Performance indicators for transit management

Transit performance can be evaluated through quantitative indicators. As the provision of efficient and effective transit service are appropriate goals to be encouraged by federal and state governments, these goals are used to develop performance indicators.Three efficiency and four effectiveness indicators are described, together with two overall indicators. These nine indicators are analyzed for comparability utilizing operating and financial data collected from public transit agencies in California.Performance indicators selected for this study should not be viewed as final. Twenty-one performance indicators proposed by previous studies were reviewed. Theoretical considerations and unavailability or unreliability of data caused omission of several useful measures like passenger-miles. Circumstances such as improved data, emphasis upon goals other than efficiency and effectiveness, and local conditions might warrant the inclusion of indicators deleted from this research.This paper is based on work conducted for the Urban Mass Transportation Administration under University Research and Training Grant CA-11-0014, Development of Performance Indicators for Transit. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the University of California or the United States Government. We are indebted to John Feren for assistance with the statistical processing and data gathering.     

Making do: The effects of a mass transit strike on travel behavior

A brief transit strike in early December 1976 disrupted bus services to the city of Pittsburgh and surrounding Allegheny County. That strike provided an opportunity for testing a variety of approaches to increase ride-sharing and to reduce traffic congestion, and for examining the effect of the strike on traffic congestion and on individual travel behavior. Even though over 60% of the commuters to the CBD use transit, the effects of the strike were relatively mild. There was some increase in traffic flow into the CBD and some spreading of the peak period. The largest proportion of the transit commuters who made trips to the CBD during the strike were dropped off by a non-commuter, increasing highway traffic. The most severe impact was felt by those transit commuters who had no cars in the household; 25% of these commuters (only 3% of the total CBD commuters) stayed home from work on the first day of the strike. Most attempts to mitigate the impact of the strike had little effect, largely because most commuters were able to manage adequately during the short strike. The anticipated parking problem, on which much of the contingency planning was focused, did not emerge, largely because of the use of carpooling and drop-off mode by many of the transit users.     

Regulatory reform and freight mode choice

Reform of trucking Vehicle Weights and Dimensions (VWD) regulations in Canada is now underway. The effect these reforms will have on the freight transportation industry are only recently the subject of research. This paper is part of this new research effort, aimed at understanding how regulatory reform in the trucking sector will affect the existing competitive relationship between trucks and the railways. The paper presents the results of study and research into modelling the relationship between mode choice and the service characteristics that are affected by VWD reform.Using several periods of data, a series of econometric models are developed which help to elucidate the relative relationships between the mode service characteristics for both of the principal interprovincial freight modes. A technique is developed and presented to model railway user costs in order to overcome the complex and often unrepresentable pricing activities of Canadian railways.The strength of the developed econometric models is presented, including their significance and statistical reliability. This is further reinforced by the similarities exhibited by all the models in the series. The selected model is applied to predict market service responses required of the railway industry in order to compete with the trucking sector now adapting to the new regulations.The impact of the newly implemented vehicle weight and dimension reform on the rail transportation industry is analyzed and railway industry improvements aimed at maintaining its market share are presented. The results predicted by the model show that railway user cost reductions should be moderate, and likely less than the level of inflation over the period of time when trucking converts its fleet to take advantage of the new regulations.Abbreviations AASHTO American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials - CCMTA Canadian Conference of Motor Transport Administrators - EPI End products, inedible commodity classification - GVW Gross Vehicle Weight - NA 1988 VWD National Agreement - RTAC Roads and Transportation Association of Canada - VWD Vehicle Weight(s) and Dimension(s) - WA 1988 VWD Western Agreement     

Modeling intrametropolitan industrial location realistically

This paper compares intrametropolitan industrial location models to the process of intrametropolitan industrial location as described in the real estate and urban economic literature. It identifies seven areas where industrial location models are at odds with reality, and suggests ways to make them realistic. Specifically, it makes a case for microanalytic/stochastic/recursive/dynamic/economic industrial location models. It goes on to describe an operational model that is realistic in most respects.     

轿车总布置设计中人机工程应用的初步探讨

简单介绍了确定轿车总布置尺寸的主要原则，指出所有考虑因素的确定都必须以人为根本，以满足人机工程要求为原则。讨论了人机工程尺寸与乘坐舒适性、安全性、操纵性、上下轻便性之间的关系，最后通过简单的实例对优化总布置尺寸的过程作了初步介绍，并探讨了今后的发展方向。     

用稀土催化剂净化柴油机排气的研究

介绍了所研制的用于柴油机排气净化的新型稀土钙钛矿型复合金属氧化物催化剂LaMnO3／γ-Al2O3。通过发动机试验的方法研究其净化效果，并与γ-Al2O3，颗粒、贵金属催化剂Pd／γ-Al2O3进行了比较。结果表明，LaM-nO3／γ-Al2O3对CO、HC、微粒及微粒中的有机组分SOF均有化学催化净化效果，尤其是对SOF净化效果明显。     

CA498柴油机冷却水流LDV测量

为验证柴油机冷却水套CFD计算结果的准确性，利用LDV测速系统测量了CA498柴油机缸盖及缸体内流场12个关键点处的速度，并将试验结果与CFD计算结果进行了比较一结果表明，除了缸体上3个点的实际测量结果与CFD计算结果有较大偏差以外，其他各点试验测得的数据与CFD计算结果有较好的一致性。分析了造成偏差的主要原因。     

基于试验的自动变速器故障诊断分析

通过现有的失速试验、时滞试验、油压试验、道路试验、故障码扫描等多种试验方法，可在变速器解体之前获得故障信息。在深入分析自动变速器结构及各元件功能的基础上，将各种试验进行合理的逻辑组合，对获得的故障信息进行逻辑分析，最终可将故障源限定在最小的范围之内。分析探讨了这种方法的可行性。