Cooperation in transit delivery in West German metropolitan areas

West Germany is densely populated, averaging 245 inhabitants/km², but varying widely between urban agglomerations and rural areas. Transport volume has increased by 40% since 1970, with virtually all growth due to private automobiles. Since 1981 public transit has been suffering from decreasing demand.A 1964 Expert's Report to the German federal government was the stimulus for initiating an effective funding mechanism for new public transit construction. In 1965 Germany's first federated transit authority was founded for the region of Hamburg.Principal among the goals of any cooperative agreement among transit companies are improvements for the passengers and improvement of revenues for the companies. To attain these ends, two distinct forms of transit aggrements have been developed in Germany: transit cooperative (Verkehrsgemeinschaft) and transit federation (Verkehrsverbund). The former is more suitable for smaller to medium-sized towns, while the latter is more suitable for larger cities. The two types are described in this article.German transit federations during the 1970s succeeded in significantly increasing ridership, while during the 1980s patronage has either remained steady or has declined. Yet transit federations showed much better perfomance than did public transit in general. In terms of costs and revenues, no public transit organization in Germany is able to break even; deficits vary between 42% and 55%. The author concludes, however, that hidden subsidies for automobile traffic are far higher, because of environmental damage and the high social cost of traffic accidents.     

The influence of personal security fears on women's travel patterns

This paper investigates the influence that women's fears and apprehension about attack and harassment have on use of transport facilities. After initial consideration of the factors that most affect perceived risk, the personal security aspects of different modes are reviewed by reference to a survey conducted in Southampton in 1986. High levels of perceived insecurity were found, particularly for walking at night, in parks and subways and when waiting for public transport services in isolated areas. The conclusions argue that personal security is an important but neglected issue, deserving of greater attention by transport planners.     

Stochastic Optimal Control of Highway Tractors with Active Suspensions

Stochastic optimal control and estimation theories are used to design an active suspension system for a cab ride in a tractor-semitrailer vehicle. A discrete-continuous vehicle model with eleven degrees of freedom is augmented by a stochastic road excitation model and a human perception of vibration shape filter. Both perfect measurement and estimated state cases are considered. The impact of the measurement noise on the design of the optimal controller is demonstrated. The performance of the optimally controlled system is compared with an optimal passive system. It is shown that significant improvements in ride comfort can be achieved through the use of actively controlled cab suspensions.     

Computer-Simulation of the Dynamical Curving Behaviour of a Railway-Bogie

This paper describes the modelling of a two axle railway-bogie with variable design configurations and its application in the investigation of the behaviour in transitional and circular curves. Several results indicate possibilities to improve the curving properties and recommend the usage of forced-steering bogies, which show better performance in narrow curves without unbearable sacrifices to high-speed-behaviour on straight track.     

Quantitative evaluation of passenger terminal orientation

When passenger terminal layout is being decided, one of the important aspects to consider is how the passenger orients himself during his visit to the terminal and his movements through it, i.e. terminal orientation. Among other things, this terminal characteristic results from visibility, or the visual connectivity between elements and spaces. The paper proposes an amendment and modification to the known method for the quantitative evaluation of terminal orientation which uses an oriented network to describe the connectivity of elements (terminal orientation). The amendment and modification of the method consists of proposing that during evaluation only visual connections that have functional meaning should be considered, rather than all visual connections. A further modification is the introduction of different weights for different connections. The example presented in the paper considers an airport terminal building.     

Privatisation and the quality of rail services

Using the concept of generalised costs to reflect quality in rail services, we consider the level of provision and quality of these services in the various forms they may take in a privatised environment within a model where we assume linear and separable demand and cost functions for analytical simplicity. Using the Pareto-efficient output and quality outcomes under a fully integrated system for reference (as well as those for a fully integrated profit-maximising monopolist) we show that if either bilateral monopoly or complementary monopoly emerge as a market structure the output of train services and their quality will generally fall. In the case of the emergence of both bilateral monopoly and complementary monopoly our analysis again suggests poor welfare outcomes. The implication that can be drawn from our analysis is that a regulator of a privatised rail system faces some severe problems if she is to attain the appropriate welfare targets.     

Traffic assignment by trip type using volume restraint and link restraint for application in small urban areas

This research involved the development of a new traffic assignment model consisting of a set of procedures for an urbanized area with a population of 172,000. Historical, social, and economic data were used as input to conventional trip generation and trip distribution models to produce a trip table for network assignment. This fixed table was divided into three trip types: external-external trips, external-internal trips, and internal-internal trips. The methodology used to develop the new traffic assignment model assigned each of the trip types by varying the diversion of trips from the minimum path. External-external trips were assigned on a minimum path routing and external-internal trips were assigned with a slight diversion from the minimum path. Internal-internal trips were assigned with more diversion than external-internal trips and adjusted by utilizing iterative volume restraint and incremental link restraint. A statistical analysis indicated that assigning trips by trip types using trip diversion and volume and link restraint produces a significant improvement in the accuracy of the assigned traffic volumes.     

A maritime productivity study 1859-1919

This is one of two papers designed to test the ability of a theoretical model of productivity measurement [1] with times series empirical data. The analysis was able to identify trends in productivity growth for sailing ships and stcamships. scparating long and short run components . One of the interesting features of the findings is that the long run growth rate is the same for both sailing and steamships. Although sail and steam appear to be two unique technologies, it is found that technologica progress is evolutionary not revolutionary.

The techique using covariance analysis proved useful for times series productivity measurement.     

Rogue ships—a shipowner's view

The paper, first of all, examines what a 'rogue ship' is and then moves on to the various practical solutions as to how to deal with the problem. There is no one single answer but the author believes that it is in the interest of society in general to get rid of these ships.