Time use,mobility and expenditure: an innovative survey design for understanding individuals’ trade-off processes

A large amount of information is required to model the complex trade-off processes between travel activities, non-travel activities and budget assignment at the individual level. This paper describes the development of a new survey design, which incorporates components of travel surveys, time use surveys and consumer expenditure surveys in an integrated format, which is expected to deliver a richer data set allowing deeper insights into individuals’ activity and consumption patterns. The survey procedure and the incentives paid, which were necessary to obtain acceptable response rates, are also described. Results from two pilot studies using a trip-based and an activity-based diary format are presented. The paper examines to which extent the diaries have been capable of collecting the required data with high quality and response rates. The innovative “Mobility–Activity–Expenditure-Diary” is introduced and results of the main survey using this design are presented. Travel behaviour and non-travel activities were reported at high quality. Expenditures would require longer observation periods (and preferably not only telephone but also personal support in the survey process) to reduce unsystematic variations and to better capture individuals’ long term equilibrium.

     

The role of habit and residential location in travel behavior change programs,a field experiment

Transportation - Early evaluations of travel change programs demonstrated dramatic success in shifting people out of cars and into transit and active travel. Yet methodological shortcomings of...     

A framework for robustness analysis of road networks for short term variations in supply

There is a growing awareness that road networks, are becoming more and more vulnerable to unforeseen disturbances like incidents and that measures need to be taken in order to make road networks more robust. In order to do this the following questions need to be addressed: How is robustness defined? Against which disturbances should the network be made robust? Which factors determine the robustness of a road network? What is the relationship between robustness, travel times and travel time reliability? Which indicators can be used to quantify robustness? How can these indicators be computed? This paper addresses these questions by developing a consistent framework for robustness in which a definition, terms related to robustness, indicators and an evaluation method are included. By doing this, policy makers and transportation analyst are offered a framework to discuss issues that are related to road network robustness and vulnerability which goes beyond the disconnected definitions, indicators and evaluation methods used so far in literature. Furthermore, the evaluation method that is presented for evaluating the robustness of the road network against short term variations in supply (like incidents) contributes to the problem of designing robust road networks because it has a relatively short computation time and it takes spillback effects and alternative routes into account.     

Experiments and thermal-electrical analysis of buss bar and relay assemblies in junction blocks

A junction block (or electrical distribution box) is electrical equipment that has been densely assembled from components such as buss bars, relays, and fuses to control the electric current flow in vehicles. Joule heat is generated in these parts as a result of electrical bulk resistance and electrical contact resistance. The generation of heat increases due to the complex behavior of modern vehicle electronic systems. Overheated parts can be damaged during operation due to thermal energy. The thermal assessment of a junction block is an important issue in automobile development. We suggest a methodology to simulate the transient temperature distribution of buss bars and electrical relays in a junction block. A finite element formulation of a coupled electro-thermal problem, which includes the effect of Joule heating, is introduced to the simulation. Finite element analysis (FEA) and experiments at the component level of buss bars and relays are conducted to investigate the thermal performance of a junction block. To verify the accuracy of the FEA procedure, the temperature history obtained by FEA is compared with the results obtained from experiments. The thermal-electric analysis of a typical junction block assembly is also discussed.     

Increase of metro line capacity by optimisation of track circuit length and location: In a distance to go system

The signalling system affects the type of service that can be provided on any particular railway line. The aims set when it comes to designing these systems to operate a railway line are: to ensure safety of operation and to ensure flexible and efficient running. When building a line capacity optimisation algorithm, it must reach a compromise solution between two parameters: minimise the interval between trains and keep journey time as low as possible. This paper aims to describe the algorithm developed between METRO DE MADRID and CITEF (Railway Technology Research Centre of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid – UPM) that allows the capacity of an underground line equipped with ATP Distance To Go systems to be studied and optimised. This algorithm facilitates the tasks of signalling design and optimisation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Small area estimates of daily person-miles of travel: 2001 National Household Transportation Survey

The National Household Transportation Survey (NHTS) was designed at the national level, and for most states it does not have a large enough sample to produce reliable estimates, especially for subdomains (e.g., age groups) within a state. Using the 2001 NHTS, we produced small area estimates (SAEs) of the percentage of persons among four age groups (17 or younger, 18–39, 40–54, and 55 or older) having high daily person-miles of travel (more than 87.5 miles a day, which is the 90th percentile for daily person-miles traveled) and associated prediction intervals for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey weighted hierarchical Bayes (Folsom et al., Proc of the Sect on Surv Res Methods of the Am Stat Assoc 371–375, 1999) small area estimation (SAE) methodology was used to produce state-level SAEs. This paper describes the methodology and shows that SAE can be an effective technique for producing reliable state-level estimates from large, national surveys like the NHTS. In particular, the prediction interval relative widths for SAEs were, on average, 31–48% narrower than the corresponding design-based confidence interval widths, whereas for small states the reduction was around 47–63%.     

The capacity of a priority intersection

We present simple formulae for the maximum capacity of an intersection of a single stream of minor traffic with a single stream of major (priority) traffic. The method allows for both mixed (nonhomogeneous) vehicle types and for inconsistent driver behaviour in the minor traffic stream. For a realistic class of major headway distributions the capacity is the harmonic mean of the capacities for each individual vehicle type. The formulae include generalisations of Tanner's formula for the cases of inconsistent and/or nonhomogeneous minor vehicles.     

Zur Steuerbarkeit eines gebremsten Sattelschleppzuges

(Title: On Controllability of a Tractor-Semitrailer Truck During Braking)

The concept of controllability coming from linear system theory is applied to the motion of a tractor-semitrailer vehicle during straight-line braking. Some states of braking with locked up wheels at different axles are considered. The question whether the system is always controllable must be answered in the negative for locked up wheels at the tractors front axle. In other cases controllability in its mathematical meaning which, however, does not always appear to be fully adequate for practical problems, is possible.     

猴细小病毒Vp2的克隆、表达和鉴定

目的　克隆、表达和鉴定猴细小病毒 (simianparvovirus,SPV)Vp2蛋白。方法　用设计的SPVVp2区的特异性引物 ,PCR法扩增SPVVp2基因DNA片断 ;将获得的基因片断插入 pThioHisA载体中 ,转化大肠杆菌DH5α后挑选阳性克隆 ,利用限制性内切酶酶切和核酸序列分析技术鉴定重组质粒 ;以LB培养液培养转化有插入SPVVp2基因的pThioHisA载体的大肠杆菌 ,以终浓度 1mmol·L -1的IPTG诱导蛋白的表达 ;用SDA PAGE和Westernblot分析和鉴定表达的蛋白。结果　经限制性内切酶酶切和核酸序列分析 ,获得了插入pThioHisA载体框架的SPVVp2基因的表达质粒 ;阳性转化大肠杆菌在IPTG诱导下获得了SPVVp2蛋白的表达 ;SDA PAGE和用抗 Thio及抗 SPVVp2的特异性抗体的Westernblot分析证实了表达蛋白的特异性。结论　获得了SPVVp2基因的表达质粒并在大肠杆菌中得了高效表达 ,为进一步建立SPV感染的检测方法和研究SPV的血清流行病学等奠定了基础。