A macroscopic theory of two-lane rural roads

A macroscopic theory for predicting the operation on two-lane, two-way roads is proposed. In this theory, the interaction between fast and slow vehicles obeys Newell’s kinematic wave theory of moving bottlenecks. Calibration is not required as all parameters are fully observable. Closed-form expressions for the capacity, average speed, percent time spent following and overtaking rates are proposed and the biases of current practice are identified. Comparisons between the proposed theory and empirical data are also included.     

The place of the ISPS Code in the legal international regime

The adoption of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code) is the latest response of the international shipping community to the increasing threat posed by acts of terrorism at sea. The ACHILLE LAURO incident of 1985 showed that the traditional law against piracy was not adequate to deal with new types of unlawful acts against international shipping, especially those involving acts of terrorism. The 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA Convention) and the technical and administrative measures adopted by the Maritime Safety Committee of IMO in 1986 and 1996 attempted to develop a broader regime to deal with unlawful acts against international shipping.However, the events of September 11, 2001 showed that additional measures were still needed to prevent terrorist attacks against ships.     

The simple,compelling case for PRT

When compared with existing urban modes, Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) offers compelling advantages in every important respect. The desirable attributes of any urban mobility mode are well documented, such as minimal travel time, safety, comfort, low cost, and minimal impacts. These attributes are used to define a hypothetical, ideal urban mode. The ideal mode would possess characteristics such as no waiting, no stops, from anywhere to anywhere service, risk-free, non-polluting, and accessible to everyone at any time. Although not attainable in the real world, the ideal provides a model and benchmark for design much as the Carnot thermodynamic cycle guides the development of internal combustion engines, or ideal gases and perfect fluids are postulated in physics. A matrix format is used to present the characteristics of various modes against the desirable attributes of any mode. Modes presented are the ideal, walking, bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles, taxis, buses, rail transit, Automated Guideway Transit (AGT), and PRT. In all respects, PRT is shown to approach the ideal much more closely than competing modes.     

Using the revenues from congestion pricing

The economic theory behind congestion pricing relies on using the revenues to help compensate highway users. But can practical methods of using revenues come close to achieving this compensation, and still have salient appeal to important political groups? This paper investigates the possibilities for designing a package of revenue uses that can achieve these twin goals. The suggested approach returns two-thirds of the revenues to travelers through travel allowances and tax reductions, and uses the rest to improve transportation throughout the area, including affected business centers. By replacing regressive sales and fuel taxes, this approach offsets the tendency of the prices alone to have a regressive distributional impact. By lowering taxes, funding new highways, improving transit, and upgrading business centers, the package provides inducements for support from several key interest groups. The potential amounts of money involved are discussed using nationwide data, and in more detail using a case study of ubiquitous facility pricing throughout the Los Angeles region. Illustrative calculations of the effects on various individuals confirm that such a package can create net benefits for a wide spectrum of people and interest groups.     

Simulation Approach to the Effect of the Ratio Changing Speed of a Metal V-Belt CVT on the Vehicle Response

In regard to the belt and pulley system of a metal V-belt CVT, the characteristics of the ratio changing speed is obtained by experiments. It is summarized in a practical and simple experimental equation. By using this equation a simulation model is developed to analyze the response of a vehicle with a metal V-belt CVT to a rapid pulley ratio change. The simulation results are in reasonable agreements with experimental results.     

Optimal Active Suspension Design Using a Frequency-shaping PID Filter

By the incorporation of frequency-shaping into the linear quadratic methods used in active suspension design it is possible to achieve improvements in both body frequency response and road-holding. The use of a PID filter for this purpose also leads to robustness of the system to disturbance forces. Zero steady-state deflections are achieved for applied body loads by the integral action with excellent attenuation of the transient response. The resulting system consists of a hydraulic actuator in parallel with a body spring of arbitrary stiffness and is optimal with equivalent full state feedback.     

Fleet deployment optimization for liner shipping Part 1. Background, problem formulation and solution approaches

The background and the literature in liner fleet scheduling is reviewed and the objectives and assumptions of our approach are explained. We develop a detailed and realistic model for the estimation of the operating costs of liner ships on various routes, and present a linear programming formulation for the liner fleet deployment problem. Independent approaches for fixing both the service frequencies in the different routes and the speeds of the ships, are presented.