Driver recruitability for advanced traveler information system experiments

A number of Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) field experiments are being undertaken to study the effectiveness of the ATIS concept in ameliorating traffic congestion and reducing delays. Many of these experiments require the participation of private drivers willing to allow in-vehicle navigation units to be installed in their vehicles over an extended period of time. A critical part of any ATIS field experiment is the selection or recruitment of private drivers to fulfill the multi-purpose participation needs of the ATIS experiment. To provide an informed basis for designing such a driver recruitment effort, it is important to understand the factors affecting driver recruitability or “willingness to participate.” This research presents the results of a quantitative analysis of driver recruitability conducted to aid in the design of recruitment procedures for ADVANCE (Advanced Driver and Vehicle Advisory Navigation Concept), the largest ATIS field experiment of its kind. The approach used a telephone survey to assess driver willingness to participate in the ADVANCE field experiment and to explore variations in that willingness among different drivers and across characteristics of the ADVANCE system and experimental design. The results indicate that the willingness to participate in the ADVANCE field test is greater for men, persons who hold executive or managerial occupations, individuals who drive extensively, persons who use electronic devices such as personal computers and car phones regularly, and persons who have positive beliefs regarding the usefulness of the ADVANCE concept. The result also suggest that drivers' willingness to participate is not strongly affected by monitoring/reporting requirements such as responding to surveys, mailing electronically stored records of system operation, and periodic service requirements. However, the willingness decreases considerably if drivers have to bear the financial responsibility for damage of the navigation equipment and any equipment-caused electrical failures to the car. Finally, the incentive of a lottery prize raises the level of participation willingness. These results have important implications for the recruitment effort, both in terms of recruiting drivers for participation in the demonstration and specifying the operational details of the field test.     

Economic value and utility of a powertrain system for a plug-in parallel diesel hybrid electric bus

This research is the first to develop a design for a powertain system of a plug-in parallel diesel hybrid electric bus equipped with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and presents a new design paradigm of the plug-in hybrid electric bus (HEB). The criteria and method for selecting and sizing powertrain components equipped in the plug-in HEB are presented. The plug-in HEB is designed to overcome the vulnerable limitations of driving range and performance of a purely electric vehicle (EV) and to improve fuel economy and exhaust emissions of conventional bus and conventional HEBs. The control strategy of the complicated connected propulsion system in the plug-in parallel HEB is one of the most significant factors in achieving higher fuel economy and lower exhaust emissions of the HEV. In this research, a new optimal control strategy concept is proposed against existing rule-based control strategies. The optimal powertrain control strategy is obtained through two steps of optimizations: tradeoff optimization for emission control and energy flow optimization based on the instantaneous optimization technique. The proposed powertrain control strategy has the flexibility to adapt to battery SOC, exhaust emission amount, classified driving pattern, driving condition, and engine temperature. The objective of the optimal control strategy is to optimize the fuel consumption, electricity use, and exhaust emissions proper to the performance targets. The proposed control strategy was simulated to prove its validity by using analysis simulation tool ADVISOR (advanced vehicle simulator).     

An examination of the determinants of day-to-day variability in individuals' urban travel behavior

Day-to-day variability in individuals' travel behavior (intrapersonal variability) has been recognized in conceptual discussions, yet the analysis and modeling of urban travel are typically based on a single day record of each individual's travel. This paper develops and examines hypotheses regarding the determinants of intrapersonal variability in urban travel behavior.Two general hypotheses are formulated to describe the effects of motivations for travel and related behavior and of travel and related constraints on intrapersonal variability in weekday urban travel behavior. Specific hypotheses concerning the effect of various sociodemographic characteristics on intrapersonal variability are derived from these general hypotheses. These specific hypotheses are tested empirically in the context of daily trip frequency using a five-day record of travel in Reading, England.The empirical result support the two general hypotheses. First, individuals who have fewer economic and role-related constraints have higher levels of intrapersonal variability in their daily trip frequency. Second, individuals who fulfil personal and household needs that do not require daily participation in out-of-home activities have higher levels of intrapersonal variability in their daily trip frequency.     

