In this paper, three innovative car-sharing systems for urban areas are proposed, based on fleets of individual intelligent vehicles with three service characteristics: instant access, open-ended reservations and one-way trips. These features provide high flexibility but create an uneven distribution of vehicles among stations. Therefore, relocation of vehicles must be performed. Three different system procedures are proposed: in the first system, relocations are performed by users; in the other two, vehicles relocate automatically, thanks to their automation. In the first two systems, vehicles are accessible only at stations, whereas in the third they are also accessible along roads. In order to provide transport managers with a tool to test systems in different realities, an object-oriented simulator is developed. The simulation provides outputs of system performance, in terms of user waiting times and system efficiency. The proposed systems are simulated for the city of Genoa, in Italy, and a comparative analysis is presented. 相似文献
A key factor in determining the performance of a railway system is the speed profile of the trains within the network. There can be significant variation in this speed profile for identical trains on identical routes, depending on how the train is driven. A better understanding and control of speed profiles can therefore offer significant potential for improvements in the performance of railway systems. This paper develops a model to allow the variability of real-life driving profiles of railway vehicles to be quantitatively described and predicted, in order to better account for the effects on the speed profile of the train and hence the performance of the railway network as a whole. The model is validated against data from the Tyne and Wear Metro, and replicates the measured data to a good degree of accuracy. 相似文献
There is much need for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for inspection and mapping purposes. Most conventional AUVs use torpedo-shaped single-rigid hull, b... 相似文献
Significant efforts have been made in modeling a travel time distribution and establishing measures of travel time reliability (TTR). However, the literature on evaluating the factors affecting TTR is not well established. Accordingly, this paper presents an empirical analysis to determine potential factors that are associated with TTR. This study mainly applies the Bayesian Networks model to assess the probabilistic association between road geometry, traffic data, and TTR. The results from this model reveal that land use characteristics, intersection factors, and posted speed limits are directly associated with TTR. Evaluating the strength of the association between TTR and the directly related variables, the log odds ratio analysis indicates that the land use factor has the highest impact (0.83) followed by the intersection factor (0.57). The findings from this study can provide valuable resources to planners and traffic operators in their decision-making to improve TTR with quantitative evidence. 相似文献
Although the improvement of well-being is often an implicitly-assumed goal of many, if not most, public policies, the study of subjective well-being (SWB) and travel has so far been confined to a relatively small segment of the travel behavior community. Accordingly, one main purpose of this paper is to introduce a larger share of the community to some fundamental SWB-related concepts and their application in transportation research, with the goal of attracting others to this rewarding area of study. At the same time, however, I also hope to offer some useful reflections to those already working in this field. After discussing some basic issues of terminology and measurement of SWB, I present from the literature four conceptual models relating travel and subjective well-being. Following one of those models, I review five ways in which travel can influence well-being. I conclude by examining some challenges associated with assessing the impacts of travel on well-being, as well as challenges associated with applying what we learn to policy.
With the recent increase in the deployment of ITS technologies in urban areas throughout the world, traffic management centers
have the ability to obtain and archive large amounts of data on the traffic system. These data can be used to estimate current
conditions and predict future conditions on the roadway network. A general solution methodology for identifying the optimal
aggregation interval sizes for four scenarios is proposed in this article: (1) link travel time estimation, (2) corridor/route
travel time estimation, (3) link travel time forecasting, and (4) corridor/route travel time forecasting. The methodology
explicitly considers traffic dynamics and frequency of observations. A formulation based on mean square error (MSE) is developed
for each of the scenarios and interpreted from a traffic flow perspective. The methodology for estimating the optimal aggregation
size is based on (1) the tradeoff between the estimated mean square error of prediction and the variance of the predictor,
(2) the differences between estimation and forecasting, and (3) the direct consideration of the correlation between link travel
time for corridor/route estimation and forecasting. The proposed methods are demonstrated using travel time data from Houston,
Texas, that were collected as part of the automatic vehicle identification (AVI) system of the Houston Transtar system. It
was found that the optimal aggregation size is a function of the application and traffic condition.