The Port of Melbourne Authority's pricing policy: its efficiency and distribution implications

The objective of this paper is investigate the extent to which the new (revised) pricing policy has improved the level of efficiency at the Port of Melbourne and to assess the contributions of the underlying factors of port efficiency. Further, it attempts to examine the distribution implications of the pricing policy between the major port users (i.e. shipowners and shippers) and its revenue implication for the Port of Melbourne. Using a conceptual framework derived from economic theories, in-house data and responses from the port users, the study reveals that the efficiency impact has been considerable and varied between berths; land transport links and crane productivity improvements were the major factors of the port's overall efficiency; the initial losers have been the shipowners and initial gainers the shippers; however, the gains have been limited and in some cases have been offset by the introduction of higher port service charges; in the long run it is likely that the shipowners and shippers' situations will be unchanged while the Port of Melbourne will lose revenue due to improvements in berth productivity uncompensated by greater traffic volume.     

中国与莫桑比克典型路面结构对比分析研究

中国与南部非洲地区自然环境、气候条件、地形地貌差异较大,但路面结构设计方法却相同.作为比较,笔者以莫桑比克路面设计为例,利用弹性层状体系计算程序分别对两国典型路面结构的路表弯沉、沥青层底的拉应变和土基顶的压应变三大指标进行计算分析,发现对于干燥地区中、轻交通道路,中国的沥青路面结构形式更有利于结构疲劳寿命的增加,保证路面结构的长寿命;对于潮湿的地区,探讨了半刚性路面存在的一些问题,提出了改进的结构形式.     

轨道交通的产学研新模式——麻省理工学院/波多黎各地铁项目简介

波多黎各于20世纪90年代初才开始发展城市轨道交通,但因为善于利用后发优势,通过产学研的结合,充分考虑了地铁工程的多学科特性,走出一条有波多黎各特色的道路,成为美国和国际公共交通领域技术交流的典范.主要介绍了其产学研的项目,它由负责地铁项目的政府主管部门、波多黎各大学和美国麻省理工学院共同组织实施,历经地铁前期规划、修建、调试、运营和政策分析等全部过程,共13年的时间.这种方式提高了工程的质量和施工效率,推动当地轨道交通辅助产业的发展,加快了新技术的应用及研究,培养了一大批轨道交通的规划运营人才,为拉丁美洲城市轨道交通建设提供了一个新模式.波多黎各的经验对于我国当前的城市轨道交通建设同样具有借鉴意义.     

A traffic analysis zone definition: a new methodology and algorithm

This paper develops a comprehensive approach to the definition of transportation analysis zones (TAZ), and therein, presents a new methodology and algorithm for the definition of TAZ embedded in geographic information systems software, improves the base algorithm with several local algorithms, and comprehensively analyses the obtained results. The results obtained are then compared to these presently used in the transportation analysis process of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The proposed algorithm presents a new methodology for TAZ design based on a smoothed density surface of geocoded travel demand data. The algorithm aims to minimise the loss of information when moving from a continuous representation of the origin and destination of each trip to their discrete representations through zones, and focuses on the trade-off between the statistical precision, geographical error, and the percentage of intra-zonal trips of the resulting OD matrix. The results for the Lisbon Metropolitan Area case study suggest a significant improvement in OD matrix estimates compared to current transportation analysis practises based on administrative units.

Explaining light vehicle demand evolution in interurban toll roads: a dynamic panel data analysis in Spain

Tolls have increasingly become a common mechanism to fund road projects in recent decades. Therefore, improving knowledge of demand behavior constitutes a key aspect for stakeholders dealing with the management of toll roads. However, the literature concerning demand elasticity estimates for interurban toll roads is still limited due to their relatively scarce number in the international context. Furthermore, existing research has left some aspects to be investigated, among others, the choice of GDP as the most common socioeconomic variable to explain traffic growth over time. This paper intends to determine the variables that better explain the evolution of light vehicle demand in toll roads throughout the years. To that end, we establish a dynamic panel data methodology aimed at identifying the key socioeconomic variables explaining changes in light vehicle demand over time. The results show that, despite some usefulness, GDP does not constitute the most appropriate explanatory variable, while other parameters such as employment or GDP per capita lead to more stable and consistent results. The methodology is applied to Spanish toll roads for the 1990–2011 period, which constitutes a very interesting case on variations in toll road use, as road demand has experienced a significant decrease since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008.     

Systematizing international benchmarking for ports

The subject of port efficiency is one of the important issues facing port authorities and policy makers today. A number of studies have been undertaken which compare ports in terms of their efficiency. But any port comparison can only be valid and meaningful if a port's efficiency is compared with a similar port. The principal objective of this paper is to introduce a systematic approach to identifying similar ports based on the technique of principal component analysis. Secondly, it seeks to identify the most important factors underlying the port classification. Lack of awareness of which factors differentiate ports has resulted in an unnecessary collection of data which are of limited use in port classification. This study has identified three groupings of similar ports within which port comparison can be justifiably made. This approach can be used for any future port comparison and can be applied to other areas of activity facing the same difficulty.     

An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Beach Management in the Catalan Coast (North-Western Mediterranean)

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of beach management in the Catalan coast (NW Mediterranean) by introducing and integrating results from different partial projects. They analyzed the legal, political, and administrative framework of beach management, the quality tools available, the practices of management, the processes of beach use, and beach waste/litter dynamics. The information obtained served to create a new beach management tool referred to as the Beach Quality Index, which was developed by an interdisciplinary team of academics from the natural/physical sciences and social sciences that worked together during the course of four years. Information obtained from users and key stakeholders served to create the index. The study demonstrated that as a consequence of the shortcomings in the legal and administrative system as well as inadequate practices of beach managers, beach management in the area experiences coordination problems, insufficient information and lack of proactive management, pollution, and in general problems associated with the satisfaction of short-term user demands.     

Book Review: Airline Marketing and Management

Abstract

Public transport policy in the Madrid Metropolitan Area is often deemed as a success. In 1985, an important reform was carried out in order to create a new administrative authority to coordinate all public transport modes and establish a single fare for all of them. This reform prompted a huge growth in public transport usage, even though it reduced the funding coverage ratio of the transport system. Since then, Madrid’s public transport system has been undergoing an increasing level of subsidization, which might jeopardize the financial viability of the city public transport system in the future. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of the evolution of the public transport funding policy in Madrid in recent years. We found that the increasing level of subsidy can hardly be explained on the basis of equity issues. Moreover, we claim that there is still room for a funding policy that makes the efficiency of the system compatible with its financial sustainability.     

PantoCat statement of method

The pantograph–catenary dynamic interaction analysis program (PantoCat) addresses the need for a dynamic analysis code able to analyse models of the complete overhead energy collecting systems that include all mechanical details of the pantographs and the complete topology and structural details of the catenary. PantoCat is a code based on the finite element method, for the catenary, and multibody dynamics methods, for the pantograph, integrated via a co-simulation procedure. A contact model based on a penalty formulation is selected to represent the pantograph–catenary interaction. PantoCat enables models of catenaries with multiple sections, including their overlap, the operation of multiple pantographs and the use of any complex loading of the catenary or pantograph mechanical elements including aerodynamic effects. The models of the pantograph and catenary are fully spatial being simulated in tangential or curved tracks, with or without irregularities and perturbations. User-friendly interfaces facilitate the construction of the models while the post-processing facilities provide all quantities of interest of the system response according to the norms and industrial requirements.