Autonomous cars: The tension between occupant experience and intersection capacity

Systems that enable high levels of vehicle-automation are now beginning to enter the commercial marketplace. Road vehicles capable of operating independently of real-time human control under an increasing set of circumstances will likely become more widely available in the near future. Such vehicles are expected to bring a variety of benefits. Two such anticipated advantages (relative to human-driver vehicle control) are said to be increased road network capacity and the freeing up of the driver-occupant’s time to engage in their choice of leisurely or economically-productive (non-driving) tasks.In this study we investigate the implications for intersection capacity and level-of-service of providing occupants of automated (without real-time human control), autonomously-operating (without vehicle-to-X communication) cars with ride quality that is equivalent (in terms of maximum rates of longitudinal and lateral acceleration) to two types of rail systems: [urban] light rail transit and [inter-urban] high-speed rail. The literature suggests that car passengers start experiencing discomfort at lower rates of acceleration than car drivers; it is therefore plausible that occupants of an autonomously-operating vehicle may wish to instruct their vehicle to maneuver in a way that provides them greater ride comfort than if the vehicle-control algorithm simply mimicked human-driving-operation.On the basis of traffic microsimulation analysis, we found that restricting the dynamics of autonomous cars to the acceleration/deceleration characteristics of both rail systems leads to reductions in a signalized intersection’s vehicle-processing capacity and increases in delay. The impacts were found to be larger when constraining the autonomous cars’ dynamics to the more-restrictive acceleration/deceleration profile of high-speed rail. The scenarios we analyzed must be viewed as boundary conditions, because autonomous cars’ dynamics were by definition never allowed to exceed the acceleration/deceleration constraints of the rail systems. Appropriate evidence regarding motorists’ preferences does not exist at present; establishing these preferences is an important item for the future research agenda.This paper concludes with a brief discussion of research needs to advance this line of inquiry.     

Transport energy consumption in mountainous roads. A comparative case study for internal combustion engines and electric vehicles in Andorra

This paper analyses transport energy consumption of conventional and electric vehicles in mountainous roads. A standard round trip in Andorra has been modelled in order to characterise vehicle dynamics in hilly regions. Two conventional diesel vehicles and their electric-equivalent models have been simulated and their performances have been compared. Six scenarios have been simulated to study the effects of factors such as orography, traffic congestion and driving style. The European fuel consumption and emissions test and Artemis urban driving cycles, representative of European driving cycles, have also been included in the comparative analysis. The results show that road grade has a major impact on fuel economy, although it affects consumption in different levels depending on the technology analysed. Electric vehicles are less affected by this factor as opposed to conventional vehicles, increasing the potential energy savings in a hypothetical electrification of the car fleet. However, electric vehicle range in mountainous terrains is lower compared to that estimated by manufacturers, a fact that could adversely affect a massive adoption of electric cars in the short term.     

马达加斯加武海马尔墓地的发掘与研究

马达加斯加武海马尔墓群有近六百座墓,其墓葬形制与同时期东非地区阿拉伯穆斯林的墓葬形制有着明显的不同,有些墓葬与中国穆斯林的墓葬形制有较多相似之处。部分墓葬中出土了大量元、明时期的瓷器和其他随葬品,反映出武海马尔墓群主人可能是元、明时期来自中国东南沿海地区或东南亚的色目、回回商人,以及附属于他们的汉人、马来人或武海马尔当地土著,如他们的妻妾、子女、随从、伙计等,其中有些是受雇于穆斯林商人的汉人或者受穆斯林影响的汉人,因此,其葬俗保留了一些中国传统丧葬礼仪的痕迹。     

Integrated approach to determine highway flooding and critical points of drainage

Among the natural hazards that threaten transportation infrastructure, flooding represents a major hazard to highways as it challenges their design, operation, efficiency and safety. In extreme cases, it may lead to massive obstruction of traffic and direct damages to the road structures themselves and indirect damages to the economic activity and development of the region. To enable the prevention of such consequences, and the proposition of adaptive measures for existing infrastructure, this paper presents an integrated framework to identify the most vulnerable points to flooding along a highway. This is done through the combination of remote sensing information (e.g. LiDAR based Digital Elevation Model, satellite imagery), a high-quality dataset, and a quasi-2D hydrodynamic model. The forcing condition is defined using a hyetograph associated to a storm with duration of 1 day and return period of 100 years. The selected highway is located in the Mexican state of Tabasco, where extreme precipitation events and floods are frequent. Results demonstrate the ability of the methodology to identify critical water levels along the road (h > 1.50 m) at those locations where flooding has been experienced, as well as points of inspection for the highway drainage. These locations were visited in the field and maintenance problems were detected that do increase its level of exposure. We show that this framework is useful for the generation of a flood management strategy to the analyzed highway, which includes an optimum location of adaptive measures to an anticipated more intense future climate.     

Traffic modelling in system boundary expansion of road pavement life cycle assessment

This paper uses a case study of a UK inter-urban road, to explore the impact of extending the system boundary of road pavement life cycle assessment (LCA) to include increased traffic emissions due to delays during maintenance. Some previous studies have attempted this but have been limited to hypothetical scenarios or simplified traffic modelling, with no validation or sensitivity analysis. In this study, micro-simulation modelling of traffic was used to estimate emissions caused by delays at road works, for several traffic management options. The emissions were compared to those created by the maintenance operation, estimated using an LCA model. In this case study, the extra traffic emissions caused by delays at road works are relatively small, compared to those from the maintenance process, except for hydrocarbon emissions. However, they are generally close to, or above, the materiality threshold recommended in PAS2050 for estimating carbon footprints, and reach 5–10% when traffic flow levels are increased (hypothetically) or when traffic management is imposed outside times of lowest traffic flow. It is recommended, therefore, that emissions due to traffic disruption at road works should be included within the system boundary of road pavement LCA and carbon footprint studies and should be considered in developing guidelines for environmental product declarations of road pavement maintenance products and services.     