Real Time Detection and Classification of Arrow Markings in Urban Streets

For highly automated driving in urban regions it is essential to know the precise position of the car. Furthermore it is important to understand the surrounding context in complex situations, e.g. multilane crossings and turn lanes. To understand those situations there is not only the task to detect the lane border, but to detect the painted information inside the lane. The paper is facing and evaluating two methods to classify this additional lane information. Therefore the images from five cameras mounted around the car are used. Four of them with fisheye lenses. The methods have in common, that the input images are transformed into a bird view projection. First introduced method is to extract contours from the transformed images and collect geometrical features and Fourier coefficients. The second introduced way, is to calculate histograms of oriented gradients and use it as input for the classification step. Both classification approaches are implemented and evaluated as multiclass and single class detectors for each arrow type. Furthermore, the classification results from a support vector machine and random forest were faced for this classification problem. The results from the multiclass detectors are evaluated and presented in form of confusion matrices. With the introduced approaches a high detection confidence could be achieved, proofed with validation datasets and in practical use.     

康明斯发布满足EPA2010年排放标准的全系列中重型车用柴油机

一年一度的美国中部地区卡车展览会(Mid America Truck Show)于今年3月19～21日在肯塔基州路易斯维尔如期举行,康明斯展出了全系列满足EPA 2010排放标准的中马力(6.7、8.3和9升)和重型柴油机(11.9升和15升)产品.     

Does a circular high-speed rail network promote efficiency and spatial equity in transport accessibility? Evidence from Hainan Island,China

This paper investigates the efficiency and spatial equity impacts of a unique island-looping high-speed rail (HSR) network in Hainan province, China. An integrated network and raster-based model is applied to accurately measure the accessibility indicators. We perform analysis at four different geographical planning levels – island, corridor, spillover, and county level. The HSR with a non-polarized topology can increase the accessibility of the entire island and corridor, but only leads to a slight increase in the spillover areas without HSR stations. HSR construction also leads to spatial cohesion for the entire island and corridor. Although the circular HSR network consists of several HSR stations distributed relatively equally, the results show that counties contribute differently to the cohesion of the entire island due to the varied initial level of accessibility values. Moreover, the county-level analysis reveals that the internal changes of each county are also different with balancing, polarization, and neutral effects appearing. Therefore, the internal equity of counties needs to be combined with their external contributions to global equity. Our framework permits policymakers to make customized HSR transport policies at different planning levels, particularly for an isolated area.     

Towed-Diver Surveys,a Method for Mesoscale Spatial Assessment of Benthic Reef Habitat: A Case Study at Midway Atoll in the Hawaiian Archipelago

An integrated method for benthic habitat assessment is described, in which divers maneuver boards equipped with digital video, temperature, and depth recorders while being towed behind a small boat. The tow path is concurrently recorded by a GPS receiver, and a layback model is applied to more accurately map the data. Percent cover of salient benthic categories is quantified by whole-image analysis of still frames sampled at 30-s intervals. The results of 15 towed-diver surveys at Midway Atoll in the Hawaiian Archipelago during a mass coral bleaching event are presented to exemplify the method and are compared to results derived from conventional methods. Towed-diver surveys bridge a gap between large-scale mapping efforts using satellite data and small-scale, roving diver assessments, providing a mesoscale spatial assessment of reef habitats. The spatial coverage of towed-diver surveys provides comprehensive data to managers concerning the extent, intensity, differential taxonomic response, and bathymetric correlates of bleaching.     

Introducing a commute-energy performance index for Flanders

Based on 2001-census data for Belgium, energy consumption levels for commuting were calculated and mapped on the basis of residential locations in the administrative regions of Flanders and Brussels. Comparison with regional differentiations in commuting distances, modal shares of non-car travel modes and aspects of infrastructure and population densities clarifies some relationships between energy consumption, commuting behaviour and spatial-economic structure in the suburbanised historic–polycentric spatial structure which characterises the northern part of Belgium. It is found that mode choice appears to be of little impact for the energy performance of home-to-work travel on the scale of the Flanders region. At the other hand, proximity between home and work locations is paramount.Residential density plays a part in this, although much depends on the specific situation. This is also the case for the accessibility of the main road and rail network. In some regions these infrastructures induce long-distance commuting, whereas in the economic core areas this effect is much less pronounced. All these are factors that are very much determined by infrastructural and spatial policies of the past.