Activity involvement and time spent on computers for leisure: an econometric analysis on the American Time Use Survey dataset

Internet is capturing more and more of our time each day, and the increasing levels of engagement are mainly due to the use of social media. Time spent on social media is observed in the American Time Use Survey and recorded as leisure time on Personal Computer (PC). In this paper, we extend the traditional analysis of leisure activity participation by including leisure activities that require the use of a PC. We study the substitution effects with both in-home and out-of-home leisure activities and the time budget allocated to each of them. The modeling framework that includes both discrete alternatives and continuous decision variables allow for full correlation across the utility of the alternatives that are all of leisure type and the regressions that model the time allocated to each activity. Results show that there is little substitution effect between leisure with PC and the relative time spent on it, with in-home and out-of-home leisure episodes. Households with more children and full-time workers are more likely to engage in in-home and PC related leisure activities (especially during weekends). Increments in the travel time of social trips result in significant reductions in leisure time during weekdays.     

Assessing the representativeness of a smartphone-based household travel survey in Dar es Salaam,Tanzania

The household travel survey (HTS) finds itself in the midst of rapid technological change. Traditional methods are increasingly being sidelined by digital devices and computational power—for tracking movements, automatically detecting modes and activities, facilitating data collection, etc.. Smartphones have recently emerged as the latest technological enhancement. FMS is a smartphone-based prompted-recall HTS platform, consisting of an app for sensor data collection, a backend for data processing and inference, and a user interface for verification of inferences (e.g., modes, activities, times, etc.). FMS, has been deployed in several cities of the global north, including Singapore. This paper assesses the first use of FMS in a city of the global south, Dar es Salaam. FMS in Dar was implemented over a 1-month period, among 581 adults chosen from 300 randomly selected households. Individuals were provided phones with data plans and the FMS app preloaded. Verification of the collected data occurred every 3 days, via a phone interview. The experiment reveals various social and technical challenges. Models of individual likelihood to participate suggest little bias. Several socioeconomic and demographic characteristics apparently do influence, however, the number of days fully verified per individual. Similar apparent biases emerge when predicting the likelihood of a given day being verified. Some risk of non-random, non-response is, thus, evident.     

Perceived risk of lock-in in the front-end phase of major transportation projects

Transportation - Lock-in is defined as the tendency to continue with an inefficient decision or project proposal. The front-end phase is critical to project success, yet most studies have focused...     

荷坳隧道四洞小净距段支护结构设计研究北大核心CSCD

多洞空间小净距隧道支护结构参数量化设计与安全性分析是当前设计中的一大难题。文章针对深圳机荷高速公路荷坳隧道四洞小净距段的设计,采用总安全系数法对四洞的开挖与支护模式、各洞的开挖顺序及支护参数进行了研究比较,并采用隧规荷载-结构法、增量法、地层-结构法对支护结构的安全系数进行了对比计算,得出以下结论:(1)提出了基于总安全系数法原理的多洞空间小净距隧道设计方法;(2)根据总安全系数法得出了荷坳隧道四洞小净距段应采用“先行洞二次衬砌完成后再开挖下一孔隧道”的开挖与支护模式,且应按洞1→洞2→洞3→洞4的开挖顺序施工;(3)隧规荷载-结构法、增量法、地层-结构法虽无法得出结构的总承载安全系数,但在一定程度上可以反应部分支护结构的安全性。     

Comparative analysis of household car,motorcycle and bicycle ownership between Osaka metropolitan area,Japan and Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia

The interactions among different types of vehicle ownership including car, motorcycle and bicycle are examined by developing simultaneous vehicle ownership models in this study. Large scale person trip survey data for Osaka metropolitan area, Japan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are used for empirical analysis. The results suggest that population density at residential area significantly and negatively affects car ownership for both areas, and that the effects are larger for Osaka metropolitan area than for Kuala Lumpur. Also, bicycle ownership becomes higher at higher population density area for Osaka area, while higher at lower population density area for Kuala Lumpur, which represents the different usage patterns of bicycle between the two areas.

Time taken for residents to adopt a new public transport service: examining heterogeneity through duration modelling

When a new public transport service is introduced it would be valuable for public authorities, financing organisations and transport operators to know how long it will take for people to start to use the service and what factors influence this. This paper presents results from research analysing the time taken for residents living close to a new guided bus service to start to use (or adopt) the service. Data was obtained from a sample of residents on whether they used the new service and the number of weeks after the service was introduced before they first used it. Duration modelling has been used to analyse how the likelihood of starting to use the new service changes over time (after the introduction of the service) and to examine what factors influence this. It is found that residents who have not used the new service are increasingly unlikely to use it as time passes. Those residents gaining greater accessibility benefits from the new service are found to be quicker to use the service, although the size of this effect is modest compared to that of other between-resident differences. Allowance for the possibility that there existed a proportion of the sample that would never use the new service was tested using a split population model (SPD) model. The SPD model indicates that 36% of residents will never use the new service and is informative in differentiating factors that influence whether Route 20 is used and when it is used.

