Do motor-vehicle users in the US pay their way?

Governments in the US spend over a hundred billion dollars per year to build and maintain roads and provide a variety of services for motor-vehicle users. To pay for these infrastructure and services governments collect revenue from a variety of taxes and fees. The basic objective of this paper is to compare these government expenditures with the corresponding user tax and fee payments in the US. At the outset I argue that the such comparisons tell us something about the equity but not necessarily the economic efficiency of highway financing. I then present four different ways one might tally up government expenditures and user payments, depending on the extent to which one wishes to count “indirect” expenditures (e.g., on prosecuting car thieves) and non-targeted general-tax payments (e.g., severance taxes on oil). I make a comprehensive analysis of all possible expenditures and payments, and then compare them according to three of the four ways of counting expenditures and payments. The analysis indicates that in the US current tax and fee payments to the government by motor-vehicle users fall short of government expenditures related to motor-vehicle use by approximately 20–70 cents per gallon of all motor fuel. (Note that in this accounting we include only government expenditures; we do not include any “external” costs of motor-vehicle use.) The extent to which one counts indirect government expenditures related to motor-vehicle use is a key factor in the comparison.     

Metadata-based Needs Assessment for Emergency Transportation Operations with a Focus on an Aging Population: A Case Study in Florida

In the aftermath of disasters, evacuating aging victims and maintaining an optimal flow of critical resources in order to serve their needs becomes problematic, especially for Gulf Coast states in the USA such as Florida, where more than 6.9 million (36.9%) of the population are over age 50. Scanning the literature, there is no substantial prior work that has synthesized the requirements for a multi-modal emergency needs assessment that could facilitate the safe and accessible evacuation of aging people, and optimize the flow of resources into the affected region to satisfy the needs of those who remain. This paper presents a review of the aging population-focused emergency literature utilizing a knowledge base development methodology supported with a geographic information system-based case study application set in Florida. Importance is given to both ensuring the resiliency of the transportation infrastructure and meeting the needs of aging populations. As a result of this metadata-based analysis, critical research needs and challenges are presented with planning recommendations and future research directions. Results clearly indicate that transportation agencies should focus on clear and fast dissemination of disaster-related information to the aging populations. The use of paratransit services for evacuating aging people, especially those living independently and/or in rural areas, is also found to be of paramount importance.     

Catalyzing Coastal Management in Kenya and Zanzibar: Building Capacity and Commitment

Site-based projects were initiated in Chawka Bay-Paje, Zanzibar, and Nyali-Bamburi-Shanzu, Kenya, to demonstrate the benefits of an integrated coastal management (ICM) approach for addressing coastal issues such as tourism development and enhancement of resource-dependent village economies in eastern Africa. A two-year, multidonor project used three primary strategies to make rapid, but sustainable, progress toward ICM. These included using interagency government teams for ICM planning, adopting an internationally recognized framework for ICM as a project ''road map,'' and explicitly incorporating capacity-building strategies into all aspects of the project. Within two years, integrated ICM action strategies, prepared through participatory processes, were being implemented at both sites, and both teams were working to expand the scale and scope of ICM in their nation. More importantly, the project helped create committed, capable, interagency groups that continue to work together to address urgent ICM issues.     

Economic Activity Derived from Whale-Based Tourism in Vava'u,Tonga

This article reports on a study that estimated the economic activity of snorkel-with-whales tourism in the small, isolated island group of Vava'u, Tonga. This research shows that these activities generate important economic and other benefits and that these benefits grew from a relatively modest USD500,000 per year in 1999 to USD5 million per year by 2009. Data from self-reply questionnaires completed by holiday-makers who traveled by aircraft (n = 499) and yacht-based visitors (n = 52) showed that whales have become the predominant attraction for visitors to these remote islands. Interviews with tour operators (n = 10) confirmed the increasing influence of whale based activities over all tourism in the Vava'u area.     

Turn and zigzag maneuvers of a surface combatant using a URANS approach with dynamic overset grids

Unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) computations of standard maneuvers are performed for a surface combatant at model and full scale. The computations are performed using CFDShip-Iowa v4, a free surface solver designed for 6DOF motions in free and semi-captive problems. Overset grids and a hierarchy of bodies allow the deflection of the rudders while the ship undergoes 6DOF motions. Two types of maneuvers are simulated: steady turn and zigzag. Simulations of steady turn at 35° rudder deflection and zigzag 20/20 maneuvers for Fr = 0.25 and 0.41 using constant RPM propulsion are benchmarked against experimental time histories of yaw, yaw rate and roll, and trajectories, and also compared against available integral variables. Differences between CFD and experiments are mostly within 10 % for both maneuvers, highly satisfactory given the degree of complexity of these computations. Simulations are performed also with waves, and with propulsion at either constant RPM or torque. 20/20 zigzag maneuvers are simulated at model and full scale for Fr = 0.41. The full scale case produces a thinner boundary layer profile compared to the model scale with different reaction times and handling needed for maneuvering. Results indicate that URANS computations of maneuvers are feasible, though issues regarding adequate modeling of propellers remain to be solved.     

