Commuting trips within tours: how is commuting related to land use?

Studies that model the effects of land use on commuting generally use a trip-based approach or a more aggregated individual-based approach: i.e. commuting is conceptualized in terms of modal choice, distance and time per single trip, or in terms of daily commuting distance or time. However, people try to schedule activities in a daily pattern and, thus, consider tours instead of trips. Data from the 2000 to 2001 Travel Behaviour Survey in Ghent (Belgium) illustrate that car use and commuting times significantly differ between commuting trips within work-only tours and more complex tours. Therefore, this paper considers trip-related decisions simultaneously with tour-related decisions. A multiple group structural equation model (SEM) confirmed that the relationship between land use and commuting differs between work-only tours and more complex tours. Trips should be considered within tours in order to correctly understand the effect of land use scenarios such as densifying on commuting. Moreover, the use of multiple group SEM enabled us to address the issue of the complex nature of commuting. Due to interactions between various explanatory variables, land use patterns do not always have the presumed effect on commuting. Land use policy can successfully influence commuting, but only if it simultaneously accounts for the effects on car availability, car use, commuting distance and commuting time.     

Integrating short turning and deadheading in the optimization of transit services

Urban transit demand exhibits peaks in time and space, which can be efficiently served by means of different fleets, increasing frequencies in those groups of stops with larger passenger inflow. In this paper we develop a model that combines short turning and deadheading in an integrated strategy for a single transit line, where the optimization variables are both of a continuous and discrete nature: frequencies within and outside the high demand zone, vehicle capacities, and those stations where the strategy begins and ends. We show that closed solutions can be obtained for frequencies in some cases, which resembles the classical “square root rule”. Unlike the existing literature that compares different strategies with a given normal operation (no strategy - single frequency), we use an optimized base case, in order to assess the potential benefits of the integrated strategy on a fair basis. We found that the integrated strategy can be justified in many cases with mixed load patterns, where unbalances within and between directions are observed. In general, the short turning strategy may yield large benefits in terms of total cost reductions, while low benefits are associated with deadheading, due to the extra cost of running empty vehicles in some sections.     

Potential economic benefits of using a weather ship routing system at Short Sea Shipping

This contribution investigates the economic benefits of using weather ship routing on Short Sea Shipping (SSS) activities. The investigation is supported with the development of a ship routing system based on pathfinding algorithm, the parametrization of the wave effect on navigation, and the use of high-resolution meteo-oceanographic predictions. The optimal ship routing analysis is investigated in a European SSS system: the link between Spanish and Italian ports. The results show the economic benefits using ship routing in SSS during energetic wave episodes. The rate of cost savings may reach 18% of the total costs under particular bad weather conditions in the navigation area. The work establishes the basis of further developments in optimal route applied in relatively short distances and its systematic use in the SSS maritime industry.     

Compliance and data quality in GPS-based studies

Recent years have witnessed a growing volume of papers describing the use of GPS technology and other tracking technologies for obtaining data on time–space activities. These methods have several advantages over traditional methods of time–space data collection in terms of accuracy, resolution and length of the possible data collection period. However, to date, no work has been done on the compliance rates among participants and the resulting validity of the collected data. This paper presents a method that combines the use of a GPS receiver with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology that was implemented in research on time–space activities of elderly persons with cognitive impairment. The method presented in this paper enables monitoring the level of compliance of the participants during their participation in the study and presents a unique opportunity to examine the extent to which participants in a GPS based study are able to comply with study requirements. Healthy older adults and those with cognitive decline were found to be generally compliant with a complex study protocol. These results serve as another step into the acceptance of GPS based studies as a valid methodology for mobility data collection.     

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.     

康明斯发布满足EPA 2010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EPA2010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。     

康明斯再登《财富》排行榜东亚研发中心更换掌门人

康明斯连续第二年入选《财富》“全球最受尊敬企业”排行榜 《财富》杂志日前公布了2009年度“全球最受尊敬企业（World’s Most Admired Companies）”排行榜，康明斯公司连续第二年入选，是唯一一家上榜的柴油机公司。     

Paleoclimatic evolution of the Galician continental shelf (NW of Spain) during the last 3000 years: from a storm regime to present conditions

A multiproxy study of the sedimentary record carried out on gravity core CGPL00-1 retrieved from the outer Galician continental shelf (NW of Spain) has allowed us to establish the main climate fluctuations affecting the region during the Upper Holocene. Grain size, TOC, C/N ratio, biogenic opal and planktonic foraminifera are the main analysed parameters. Lithology and grain size distribution lead to identify two sedimentary sequences: a lower half mainly composed by glauconitic sand and a muddy upper half. A chronology has been established based on three AMS radiocarbon ages, 907 cal. BC, 898 cal. BC and 1399 AD, and the aforementioned sedimentary sequences. The obtained radiocarbon ages are the first dated sediment samples for the Galician continental shelf. Geochemical markers show different trends in both sequences: low and/or fluctuating values in the sandy sequence and high and relatively constant values in the upper muddy sequence. The whole sandy interval is interpreted to be a nearly instantaneous deposit from a distal storm ebb current. The muddy interval was deposited in a stable and low-energy marine environment, similar to that found on the present outer shelf. The shift from a storm-dominated shelf to a low-energy environment took place synchronous with the Subboreal/Subatlantic transition, when an increase in storminess appears related to climatic instability. Transitional planktonic foraminiferal assemblage dominates the whole record, although a change to more abundant cold water species at 1420 AD, may relate to an intense upwelling pulse, probably reinforced by colder atmospheric temperatures during the Little Ice Age (LIA). Despite the presence of an upwelling regime since 1420 AD, lesser amount of opal has accumulated in the outer shelf due to enhanced offshore transport and stronger remineralization.