Immigration, residential location, car ownership, and commuting behavior: a multivariate latent class analysis from California

Using latent class cluster analysis, this paper investigates the spatial, social, demographic, and economic determinants of immigrants’ joint distribution among travel time, mode choice, and departure time for work using the 2000 Census long form data. Through a latent tree structure analysis, age, residential location, immigration stage, gender, personal income, and race are found to be the primary determinants in the workplace commute decision-making process. By defining several relatively homogeneous population segments, the likelihood of falling into each segment is found to differ across age groups and geography, with different indicators affecting each group differentially. This analysis complements past studies that used regression models to investigate socio-demographic indicators and their impact on travel behavior in two distinct ways: (a) analysis is done by considering travel time, mode choice, and departure time for work simultaneously, and (b) heterogeneity in behavior is accounted for using methods that identify different groups of behavior and then their determinants. Conclusively the method here is richer than many other methods used to study the ethnically diverse population of California and shows the addition of geographic location and latent segment identification to greatly improve our understanding of specific behaviors. It also provides evidence that immigrants are as diverse as the non-immigrant population and transportation policies need to be defined accordingly.

Exploring spatial variety in patterns of activity-travel behaviour: initial results from the Toronto Travel-Activity Panel Survey (TTAPS)

Studies of urban travel behaviour typically focus on weekday activities and commuting. This is surprising given the rising contribution of discretionary activities to daily travel that has occurred during the last few decades. Moreover, current understanding of the relationship between travel behaviour and land use remains incomplete, with little research carried out to explore spatial properties of activity-travel behaviour during the off-peak and weekend time periods. Weekend behaviours, for example, influenced by the availability of time and the spatiotemporal distribution of “weekend” destinations, likely produce spatially and temporally distinct activity-travel patterns. Using data from the first wave of the Toronto Travel-Activity Panel Survey (TTAPS), this paper examines an area of research that has received little attention; namely, the presence of spatial variety in activity-travel behaviour. The paper begins by looking at the extent to which individuals engage in spatially repetitive location choices during the course of a single week. Area-based measures of geographical extent and activity dispersion are then used to expose differences in weekday-to-weekend and day-to-day activity-travel patterns. Examination of unclassified activities carried out over a 1 week period reveals a level of spatial repetition that does not materialise across activities classified by type, travel mode, and planning strategy. Despite the inherent spatial flexibility offered by the personal automobile, spatial repetition is also found to be surprisingly similar across travel modes. The results also indicate weekday-to-weekend, and day-to-day fluctuations in spatial properties of individual activity-travel behaviour. These findings challenge the utility of the short-run survey as an instrument for capturing archetypal patterns of spatial behaviour. In addition, the presence of a weekday-to-weekend differential in spatial behaviour suggests that policies targeting weekday travel reduction could have little impact on travel associated with weekend activities.

Driver behavior formulation in intersection dilemma zones with phone use distraction via a logit-Bayesian network hybrid approach

Use of cellular phone while driving is one of the top contributing factors that induce traffic crashes, resulting in significant loss of life and property. A dilemma zone is a circumstance near signalized intersections where drivers hesitate when making decisions related to their driving behaviors. Therefore, the dilemma zone has been identified as an area with high crash potential. This article utilizes a logit-based Bayesian network (BN) hybrid approach to investigate drivers' decision patterns in a dilemma zone with phone use, based on experimental data from driving simulations from the National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS). Using a logit regression model, five variables were found to be significant in predicting drivers' decisions in a dilemma zone with distractive phone tasks: older drivers (50–60 years old), yellow signal length, time to stop line, handheld phone tasks, and driver gender. The identified significant variables were then used to train a BN model to predict drivers' decisions at a dilemma zone and examine probabilistic impacts of these variables on drivers' decisions. The analysis results indicate that the trained BN model was effective in driver decision prediction and variable influence extraction. It was found that older drivers, a short yellow signal, a short time to stop line, nonhandheld phone tasks, and female drivers are factors that tend to result in drivers proceeding through intersections in a dilemma zone with phone use distraction. These research findings provide insight in understanding driver behavior patterns in a dilemma zone with distractive phone tasks.     

自动驾驶如何重构汽车产业价值链

正关于自动驾驶发展进程的预测,业内普遍认同的观点是:自动驾驶汽车将在2025年前后开始呈现爆发式增长;到2035年,人类社会道路上行驶的车辆将有50%实现自动驾驶,届时自动驾驶整车及相关设备、应用的收入规模总计将超过5 000亿美元。1产品定位——从简单的交通工具转变为移动多用途空间无人驾驶首先转变的将是汽车产品自身的定位。在自动驾驶技术成为主流的时代,系统基本上     

Effect of handling characteristics on minimum time cornering with torque vectoring

In this paper, the effect of both passive and actively-modified vehicle handling characteristics on minimum time manoeuvring for vehicles with 4-wheel torque vectoring (TV) capability is studied. First, a baseline optimal TV strategy is sought, independent of any causal control law. An optimal control problem (OCP) is initially formulated considering 4 independent wheel torque inputs, together with the steering angle rate, as the control variables. Using this formulation, the performance benefit using TV against an electric drive train with a fixed torque distribution, is demonstrated. The sensitivity of TV-controlled manoeuvre time to the passive understeer gradient of the vehicle is then studied. A second formulation of the OCP is introduced where a closed-loop TV controller is incorporated into the system dynamics of the OCP. This formulation allows the effect of actively modifying a vehicle's handling characteristic via TV on its minimum time cornering performance of the vehicle to be assessed. In particular, the effect of the target understeer gradient as the key tuning parameter of the literature-standard steady-state linear single-track model yaw rate reference is analysed.     

