状况。斯堪尼亚的模块化生产系统,及EGR废气再循环技术的使用,能在不进行后处理或采用催化剂的前提下改进废气排放控制。     

Assessing the Utility of Beach Ecolabels for Use by Local Management

Ecolabels for beaches have been around since 1985 and have grown rapidly over the past decade. However, effects from ecolabels on beach ecology and local coastal cultures are unknown. This study reviews the literature on tourism ecolabels and environmental certification for beaches, analyzes the criteria of the most prominent beach ecolabel, and identifies considerations and proposes recommendations for local management that address sandy beach ecology and local cultures. The Blue Flag ecolabel is evaluated for how well the program criteria balance tourism, the processes of sandy beach ecology, and accommodate for local cultural values. This Blue Flag's criteria leave out protecting sandy beach ecology and fail to incorporate local community values in program design. The results of the study include three areas that beach managers need to consider for better understanding the utility of beach ecolabel programs: opportunity costs of participation and consequences of losing certification; evaluate investment in multiple certifications; and identify potential changes from the implementation of ecolabels.     

关于中国游艇制造

“事实最具说服力但统计数字与事实有一定出入．”举一个匿名作者说过的一句话。目前中国的游艇业不存在统计数字的短缺，中国已跻身80英尺以上游艇建造国家前10名。2006年休闲游艇出口额为1—8亿美元．国内游艇市场价值为3000万美元．比2005年增长了40％（资料来源：Marine Dragon咨询公司）。这些数字显示．中国已经确立了作为海外游艇建造商的一个低成本生产基地的地位。