Including congestion effects in urban road traffic CO2 emissions modelling: Do Local Government Authorities have the right options?

Tailpipe emissions from vehicles on urban road networks have damaging impacts, with the problem exacerbated by the common occurrence of congestion. This article focuses on carbon dioxide because it is the largest constituent of road traffic greenhouse gas emissions. Local Government Authorities (LGAs) are typically responsible for facilitating mitigation of these emissions, and critical to this task is the ability to assess the impact of transport interventions on road traffic emissions for a whole network.This article presents a contemporary review of literature concerning road traffic data and its use by LGAs in emissions models (EMs). Emphasis on the practicalities of using data readily available to LGAs to estimate network level emissions and inform effective policy is a relatively new research area, and this article summarises achievements so far. Results of the literature review indicate that readily available data are aggregated at traffic level rather than disaggregated at individual vehicle level. Hence, a hypothesis is put forward that optimal EM complexity is one using traffic variables as inputs, allowing LGAs to capture the influence of congestion whilst avoiding the complexity of detailed EMs that estimate emissions at vehicle level.Existing methodologies for estimating network emissions based on traffic variables typically have limitations. Conclusions are that LGAs do not necessarily have the right options, and that more research in this domain is required, both to quantify accuracy and to further develop EMs that explicitly include congestion, whilst remaining within LGA resource constraints.     

Greenhouse gas emissions from road construction: An assessment of alternative staging approaches

The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with road construction activities are analyzed. The main focus of this analysis is on the vehicle emissions associated with alternative project staging approaches, specifically a full closure of the road during construction, versus an intermittent road closure. The analysis includes the direct and upstream emissions associated with materials, construction equipment, mobilization of resources to the work site, and maintenance activity associated with the project over its lifetime. The analysis is based on one case study of a road project in New Jersey. The assumptions underlying the staging analysis are based on hypothetical approaches. Results provide an assessment of the main sources of project related emissions and the ability to minimize total project emissions by minimizing traffic disruption. In the analysis with a full closure of the road, traffic disruption accounts for 26% of total emissions, while with an intermittent road closure, traffic disruption accounts for only 2% of total emissions. The other main sources are from materials and life-cycle maintenance. The analysis demonstrates the feasibility of minimizing project related GHG emissions during road construction activities.     

Generating lane-based intersection maps from crowdsourcing big trace data

Lane-based road information plays a critical role in transportation systems, a lane-based intersection map is the most important component in a detailed road map of the transportation infrastructure. Researchers have developed various algorithms to detect the spatial layout of intersections based on sensor data such as high-definition images/videos, laser point cloud data, and GPS traces, which can recognize intersections and road segments; however, most approaches do not automatically generate Lane-based Intersection Maps (LIMs). The objective of our study is to generate LIMs automatically from crowdsourced big trace data using a multi-hierarchy feature extraction strategy. The LIM automatic generation method proposed in this paper consists of the initial recognition of road intersections, intersection layout detection, and lane-based intersection map-generation. The initial recognition process identifies intersection and non-intersection areas using spatial clustering algorithms based on the similarity of angle and distance. The intersection layout is composed of exit and entry points, obtained by combining trajectory integration algorithms and turn rules at road intersections. The LIM generation step is finally derived from the intersection layout detection results and lane-based road information, based on geometric matching algorithms. The effectiveness of our proposed LIM generation method is demonstrated using crowdsourced vehicle traces. Additional comparisons and analysis are also conducted to confirm recognition results. Experiments show that the proposed method saves time and facilitates LIM refinement from crowdsourced traces more efficiently than methods based on other types of sensor data.     

A traffic-condition-based route guidance strategy for a single destination road network

Most of existing route guidance strategies achieves user optimal equilibrium by comparing travel time. Measuring travel time, however, might be uneasy on an urban road network. To contend with the issue, the paper mainly considers easily obtained inflow and outflow of a link and road capacity as input, and proposes a route guidance strategy for a single destination road network based on the determination of free-flow or congested conditions on alternative routes. An extended strategy for a complex network and a feedback approximation for avoiding forecast are further explored. Weaknesses of the strategy are also explicitly analyzed. To test the strategy, simulation investigations are conducted on two networks with multiple parallel routes. The results indicate that the strategy is able to provide stable splitting rates and to approximate user optimal equilibrium in different conditions, in particular when traffic demand is high. This strategy has potential to be applied in an urban road network due to its simplicity and easily obtained input data. The strategy is also applicable for single destination if some alternatives and similar routes are available.     

上海市道路隧道结构设计标准综述

通过调研和总结上海已建15座盾构隧道的设计资料,对现有隧道存在的病害进行了归类分析,提出了隧道病害的预防与治理措施;对明挖段的围护设计选型、结构工程规模和盾构隧道几何设计参数进行了统计分析,提出了明挖接线段围护结构选型及插入比的建议,明确了明挖结构的计算模型和计算参数;对已建盾构隧道的埋深、最小曲线半径、最小线间距、最大坡度等几何参数进行了详细分析,总结出了工作井平面尺寸的确定方法和盾构进出洞的关键技术。