The impact of the new onboard technologies on maritime education and training schemes in Europe: some findings from the 'METHAR' project

The paper reports some analyses put forward in the context of the METHAR Project. The purpose is the evaluation of the impact of the new technologies used onboard ships on the Maritime Education and Training systems in Europe and the identification of the future training needs. This issue is tackled by developing an ad-hoc methodology based upon the analysis of the responses to questionnaires sent to a number of operators involved in the maritime sector all over Europe, specifically ship owners, marine equipment manufacturers, pilots and port managers. Results enable the identification of some types of impacts that are named 'organizational' and 'operational'. Moreover, a general evaluation scheme was developed as a tool for highlighting the structure and the characteristics of the impacts considered.     

Network economies in liner shipping: the role of home markets

This paper deals with the measurement of the network complexity of some selected shipping groups, also identifying the contribution of co-operative agreements among carriers. The empirical investigation is focused on: (i) the analysis of the distribution of the carrying capacity per range; and (ii) the comparison of that capacity with the throughput handled in the port facilities of the group. These variables are interpreted in the light of the impact that alliances have on the geographical wideness of the services supplied by each partner. This factor also allows to depict how the cultural and political origin of shipping lines affects the decision of joining an alliance and the outcomes deriving from such co-operation.     

Development of a method for the identification and engineering design of endless fiber reinforced composites

The main objective of this paper is to introduce a novel method to develop a multi-material body-in-white concept with composite material or hybrid material system. A new method based on the work of Durst (2008) is presented, which works basically in three steps. In the first step, the anisotropy of the components is analyzed to pre-evaluate the potential of FRP-suitable parts. In the second step, the predominating orientation of every finite element is determined and clustered to get a first impression of an appropriate laminate architecture. In the last step, a suitable design with a preliminary stacking sequence is calculated. To prove the feasibility of this method, it has been applied to simple flat coupons and a body-in-white component to show that the method leads to reasonable results.     

A cluster analysis of cyclists in Europe: common patterns,behaviours, and attitudes

Transportation - This study uses cluster analysis on a sample of regular cyclists from six European countries (the U.K., the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and Spain) to shed light on common...     

Factors contributing to bicycle–motorised vehicle collisions: a systematic literature review

Bicycle–motorised vehicle (BMV) collisions account for the majority of the recorded bicyclists’ fatalities and serious injuries. This systematic review intends to examine the main factors contributing to BMV collisions. We performed a comprehensive literature review on Scopus, TRID, ProQuest, and Web of Science databases. Fifty-nine English-language peer-reviewed articles met the eligibility criteria and were included in the final analysis. The main factors contributing to BMV collisions identified were classified in accordance with a recently published conceptual framework for road safety. The majority of studies have identified factors related to road users’ behaviour (59.3%) and infrastructure characteristics (57.6%). A minority of studies identified variables related to exposure (40.7%) and vehicles (15.3%) as contributor factors to BMV collisions. A small but significant proportion of studies (20.3%) provided evidence that environmental factors may also play a role, although to a lesser extent, in determining BMV collisions. In addition to the three factors comprised in the applied conceptual framework for road safety, we identified environmental conditions as a category of factors contributing to BMV collisions.     

Elderly travel frequencies and transport mode choices in Greater Rotterdam,the Netherlands

Demographic ageing is a key societal challenge in Europe as well as in many other western and non-western societies. A crucial dimension concerns elderly daily mobility patterns. While still partaking fewer and shorter trips than younger generations, today’s elderly have been found increasingly (auto)mobile. Although the elderly benefit from the independence, freedom of movement, and social inclusion, concerns may rise regarding the environmental and accessibility impacts of this induced mobility. The present study adds to the expanding literature on elderly mobility, an integrated analysis of the effects of socio-demographic, health, trip, spatial and weather attributes on elderly mobility. Utilizing travel diary data for Greater Rotterdam, The Netherlands, trip frequencies and transport mode choices of the elderly are analysed by means of zero-inflated negative binomial models as well as multinomial logit regression models, and contrasted to the non-elderly subpopulation to explore (dis)similarities. While the results show common determinants, the models also highlight important differences in the magnitude of the estimated coefficients and factors only influencing transport patterns for the elderly. Embedded in the context of an aging population, the empirical findings assist policy-makers and planners in several respects: For transportation plans and programs it is critical to recognize mobility needs of the elderly. As the seniors are becoming increasingly automobile, the results call for strategies to encourage older people to use more physically active and environmentally friendly transport modes such as public transport, walking and cycling.     

A study of tour-based mode choice based on a Support Vector Machine classifier

A new approach in recognizing travel mode choice patterns is proposed, based on the Support Vector Machine classification technique. The tour-based travel demand dataset that is analysed is for New York State, derived from the 2009 U.S. National Household Travel Survey. The main features characterizing each tour are the means used, travel-related variables and socioeconomic aspects. Results obtained demonstrate the ability to predict to some extent, in real settings where car use dominates, which tours are likely to be made by public transport or non-motorized means. Moreover, the flexibility of the technique allows assessing the predictive power of each feature according to the combination of travel means used in different tours. Potential applications range from activity-based travel choice simulators to search engines supporting personalized travel planners – in general, whenever ‘best guesses’ on mode choice patterns have to be made quickly on large amounts of data prejudicing the possibility of setting up a statistical model.     

Transit network design for small-medium size cities

This paper proposes a novel heuristic to solve the network design problem for public transport in small-medium size cities. Such cities can be defined as those with a diameter of a few kilometers with up to a few hundred thousand residents. These urban centers present a specific spatial configuration affecting the land use and mobility system. Transportation demand is widespread in origin and concentrated in a small number of attraction points close to each other. This particular structure of demand (‘many-to-few’) suggests the need for specific methodologies for the design of a transit system at a network level. In this paper, such design methodologies are defined in terms of models and solution procedures and tested on a selected case study. The solution methods show promising results. The key variables of the model are the routes and their frequencies. The constraints of the problem affect the overall demand to be served, the quality of the proposed service (transfer, load factors) and the definition of routes.     

An innovative method for the analysis of vehicle movements in roundabouts based on image processing

The objective of this paper is to propose a method, based on the image processing of field survey data, to analyze vehicles movements into roundabouts. This research study consisted of three stages: a field survey to collect vehicular flow images captured by video cameras, the processing of these images using a proprietary software (VeTRA—Vehicle Tracking for Roundabout Analysis), and finally, the analysis of the collected data. The main feature of the software is that it allows the automatic computation of the main variables necessary to rank and evaluate a generic roundabout: the entry/exit (E/E) matrix with classification of vehicles (e.g., heavy, light, and motorbikes), vehicle trajectories, and vehicular speed diagrams along the paths inside the roundabout. The processing system is robust enough to withstand classic problems affecting image processing such as variable wind conditions, cloud cover, shadows, and obstructions. Calibration and error evaluation have been deduced from data collected by a high precision Real Time Kinematic GPS video recording system mounted on a probe vehicle. Data of E/E matrices generated by VeTRA are compared with those manually counted on the corresponding video images. A case study of an existing roundabout is featured in the paper. The results indicate that the software has a high capability of generating the E/E matrix. The analysis of vehicular trajectories with both the plot of curvature diagrams and the corresponding speed diagrams enable the evaluation of driver behavior relative to the geometric shape of the roundabout. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.