Implementing a GPU-based numerical algorithm for modelling dynamics of a high-speed train

This paper discusses the initiative of implementing a GPU-based numerical algorithm for studying various phenomena associated with dynamics of a high-speed railway transport. The proposed numerical algorithm for calculating a critical speed of the bogie is based on the first Lyapunov number. Numerical algorithm is validated by analytical results, derived for a simple model. A dynamic model of a carriage connected to a new dual-wheelset flexible bogie is studied for linear and dry friction damping. Numerical results obtained by CPU, MPU and GPU approaches are compared and appropriateness of these methods is discussed.     

Distributed support modelling for vertical track dynamic analysis

The finite length nature of rail-pad supports is characterised by a Timoshenko beam element formulation over an elastic foundation, giving rise to the distributed support element. The new element is integrated into a vertical track model, which is solved in frequency and time domain. The developed formulation is obtained by solving the governing equations of a Timoshenko beam for this particular case. The interaction between sleeper and rail via the elastic connection is considered in an analytical, compact and efficient way. The modelling technique results in realistic amplitudes of the ‘pinned–pinned’ vibration mode and, additionally, it leads to a smooth evolution of the contact force temporal response and to reduced amplitudes of the rail vertical oscillation, as compared to the results from concentrated support models. Simulations are performed for both parametric and sinusoidal roughness excitation. The model of support proposed here is compared with a previous finite length model developed by other authors, coming to the conclusion that the proposed model gives accurate results at a reduced computational cost.     

A framework for travel time variability analysis using urban traffic incident data

This study aims to develop a framework to estimate travel time variability caused by traffic incidents using integrated traffic, road geometry, incident, and weather data. We develop a series of robust regression models based on the data from a stretch in California's highway system during a two-year period. The models estimate highway clearance time and percent changes in speed for both downstream and upstream sections of the incident bottleneck. The results indicate that highway shoulder and lane width factor adversely impact downstream highway clearance time. Next, travel time variability is estimated based on the proposed speed change models. The results of the split-sample validation show the effectiveness of the proposed models in estimating the travel time variability. Application of the model is examined using a micro-simulation, which demonstrates that equipping travelers with the estimated travel time variability in case of an incident can improve the total travel time by almost 60%. The contribution of this research is to bring several datasets together, which can be advantageous to Traffic Incident Management.     

软土刀具的磨损预测——一种研究刀具磨损系统中主要影响因素的新方法

硬岩隧道掘进机的性能很大程度上取决于其切削刀具的磨损情况。刀具的磨损会降低掘进速度,进而导致掘进时间延长、项目成本增加。通常在隧道项目的规划阶段使用预测模型来进行磨损预测,而常规的磨损试验对磨损系统的考虑还不够准确,并没有考虑到刀具/土体的相互作用、周围介质（水、膨润土）以及掘进过程中的荷载等因素。针对该问题,专门设计了一个水平放置的磨损试验设备。本文介绍了该试验方法,研究并讨论了磨损系统相关因素对磨损率的影响。结果表明,该设备可模拟真实的掘进过程,很好地解决了上述问题,达到了高效、准确预测磨损的效果。     

A tool to aid redesign of flexible transport services to increase efficiency in rural transport service provision

Rural areas generally have lower and more dispersed demands for travel which cannot sustain conventional public transport services and consequently have a greater number of flexible and demand responsive transport services operating. These services usually operate on a stand-alone basis, are often subsidized and are typically only accessible by certain passenger types or for specific trip purposes. This generally results in uncoordinated and inefficient transport provision overall. The Flexible integrated transport services (FITS) system featured in this paper has been designed to address this problem. FITS can be used as a planning tool to assess potential benefits from relaxing operating constraints (e.g., a service's operating boundaries), which can potentially suggest service redesign. It also includes the capacity to assign subsidy payments on a trip by trip basis to increase cost efficiency whilst meeting a greater proportion of transport needs. The case study in the paper focusses on transport to health in the Aberdeenshire and Morayshire areas of Scotland in the UK. Despite flexible transport operators receiving public funds to meet passenger needs, this is currently being supplemented by public bodies paying large amounts in taxi fares in instances where there is a statutory obligation to provide travel but where no other suitable transport service exists. The results demonstrate the potential substantial savings which could be realized by allowing transport operators to redesign their services by relaxing constraints and by the reassignment of subsidies: resulting in more passenger demands being met and a reduction in public spending on taxi fares.