Decision-making for light rail

In transport literature there is an ongoing discussion on the potential of light rail in mitigating congestion and supporting mobility around urban centres. Throughout Europe and the United States, many policy makers see light rail as an interesting option to improve the accessibility of urban centres. The Dutch national government wanted to support swift light rail realization in a number of promising situations.Several projects gained support from the national government for implementation. However, the decision-making on a local level was not nearly as swift as expected and not in line with the promise. This paper presents an analysis of that perceived slowdown and shows that the approach of the national government with a strict focus on light rail and a detachment from the local processes has played an important role in the slowdown. It shows that light rail can very well be a solid option. However, its successful implementation is not solely dependent on light rail suitability for the mobility patterns in the region, but very much on the approach of the implementation of those supporting the option.     

The competitiveness of short sea shipping in multimodal logistics supply chains: service attributes

In Europe, ports are confronted with a closer integration in the maritime and shipping industries. The co-operation agreements can take several forms such as alliances and mergers among shipping lines, conferences, involvement of shipping companies in terminal management, and extending interests in inland transport of shipping companies. In this paper we give a brief overview of these different types of agreement and we examine the consequences of this evolution of the market structures in which ports and shipping companies have to operate. More specifically, attention goes to the competitive position of the port in this new environment. It is clear that the role of the port and the port authorities has to be redefined to guarantee that it remains a fully fledged player in this fast evolving integrated market.     

Modeling travel time reliability of freeways using risk assessment techniques

Travel time reliability is considered to be one of the key indicators for the performance of transport systems and is measured in various ways. This paper synthesizes both reliability concepts: traffic breakdown, the indicator of the instability of travel times, is treated as the risk, whereas travel time variability, the indicator of the uncertainty of travel times, is considered as the consequence of this risk. An analytical formula, using risk assessment technique, explicitly expresses the cost of travel time unreliability as the sum of the products of the consequences (i.e. variability) and the corresponding probabilities of breakdown. It provides a novel measure of travel time reliability and is applicable in network performance evaluations. An empirical example based on a large dataset of freeway traffic flow data from loop detectors shows that the developed travel time reliability measure is both intuitively logical and consistent.     

西部水路集装箱场场门式起重机选型

基于技术和经济两个方面的考虑讨论了西部水路集装箱堆场门式起重机的选型问题,简要介绍了该类型起重机的构造形式,给出了国内外近40种轮胎式集装堆场门式起重机的主要技术参数,分析了这些技术参数的选择原则,基于上述探讨对西部水路集装箱堆场门式起重机进行了选型,对今后西部集装箱运输业的发展有一定的参考意义。     

Russia's waterborne trade and transport: issues in market transformation

During the Soviet era most of the Union's international non-oil trade was transported over water. Following the former Soviet Union's break-up, the share of water transport in accomodating Russia's trade has become modest, as the railways carry most goods that are traded domestically or with the new republics of the Commonwealth of Independence States, which are now treated as foreign countries. Adjusting the Russian Federation's water transport industry and related infrastructure to the changed geo-political and regional economic conditions proves difficult. While the country inherited a fair share of the former Soviet merchant fleet, it is deprived of port assets which were originally built to serve all-Union trades but are now located in other republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Major reforms are required to streamline the provision of port services and the ports' commercial performance. The Russian Government took several steps in 1992 which effectively put the national water transport carriers on a commercial footing. The effect has been that many carriers chose to leave the national transport scence and engage in trades which do not include Russia. The Government is now confronted with the need to reduce dependence on foreign-owned vessels and to modernize the national merchant fleet. Difficult policy decisions have to reverse these trends so that national maritime industry asstes become more available to meet the country's needs.     

Causes and effects of FDI by the Norwegian maritime industry

This paper analyses foreign direct investments (FDI) in Asia by the Norwegian maritime industry. It focuses on three topics: (1) Why do Norwegian maritime companies invest abroad? (2) What are the effects of maritime foreign direct investments on the Norwegian maritime milieu? (3) What are the effects of these investments on the host country? By analysing specific Norwegian maritime companies, it was found that the FDIs have partly been induced by the instability of the Norwegian policy towards this sector. Several firms also point at the importance of being closer to the Asian market as a significant reason for FDI, and the Norwegian ship equipment industry tends to 'follow' the shipping companies abroad. The domestic effects of FDI are uncertain, and are likely to depend on the motivation behind the investments. Finally, using Singapore as an example, it is argued that the host country effects of FDI tend to be positive.     

Simplified Analysis of Steady-state Turning Behaviour of Motor Vehicles. Part 1. Handling Diagrams of Simple Systems.

An approximate method is presented which produces a handling diagram useful for the study of steady-state turning behaviour at different values of steer angle, path radius and speed In three successive parts the steady state response of simple and more elaborate vehicle models and the stability of the resulting motion are discussed.     

海洋平台T型管节点应力集中系数研究

以具有代表性的海洋平台形管接头为例,采用有限元方法,研究接头处的应力集中系数分布.分析支管6个自由度的约束条件和受载方式,基于ABAQUS计算管节点在各种载荷下的应力分布,尤其关注几何学上的最危险地带——管筒十字交叉点处的应力集中系数,并根据6种基本情况下T形管节点的有限元计算结果,得到管节点所受到的应力最大、结构强度...     

Optimal congestion taxes in a time allocation model

The purpose of this paper is to study optimal congestion taxes in a time-allocation framework. This makes it possible to distinguish taxes on inputs in the production of car trips and taxes on transport as an activity. Moreover, the model allows us to consider the implications of treating transport as a demand, derived from other activities. We extend several well known tax rules from the public finance literature and carefully interpret the implications for the optimal tax treatment of passenger transport services. The main findings of the paper are the following. First, if governments are limited to taxing market inputs into transport trip production, the time-allocation framework: (i) provides an argument for taxing congestion below marginal external cost, (ii) implies a favourable tax treatment for time-saving devices such as GPS, and (iii) provides a previously unnoticed argument for public transport subsidies. Second, if the government has access to perfect road pricing that directly taxes transport as an activity, all previous results disappear. Third, in the absence of perfect road pricing, the activity-specific congestion attracted by employment centres, by shopping centres or by large sports and cultural events should be corrected via higher taxes on market inputs in these activities (e.g., entry tickets, parking fees, etc.).