One city,three models: comparison of land‐use/transport policy simulation models for Dortmund

The paper reports on simulation experiments conducted by the International Study Group on Land‐Use/Transport Interaction (ISGLUTI) for the metropolitan region of Dortmund in the Federal Republic of Germany. Three land‐use/transport simulation models were applied to the Dortmund region: the DORTMUND model developed at the University of Dortmund, the LILT model being used at University College London and the MEPLAN package developed by Marcial Echenique & Partners in Cambridge. The three models are briefly characterized and their ex‐post forecasts are compared with the actual development of the region. The final section of the paper compares how the three models respond to a common set of assumptions and policies from the fields of land‐use control, traffic management and transport investment. The differences in model response give insights into the validity of the theoretical foundations and internal structure of the models.     

Light rail transit in Canada

This paper describes current light rail transit planning and operation in Canada's major cities and smaller communities. There are ten urban areas in Canada with 250,000 or more people. Two of these have light rail systems in operation, three have lines under construction and nine others are planning LRT systems.     

Public/private-sector cooperation in urban transportation: Lessons from ridesharing experiences in Connecticut

An important characteristic of urban transportation policy and planning today is the increasing role that the private sector is playing in identifying and implementing transportation projects. For example, a recent examination of the possible forms of such involvement found that there were four major categories of action that could be used to classify recent private-sector efforts in urban transportation: (1) aid to and/or provision of transportation services; (2) formation of advocacy or advisory groups whose purpose is to influence public policy; (3) sponsorship of transportation studies; and (4) provision of management assistance to public agencies (Gordon, 1982). In many of these efforts, the successful implementation of a project or program required close cooperation between public and private-sector officials. The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of this interaction and explore the implications for transportation planning and policy.Examples of public/private-sector interaction in two Connecticut cities, Hartford and Stamford, are used to illustrate the characteristics of successful transportation program implementation. Although the examples are limited to two cities, and are mainly concerned with one major category of action (ridesharing), the characteristics of the process used and of the results can be applied to other situations where public/privatesector interaction is desired.     

Parking policy and urban goals: Linking strategy to needs

Parking management strategies have traditionally been used as a means of accommodating traffic demand, with little or no effort made to identify how such strategies might relate to other urban objectives. In this paper, parking management strategies are classified according to the control they exert over the amount of aggregate parking supply, access to parking, spatial distribution of parking supply, or dollar price of parking. Six general categories of urban policy objectives are identified, and the relationship between parking strategies and these objectives analyzed. The parking program in Baltimore is used to illustrate some of the relationships identified in this analysis. This paper concludes that the linkage between parking and the attainment of some urban objectives is potentially quite strong, and that further empirical research is needed to fully establish this relationship. Several different directions for further research are also identified.     

Evasive manoeuvres with a steering robot

In the pursuit of an objective rating on vehicle stability performance, it is always desirable to reduce disturbances and inconsistencies during experimental evaluations, especially the ones introduced by human drivers. This paper presents the development of a steering robot designed for closed-loop steering tasks during evasive manoeuvres. It describes the controller structure and discusses experimental results, in addition to simulation/vehicle model verifications and theoretical control analysis.     

基于时空GPSO-SVM的短时交通流预测

为了提高城市道路短时交通流预测的精度,提出了一种基于时空遗传粒子群支持向量机的短时交通流预测模型.通过主成分分析法对路网原始交通流量进行时空相关性分析,用较少的主成分代替原始交通流量并作为预测因子,在粒子群算法中引入遗传算法的交叉和变异因子,避免粒子群算法陷入局部最优.利用改进后的粒子群算法优化支持向量机参数,得到最优的支持向量机模型,并实现城市道路的短时交通流预测.以长春市路网的实测数据为基础进行了实例验证,结果表明,优化支持向量机参数时,遗传粒子群算法不会陷入局部最优,优化效果更好;与粒子群支持向量机模型和遗传粒子群支持向量机模型相比,所提出预测模型的相对误差波动较稳定,平均预测精度分别提高了4.96%和3.41%.     

Method for obtaining the wheel–rail contact location and its application to the normal problem calculation through ‘CONTACT’

This work presents a robust methodology for calculating inter-penetration areas between railway wheel and rail surfaces, the profiles of which are defined by a series of points. The method allows general three-dimensional displacements of the wheelset to be considered, and its characteristics make it especially suitable for dynamic simulations where the wheel–rail contact is assumed to be flexible. The technique is based on the discretisation of the geometries of the surfaces in contact, considering the wheel as a set of truncated cones and the rail as points. By means of this approach, it is possible to reduce the problem to the calculation of the intersections between cones and lines, the solution for which has a closed-form expression. The method has been used in conjunction with the CONTACT algorithm in order to solve the static normal contact problem when the lateral displacement of the wheelset, its yaw angle and the vertical force applied in the wheelset centroid are prescribed. The results consist of smooth functions when the dependent coordinates are represented as a function of the independent ones, lacking the jump discontinuities that are present when a rigid contact model is adopted. Example results are shown and assessed for the normal contact problem for different lateral and yaw positions of the wheelset on the track.     

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.     

快速公交系统离散仿真框架 的设计和实施

世界范围内,快速公交系统是缓解许多城市交通拥挤问题的有效方法之一.然 而,系统的成功与否依赖多种因素,如服务规划、基础设施、车站设计、乘客信息系统及系 统的集成和接口等.本文基于离散事件系统,构建了快速公交系统（BRT）的计算机仿真 框架.这种方法在评估各种变量对BRT 运行效果的影响时能够节约成本.结果表明,一部 分子系统能够直接用于模拟典型的BRT 系统.数值试验证明,开发的子系统能够合理地 再现实际BRT 系统中的常见情况.     

基于目标级联分析法的车下设备悬挂参数优化设计

为改善高速列车运行舒适度和车下悬挂设备的振动水平,建立了车辆-设备系统垂向动力学模型,推导了车辆系统振动加速度频率响应函数;结合轨道不平顺激励谱函数计算了车下悬挂设备振动加速度均方根,联合人体舒适度加权滤波函数计算了车体振动参考点的垂向舒适度指标;引入目标级联分析(ATC)法逐层分解车辆-设备系统振动指标,构建了车辆-设备系统两层指标分解数学模型,采用指数罚函数策略协调两层振动指标之间的耦合问题;提出了以车辆运行舒适度和车下悬挂设备振动加速度为指标的多目标优化方法,建立了以车下设备悬挂刚度和阻尼为设计变量的优化模型;联合车下设备悬挂参数动力吸振器(DVA)设计法对比探讨了ATC法在复杂车辆系统参数优化设计中的应用效果。分析结果表明：与DVA设计法相比,ATC法优化后车辆中部舒适度在300 km·h^-1工况下提高了8.5%,设备振动水平减小了约20%;在全速域区间,ATC法对车体中部的振动衰减是DVA设计法的2倍,且对设备的振动衰减比DVA设计法大4.5 dB;与优化前相比,ATC法优化后车辆中部舒适度指标最大提升了15%,设备振动加速度减小了0.18 m·s^-2。由此可见,ATC法可以运用于复杂轨道车辆结构参数优化设计中,能有效改善车辆系统的振动水平,也可为车下设备悬挂参数优化设计提供指导。