莫桑比克沥青路面设计介绍

沥青混凝土因其具有初始投资低、易于维修和循环使用等优点,广泛应用于世界各地,在南非和莫桑比克的路面结构中也得到广泛采用。文章介绍了莫桑比克使用的沥青混凝土设计方法(基于SATCC方法),以期与国内设计方法进行对比研究。     

沥青混合料骨架结构抗剪强度特性的试验研究

采用悬浮密实结构AC-20I、骨架空隙结构AM-20及骨架密实结构SMA-20试样,对三种典型结构的沥青混合料抗剪强度进行了对比试验研究.试验采用粗骨料大型直剪仪,探讨了球形和椭球形集料对抗剪强度的影响.结果表明:从集料级配看,骨架结构形成的抗剪强度明显大于悬浮结构形成的抗剪强度;从集料形状看,椭球体集料构成结构的内摩擦角大于球形体集料构成结构的内摩擦角,而且,骨架密实结构对集料形状最为敏感.     

Estimating traffic volumes on intercity road locations using roadway attributes,socioeconomic features and other work-related activity characteristics

Traffic volume data are key inputs to many applications in highway design and planning. But these data are collected in only a limited number of road locations due to the cost involved. This paper presents an approach for estimating daily and hourly traffic volumes on intercity road locations combining clustering and regression modelling techniques. With the aim of applying the procedure to any road location, it proposes the use of roadway attributes and socioeconomic characteristics of nearby cities as explanatory variables, together with a set of previously discovered patterns with the hourly traffic percent distribution. Test results show that the proposed approach significantly produces accurate estimates of daily volumes for most locations. The accuracy at hourly level is a bit more reduced but, for periods when traffic is significant, more than half of the estimates are within 20% of absolute percentage error. Moreover, the main peak period is approximately identified for most cases. These findings together with its great applicability make this approach attractive for planners when no traffic data are available and an estimate is helpful.     

The interurban DRAG-Spain model: The main factors of influence on road accidents in Spain

This paper presents the results of applying DRAG methodology to the identification of the main factors of influence on the number of injury and fatal accidents occurring on Spain’s interurban network. Nineteen independent variables have been included in the model grouped together under ten categories: exposure, infrastructure, weather, drivers, economic variables, vehicle stock, surveillance, speed and legislative measures. Highly interesting conclusions can be reached from the results on the basis of the different effects of a single variable on each of the accident types according to severity. The greatest influence revealed by the results is exposure, which together with inexperienced drivers, speed and an ageing vehicle stock, have a negative effect, while the increased surveillance on roads, the improvement in the technological features of vehicles and the proportion of high capacity networks have a positive effect, since the results obtained show a significant drop in accidents.     

The role of pelagic fish as forage for the demersal fish community in the southern Bay of Biscay

The small pelagic fish represents the link between nekton and demersal communities, and they are an important food source for some demersal fish species. In the autumns between 1993 and 2002, 74,869 stomach contents of 25 demersal fish species were analysed during the scientific surveys organized by the Instituto Español de Oceanografía. These species represent the demersal fish community of the southern Bay of Biscay. An important part of their diet (39% by volume) was composed of pelagic fish species (e.g. Engraulis encrasicolus, Gadiculus argenteus, Micromesistius poutassou, Trachurus trachurus, Sardina pilchardus, Scomber scombrus). Among all these prey species, the relevance of M. poutassou and G. argenteus stood out because of their high abundance both in the diets and during the scientific surveys. The relevance of pelagic fish as prey increased with predator size, reaching more than 60% of the diet by volume in the length range 25–29 cm. However, fish predators larger than 50 cm depended less on pelagic fish (33%), since they were also able to feed on other sources such as megafaunal invertebrates, mainly cephalopods. The pelagic fish resource was primarily exploited by 12 demersal fish species, with Merluccius merluccius and Zeus faber being the main ones feeding on small pelagics, which was related to the vertical movement of predators and prey through the water column. Survey abundance indices were used as indicators of prey abundance in the ecosystem, both for biomass and number. There was evidence for density-dependant feeding by predators on E. encrasicolus, G. argenteus and T. trachurus, while the main discrepancies between abundance in the stomachs and in the surveys were due to differential availability of prey length classes in the environment. Small prey species and individuals were exploited by most demersal fish while large prey species were less accessible to predators.     

Estimation of a constrained multinomial logit model

Identifying the set of available alternatives in a choice process after considering an individual’s bounds or thresholds is a complex process that, in practice, is commonly simplified by assuming exogenous rules in the choice set formation. The Constrained Multinomial Logit (CMNL) model incorporates thresholds in several attributes as a key endogenous process to define the alternatives choice/rejection mechanism. The model allows for the inclusion of multiple constraints and has a closed form. In this paper, we study the estimation of the CMNL model using the maximum likelihood function, develop a methodology to estimate the model overcoming identification problems by an endogenous partition of the sample, and test the model estimation with both synthetic and real data. The CMNL model appears to be suitable for general applications as it presents a significantly better fit than the MNL model under constrained behaviour and replicates the MNL estimates in the unconstrained case. Using mode choice real data, we found significant differences in the values of times and elasticities between compensatory MNL and semi-compensatory CMNL models, which increase as the thresholds on attributes become active.     

Access: The transport-land use economic link

The notion of access has evolved from a physical measure of trip interaction to a more economic concept associated with transport benefits. This paper follows the economic interpretation forward in order to understand the potentiality of access as a consistent economic link between the land use system and the transport system. Consistency is achieved in an economic approach based upon the argument that trips are made only if the benefit derived from making contact with other activities exceeds the transport generalized cost. This framework provides economic measures of access, as evidence of impact on origin and destination of trips, which can be calculated from the analysis of the transport system in some relevant cases. This paper analyses how to calculate measures of access from transport demand models and how to allocate transport benefits to the origin and destination activities. Finally, it describes the use of herein proposed access measures in land use-transport interaction modelling.     

An alternative formulation of the simultaneous route and departure-time choice equilibrium problem

Traditional (static) network equilibrium models have always been formulated in a route-based fashion rather than a vehicle-based fashion. That is, the decision variables have been the number of vehicles using each route rather than the route choices of each vehicle. Given the success of this approach, it is not surprising that recent “dynamic” network equilibrium models have been formulated in a similar way. That is, the decision variables in these models are usually the route-specific departure rates over time. In this paper, we develop a vehicle-based equilibrium model of simultaneous route and departure-time choice and discuss the possible advantages of this approach. We then describe a heuristic for solving this model and demonstrate its effectiveness on several small examples.     

Seasonal changes in wildlife use of motorway crossing structures and their implication for monitoring programmes

Multiple factors determine the use and effectiveness of wildlife passages and crossings installed in new roads as mitigation measures against the barrier effect. It is unknown whether factors such as seasonality determine the use of these structures. This analyses the seasonality of structure used by vertebrates. Forty-eight transverse structures crossing the A-52 motorway in north-western Spain are studied during the summer and winter of 2002–03. The use of structures by terrestrial vertebrates was monitored by tracks left in marble dust and photographic systems, and comparisons carried out by means of generalized lineal methods for count data. Structural factors mostly determined the differential use of passage types by species but seasonal changes were detected both in the intensity of use and in passage selection by some species.