Modeling bus bunching using massive location and fare collection data

Bus bunching is a well-known phenomenon for operators, users and regulators of high-frequency bus services. Bus operations are usually affected by increasing differences in the time intervals (headways) between consecutive buses. The effect of this variability is that buses tend to group into bunches of two or more, which severely affects the quality of service and the operational efficiency. The aim of this paper is to analyze which factors are associated to the phenomenon, using massive data from high-frequency services available in Santiago (Chile) and common-route services in Gatineau (Canada). The data is obtained from the bus GPS and AFC systems and are processed to obtain headways between buses. Using data from one week, we develop models to explain the variation of the continuous and discrete indicators of bus bunching as a function of variables related to the operation, variables related to the demand structure, and variables related to the infrastructure. Some of the factors that contribute to increase bus bunching are: stops located toward the end of the route, high scheduled frequency, irregular bus dispatch headways, non-homogeneous fleet, high demand, and high variability of demand. The results are useful for the design of quality indexes to measure bunching in bus operations, and for the design and operation of bus routes, taking into consideration the potential bus bunching problems.     

Cross-sector Analysis of Four Renegotiated Transport PPPs in Portugal

Abstract

This paper uses the Fertagus renegotiation results as a reference and explores the features that made it such a widely commended case, aiming to identify the best practice to be followed in other cases. The two main questions that this paper aimed to respond were: Was the success of the renegotiation process in the Fertagus contract due to mode-specific factors? Are those factors (mode specific or not) transferable to other modes under public private partnership (PPP) contracts and if so, to what extent? Regarding the mode specificity and transferability analysis, it can be noticed that much of the features were not mode specific in theory, however for the successful transferability to other transport modes, some changes should be made to the PPP model taking into account modal specificities and national contexts.     

A joint time-assignment and expenditure-allocation model: value of leisure and value of time assigned to travel for specific population segments

Transportation - Based on a time-use model with a sound theoretical basis and carefully collected data for Austria, the value of leisure (VoL) for different population segments has been estimated....     

Traffic congestion and economic context: changes of spatiotemporal patterns of traffic travel times during crisis and post-crisis periods

Transportation - This paper aims to evaluate the impacts of the economic context on traffic congestion and its consequential effects on private vehicle accessibility. We conduct a long-term...     

Revisiting urban hierarchy and specialization from a maritime perspective

ABSTRACT

Port–city relationships have attracted paramount attention from a variety of scientific disciplines for several decades, such as geography, history, planning, regional science, sociology, and economics to name but a few. Yet, the extent to which maritime traffic specialization obeys the same spatial distribution than other economic activities remains underexplored today. This article tackles these lacunae head-on by proposing an empirical analysis of the way vessel tonnage per main categories of flows (e.g. containers, bulks, passengers) coincides with the demographic size of the world’s coastal and inland city-regions, using novel data on global inter-port vessel movements and harmonized population data over the period 1977–2008. Our main results confirm that such traffic is far from being randomly distributed, as its volume, value, and diversity concentrate at the top of the urban hierarchy. This research motivates the need to further integrate physical connectivity into the study of cities and their development mechanisms.     

基于因子叠加法的滑坡灾害危险性区划——以衡桂高速公路为例

滑坡灾害危险性区划是将区域内产生滑坡灾害的发生条件、外界影响因素、和滑坡灾害的现状进行综合统计分析,定量或半定量地评价区域内滑坡灾害的危险性程度等级。选择湖南省衡桂高速公路滑坡灾害的分类与区划为研究示范区,对衡桂高速公路沿线滑坡灾害进行危险度研究,采用因子叠加法进行滑坡灾害区划。     

基于支持向量机的船舶操纵运动在线建模

支持向量机算法以结构风险最小化为准则,具有良好的泛化性,是一种先进的人工智能算法。文章根据最小二乘支持向量机对其增量式算法进行推导,并应用该算法对船舶操纵运动进行在线建模。通过仿真试验对粘性力和舵力水动力导数进行在线辨识,通过自航模试验对操纵性K、T指数进行在线辨识,并利用K、T指数对自航模的转首角速度进行了预报,所得结果都同试验值非常接近,证明了增量式最小二乘支持向量机应用于船舶操纵运动在线建模的有效性。     

State-owned Spanish Port System oversizing: an analysis of maximum operational capacity

The State-owned Spanish Port System (SPS) includes 46 ports for general use that are managed by the 28 port authorities distributed along the 8000 km of Spanish coast. SPS has not grown at a rate comparable to that of international maritime transportation. In our paper, we start from the hypothesis of a port system that appears to be oversized, subsidized, with regard to container traffic. Quantifying the maximum operational capacity of the different container terminals along the Spanish coast and their mooring capacities will provide the available dimensions for this type of traffic. In a second step, we will analyse whether SPS are sufficient (according to the perspective of international standards) to meet Spain’s needs, which is related to Spain’s strategic geographic location and its need to move containerized cargo for the domestic market. The paper concludes SPS has an oversized that limits competitiveness, which is indicated by the average transshipment ratio of approximately 50% and an average unweighted idle ratio of port facilities designed for container traffic of over 60% in the eight main ports.     

鼓形齿轮联轴器齿廓分析研究

从滚刀基本蜗杆齿面出发，按照滚切鼓形齿轮的运动，运用空啮合理论，导出了滚切加工的鼓形齿轮面方程，定量分析了齿廓形状及其影响因素，得到了滚切加工的鼓形外齿轮除中央截面为浙开线外，其余任何垂直于轴心线的截面或是过球心的截面都不是浙开线齿形，而且还存在严重的齿面扭曲畸变的结论。     

Benthic assemblages of a temperate estuarine system in South America: Transition from a freshwater to an estuarine zone

The objectives of the present study were to describe the species composition, diversity and distribution of the zoobenthic assemblages, to estimate the abundance and biomass of the dominant species, and to identify the main environmental factors determining the distribution patterns of the invertebrates from a freshwater to an estuarine zone in a temperate estuary of South America. The Río de la Plata estuary is a microtidal system characterized by a high concentration of suspended solids. Fifty-three taxa of meso- and macro-invertebrates were identified in the samples collected during November and December 2001. Molluscs, annelids, crustaceans and nematodes were found at 90% of the sampling sites. Molluscs comprised up to about 90% of the total zoobenthos biomass: the remaining percentage corresponded mainly to annelids and less to nematodes and crustaceans. An ecocline along the salinity gradient could be observed for the benthic assemblages from the freshwater to the estuarine zone in Rio de la Plata. A Canonical Correspondence Analysis shows that results from sampling sites in the outer zone were strongly related to salinity, depth and pH and less to oxygen and percentage of clay. The results from stations in the inner zone, and part of the middle zone, were mainly related to the occurrence of sand and contents of NH₄⁺–N, NO₃⁻–N, and PO₄³⁻–P.