New appraisal values of travel time saving and reliability in Great Britain

Transportation - This paper provides an overview of the study ‘Provision of market research for value of time savings and reliability’ undertaken by the Arup/ITS Leeds/Accent consortium...     

Efficiency in Asian railways: a comparison between data envelopment analysis approaches

Performance analysis has become a vital part of the management practices in the logistics infrastructure. Although there are numerous applications using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models to estimate efficiency in ports and airports, research on railway efficiency remains scarce. Most of the efficiency studies of railways assume that inputs and outputs are known with absolute precision. Here, we compare Stochastic-DEA and Fuzzy-DEA models to assess, respectively, how the underlying randomness and fuzziness impact efficiency levels in railway operations in six different Asian countries: Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Findings reveal that conclusions with respect to the ranking of these railways may vary substantially depending upon the type of model chosen, although efficiency scores are similar to some extent when compared within the ambits of Stochastic-DEA and Fuzzy-DEA models. Additionally, modeling choices on fuzziness, rather than randomness, appear to be the most critical source for variations in efficiency rankings.     

Deploying the advanced public transportation systems (APTS) technologies in Los Angeles: A summary and analysis

This paper first introduces the key players involved in the deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The paper then reports the local deployment status of major Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS) projects, with a particular emphasis placed on the burgeoning Los Angeles Smart Shuttle Demonstration Project. In addition, the paper analyzes some technical, political, financial and other issues centering around the deployment of APTS technologies in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.     

Modeling techniques for periodic vehicle routing problems

This paper presents a continuous approximation model for the period vehicle routing problem with service choice (PVRP-SC). The PVRP-SC is a variant of the period vehicle routing problem in which the visit frequency to nodes is a decision of the model. This variation can result in more efficient vehicle tours and/or greater service benefit to customers. We present a continuous approximation model to facilitate strategic and tactical planning of periodic distribution systems and evaluate the value of service choice. Further, results from the continuous model can provide guidelines for constructing solutions to the discrete PVRP-SC.     

The competitiveness of short sea shipping in multimodal logistics supply chains: service attributes

Much has been written and spoken about short sea shipping within the European Union (EU) as a means of shifting goods from road to sea and of achieving a sustainable economic development. However, this shift is far from being a general reality, despite the few individual, and success stories that have taken place and the EUROSTAT data suggest that the overall effort has contributed very little towards attaining this desired shift. In the light of this, research was conducted to discover how to put short sea shipping on a more competitive level within European multimodal logistics supply chains. This paper aims at identifying service attributes of short sea shipping operations within multimodal transport chains by means of a questionnaire and, for that, examines the short sea shipping environment and contemporary European logistics trends. The analysis is based on empirical research, involving logistics operators, shippers' associations and intermodal rail operators, and allows an evaluation (based on statistical techniques) of the short sea shipping industry and its competitors. It extends previous work by considering these short sea shipping attributes within a multimodal transport context.     

A journey from adversary to partnership bus reform in NSW

This paper continues to debate the importance of understanding in the NSW Bus reform process of the relationship between central agencies, service providers, the academic community, key consultants and contractors within the setting of the transport service organisation framework. Sydney is a modern city with heavy rail, light-rail, monorail and an extensive Harbour, with bus services owned by Government as well as private interests. The paper addresses the case for reforms, the approach taken, competition policy, the subsequent development of partnerships, performance of the regulator, passenger benefits, growth and the differences between Metropolitan/Outer Metropolitan and Regional and Rural bus services.     

Pivot point-based control for active rear-wheel steering in passenger vehicles

This paper presents a new application of active rear-wheel steering control to improve the lateral vehicle behaviour. In the state of the art, yaw or lateral velocity is used as control variable that means one degree of freedom being not directly controlled. A worse subjective impressions due to movements in the rear end of the vehicle during strong counter-steering are a consequence. To avoid this effect in urban surroundings, an innovative structure to control the pivot point distance of the vehicle is proposed. In this case the coupled elementary states yaw and lateral velocity can be influenced based on a higher level criteria. Analysis show that pivot point fixing provides a comprehensible reference behaviour. Solving the issue of singularity during disappearing yaw movement is the basis to design a performant modified feedforward input–output linearisation. An analytic stability analysis of the internal dynamics shows system immanent limitations which do not influence the target of improving the lateral vehicle dynamics in urban manoeuvres. Finally, the advantages of pivot-based control are highlighted by a comparison with state of the art rear axle control.