Back-Calculation of Ground Stress Field and Rockburst Analysis for Wunvfeng Tunnel北大核心CSCD

Studying the in-situ stress distribution at a tunnel site is very important to determine surrounding rock characteristics, the engineering design and the construction scheme. By using the multiple linear regression method based on the least square algorithm, the initial geostress field is analyzed and the corresponding regression coefficients are obtained. The ground stress obtained from the proposed back analysis is reasonable and can meet the demands of the engineering applications. From the rockburst risk level distribution diagram, it is speculated that the Wunvfeng tunnel is in the high filed stress area. Field monitoring should be strengthened and emergency plans should be made to cope with the rockburst risks during the construction process. © 2018, Editorial Office of "Modern Tunnelling Technology". All right reserved.     

Enhanced traffic information dissemination to facilitate toll road utilization: a nested logit model of a stated preference survey in Texas

This paper investigates the effects of the provision of traffic information on toll road usage based on a stated preference survey conducted in central Texas. Although many researchers have studied congestion pricing and traffic information dissemination extensively, most of them focused on the effects that these instruments individually produce on transportation system performance. Few studies have been conducted to elaborate on the impacts of traffic information dissemination on toll road utilization. In this study, 716 individuals completed a survey to measure representative public opinions and preferences for toll road usage in support of various traffic information dissemination classified by different modes, contents, and timeliness categories. A nested logit model was developed and estimated to identify the significant attributes of traffic information dissemination, traveler commuting patterns, routing behavior, and demographic characteristics, and analyze their impacts on toll road utilization. The results revealed that the travelers using dynamic message sign systems as their primary mode of receiving traffic information are more likely to choose toll roads. The potential toll road users also indicated their desire to obtain traffic information via internet. Information regarding accident locations, road hazard warnings, and congested roads is frequently sought by travelers. Furthermore, high-quality congested road information dissemination can significantly enhance travelers’ preferences of toll road usage. Specifically the study found that travelers anticipated an average travel time saving of about 11.3 min from better information; this is about 30 % of travelers’ average one-way commuting time. The mean value of the time savings was found to be about $11.82 per hour, close to ½ of the average Austin wage rate. The model specifications and result analyses provide in-depth insights in interpreting travelers’ behavioral tendencies of toll road utilization in support of traffic information. The results are also helpful to shape and develop future transportation toll system and transportation policy.     

Safety modeling for two‐way left‐turn lanes and a procedure to identify two‐way left‐turn lane segments with safety concerns

In the past, two‐way left‐turn lane (TWLTL) median treatments have been frequently used in Florida to inexpensively improve traffic and safety performances. In order to identify factors that may have significant impacts on safety operations in TWLTL sections and to identify TWLTL locations that present existing and future safety concerns, a research project was carried out and results are summarized in the paper. In the research, a three‐year crash history database with crashes and section characteristics from a total of 1688 TWLTL sections all over Florida was developed and used. A negative binomial regression model was developed to determine the statistical relationship between the number of crashes per mile per year and several variables such as traffic volume, access density, posted speed, and number of lanes. In regard to the methodology, in order to identify locations with safety concerns, several steps are needed: development of real crash data distribution, determination of statistical distribution models that better represent the actual crash data, determination of percentile values for the average number of crashes, estimation of crash rates for sections with the same characteristics, estimation of critical values for the variables corresponding to the percentile values for average number of crashes, calculation of tables of critical average annual daily traffic values, and generation of a list of TWLTL locations with critical safety concerns. Results presented in the paper have been used in real applications. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A fuzzy stochastic approach to the multicriteria selection of an aircraft for regional chartering

This article deals with the problem of decision support for the selection of an aircraft. This is a problem faced by an airline company that is investing in regional charter flights in Brazil. The company belongs to an economic group whose core business is logistics. The problem has eight alternatives to be evaluated under 11 different criteria, whose measurements can be exact, stochastic, or fuzzy. The technique chosen for analyzing and then finding a solution to the problem is the multicriteria decision aiding method named NAIADE (Novel Approach to Imprecise Assessment and Decision Environments). The method used allows tackling the problems by working with quantitative as well as qualitative criteria under uncertainty and imprecision. Another considerable advantage of NAIADE over other multicriteria methods relies in its characteristics of not requiring a prior definition of the weights by the decision maker. As a conclusion, it can be said that the use of NAIADE provided for consistent results to that aircraft selection problem. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.