Workshop 2: Bus rapid transit as part of enhanced service provision

Workshop 2 focused on the role of BRT as part of enhanced public transport service provision. Discussion topics included case studies around the world; improved performance and operations; and better contracts, institutional settings and enhanced policies. BRT was identified as a vital component of modern public transport systems due to its ability to provide high performance and rapid implementation at a lower cost than comparable rail transit. The participants concluded that on top of improving trunk transit corridors, it is important to look to the first and last kilometers and the connections among transport modes. In addition, it is important to consider all dimensions, not just the technical issues. The workshop identified the desirable ingredients for BRT success, created a table of bus based options for different applications and a list of research topics.     

The competitiveness of short sea shipping in multimodal logistics supply chains: service attributes

Much has been written and spoken about short sea shipping within the European Union (EU) as a means of shifting goods from road to sea and of achieving a sustainable economic development. However, this shift is far from being a general reality, despite the few individual, and success stories that have taken place and the EUROSTAT data suggest that the overall effort has contributed very little towards attaining this desired shift. In the light of this, research was conducted to discover how to put short sea shipping on a more competitive level within European multimodal logistics supply chains. This paper aims at identifying service attributes of short sea shipping operations within multimodal transport chains by means of a questionnaire and, for that, examines the short sea shipping environment and contemporary European logistics trends. The analysis is based on empirical research, involving logistics operators, shippers' associations and intermodal rail operators, and allows an evaluation (based on statistical techniques) of the short sea shipping industry and its competitors. It extends previous work by considering these short sea shipping attributes within a multimodal transport context.     

偏压隧道衬砌结构可靠度分析

提出了基于有限单元法求解偏压隧道衬砌结构可靠度的方法，开发了实用计算机程序，并给出实际算例。     

Rural school transportation in emerging countries: The Brazilian case

The lack of proper policies for the rural environment, in contrast to the situation in the urban environment in Brazil, has prevented the rural population from benefiting from basic infrastructure and access to their rights as citizens. The poor school transportation conditions are large barriers to access and retention of pupils in schools. These poor conditions, with lack of comfort and high accident risks, result in long travelling hours to reach the school and lessen learning performance because the children arrive in the school tired and sleepy. The Brazilian Federal Government has adopted different programs and actions in order to overcome these difficulties and to improve school conditions in general. A new standard vehicle has been adopted, which will be fit for the harsh road conditions in the rural areas, and handbooks have been introduced to help the municipalities and their officials to plan and to contract school transport services. This paper provides an overview of the outlook for rural school transportation in Brazil, describing the operational conditions (including trip and vehicle conditions) and their users, as well as analysis on the effects on school performance, and also the role of the local and Federal governments.     

Simulation of the Interaction between Vehicle Wheel and the Unevenness of Road Surface

A model of the relationship between a vehicle wheel and the unevenness of the road surface is defined. The wheel is considered to be of circular shape. For a given form of unevenness, the excitation functions are evaluated for the individual subsystems of the dynamic vehicle model having 5 degrees of freedom. The vehicle model traverses the uneven surface at a variable velocity. The model provides for the study of the complex dynamic phenomena which occur between the wheel and the unevenness. The response of the model also includes the dynamic stress on the drive when the wheel passes over the unevenness of the road surface.     

Integrated Environmental Modeling and Assessment of Coastal Ecosystems: Application for Aquaculture Management

This article presents an approach that couples coastal ecosystem modeling with integrated environmental assessment methodologies to support coastal management. The focus is to support the development of an ecosystem approach to aquaculture management including interactions with watershed substance loading. A Chinese bay, with intense aquaculture and multiple catchment uses, and where significant modeling efforts were undertaken is used as a case study. The ecosystem model developed for this bay is used to run scenarios that test the local management strategy for nutrient reduction. The corresponding ecological and economic impacts of the managers’ scenarios are analyzed by means of the Differential Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (ΔDPSIR) analysis. Emphasis is given to the analysis of the eutrophication process in the bay including present eutrophic condition and the expected changes due to the simulated scenarios. For this purpose, the Assessment of Estuarine Trophic Status (ASSETS) screening model is a valuable tool to interpret and classify the data and model outputs regarding eutrophication condition and to evaluate the manageable level of the nutrient loading entering in the bay.     

Using structural equations modeling to unravel the influence of land use patterns on travel behavior of workers in Montreal

This paper addresses the relations between travel behavior and land use patterns using a Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) framework. The proposed model structure draws on two earlier models developed for Lisbon and Seattle which show significant effects of land use patterns on travel behavior. The travel behavior variables included here are multifaceted including commuting distance, car ownership, the amount of mobility by mode (car, transit and non-motorized modes), both in terms of total kilometers travelled and number of trips. The model also includes a travel scheduling variable, which is the total time spent between the first and last trips to reflect daily constraints in time allocation and travel.The modeled land use variables measure the levels of urban concentration and density, diversity, both in terms of types of uses and the mix between jobs and inhabitants/residents, the transport supply levels, transit and road infrastructure, and accessibility indicators. The land use patterns are described both at the residence and employment zones of each individual included in the model by using a factor analysis technique as a data reduction and multicollinearity elimination technique. In order to explicitly account for self selection bias the land use variables are explicitly modeled as functions of socioeconomic attributes of individuals and their households.The results obtained show that people with different socioeconomic characteristics tend to work and live in places of substantially different urban environments. But besides these socioeconomic self-selection effects, land use variables significantly affect travel behavior. More precisely the effects of land use are in great part passed thru variables describing long term decisions like commuting distance, and car ownership. These results point to similar conclusions from the models developed for Lisbon and Seattle and thus give weight to the use of land use policies as tools for changing travel behavior.     

Numerical simulation of transient bulk queues with general vehicle dispatching strategies

Relatively simple iterative procedures are developed for simulating the queue length distribution for transient bulk arrival, bulk service queues. The method allows the study of holding strategies where the length of time a vehicle is held can depend on both the length ofthe queue and how long the vehicle has been held. The system is modeled in discrete time, and a series of numerical experiments are presented that examine the errors introduced by this discretization.     

固定修复基牙邻面龋坏治疗洞型设计的探讨

目的　探讨增加固定修复基牙强度、较少磨除基牙组织的洞型设计。方法　收集完整的离体上下颌第一、二磨牙 1 80颗 ,分为 9组 ,每组 2 0颗。Ⅰ组为对照组 (完整牙 ) ,Ⅱ～Ⅸ组分别制备具有临床代表意义的洞型。常规充填后 ,分别进行抗折负荷测试。结果　抗折负荷邻颈洞型较邻颈牙合浅洞型大 2 4 2 % ,邻颈、牙合洞型较邻颈牙合深洞型大 5 0 8% ,邻面洞型较邻牙合浅洞型大 9 8% ,邻、牙合洞型较邻牙合深洞型大 2 1 % ,邻牙合深洞型较邻颈牙合深洞型大 2 4 9%。结论　对基牙邻面龋坏 ,特别是邻面颈部龋坏 ,争取就自然洞型完成充填 ,能显著增加其抗折强度 ;必须经牙合面行根管治疗时 ,邻牙合面分开洞型 ,能明显增加抗折负荷。