Leveraging socio-ecological resilience theory to build climate resilience in transport infrastructure

ABSTRACT

Anthropogenic climate change poses risks to transport infrastructure that include disrupted operations, reduced lifespan and increased reconstruction and maintenance costs. Efforts to decrease the vulnerability of transport networks have been largely limited to understanding projected risks through governance and administrative efforts. Where physical adaptation measures have been implemented, these have typically aligned with a traditional “engineering resilience” approach of increasing the strength and rigidity of assets to withstand the impacts of climate change and maintain a stable operating state. Such systems have limited agility and are susceptible to failure from “surprise events”. Addressing these limitations, this paper considers an alternate approach to resilience, inspired by natural ecosystems that sense conditions in real-time, embrace multi-functionality and evolve in response to changing environmental conditions. Such systems embrace and thrive on unpredictability and instability. This paper synthesises key literature in climate adaptation and socio-ecological resilience theory to propose a shift in paradigm for transport infrastructure design, construction and operation, towards engineered systems that can transform, evolve and internally manage vulnerability. The authors discuss the opportunity for biomimicry (innovation inspired by nature) as an enabling discipline for supporting resilient and regenerative infrastructure, introducing three potential tools and frameworks. The authors conclude the importance of leveraging socio-ecological resilience theory, building on the achievements in engineering resilience over the past century. These findings have immediate practical applications in redefining resilience approaches for new transport infrastructure projects and transport infrastructure renewal.     

为进行能源管理并强化车体结构所采用的结构粘合剂

1简介 在汽车制造过程中,作为一种金属连接的方式,结构粘合剂的应用正处于迅猛发展阶段。结构粘合剂可增强粘接结构的刚性、耐久性和抗冲撞性。此外．该粘合剂的使用使得相容性差的金属之间的粘接变得容易,因此从成本高低和车体质量大小方面加大了车体结构优化设计的可能性。     

Kuwaiti tanker reflagging_a confluence of foreign and maritme politime policies

In 1987, the government of Kuwait requested permission of the US government to reflag 11 of its tankers to the American flag for the purpose of gaining protection from Iranian attacks. The US government agreed, citing overall strategic and political considerations. As part of the reflagging, waivers were granted to permit the vessels to operate without proper inspections and without licensed radio operators. Furthermore, the vesels employed only one US mariner each, th eecaptain, and though subsequent legislation closed the 'loophole' through which that occurred, anotherr waiver allowed the Kuwaitis to continue without hiring Americans. The maritime policy implications-and the juxtaposition of maritime and foreign policies-were of concern to members of Congress, who held hearings and introduced and passed legislation on the issue.     

Transportation in suburbia: Trends in attitudes,behaviors and policy preferences in Orange County,California

This paper analyzes transportation attitudes, behaviors and policy preferences in a suburban region. The focus of the study is Orange County, which has experienced rapid growth and industrialization in recent decades. The results from the 1989 Orange County Annual Survey indicate that most residents perceive traffic to be the most serious problem facing the area, and most residents are dissatisfied with the current freeways. Over time, the trend is increased perceptions of traffic problems, However, there is little evidence that residents have changed their driving habits in recent years and there is considerable opposition to new transportation taxes and policies aimed at reducing traffic congestion. These trends are related to opposition to change by affluent suburban residents and to distrust of local government. Traffic attitudes and conservativism appear to play a minor role in predicting current driving habits and policy preferences. The results have important implications for future efforts to improve suburban traffic.     

A warehouse location-routing problem

The interdependence between distribution center location and vehicle routing has been recognized by both academics and practitioners. However, only few attempts have been made to incorporate routing in location analysis. This paper defines the Warehouse Location-Routing Problem (WLRP) as one of simultaneously solving the DC location and vehicle routing problems. We present a mixed integer programming formulation of the WLRP. Based on this formulation, it can be seen that the WLRP is a generalization of well-known and difficult location and routing problems, such as the Location-Allocation Problem and the Multi-depot Vehicle Dispatch Problem. It is therefore a large and complex problem which cannot be solved using existing mixed-integer programming techniques. We present a heuristic solution method for the WLRP, based on decomposing the problem into three subproblems. The proposed method solves the subproblems in a sequential manner while accounting for the dependence between them. We discuss a large-scale application of the proposed method to a national distribution company at a regional level.