Bus Priority Using pre-signals

The need to provide efficient public transport services in urban areas has led to the implementation of bus priority measures in many congested cities. Much interest has recently centred on priority at signal controlled junctions, including the concept of pre-signals, where traffic signals are installed at or near the end of a with-flow bus lane to provide buses with priority access to the downstream junction. Although a number of pre-signals have now been installed in the U.K., particularly in London, there has been very little published research into their design, operation and optimisation. This paper addresses these points through the development of analytical procedures which allow pre-implementation evaluation of specific categories of pre-signals. The paper initially sets out three categories of pre-signal, which have different operating characteristics, different requirements for signalling and different impacts on capacity and delay. Key issues concerning signalling arrangements for these categories are then discussed, together with a summary of the analytical approach adopted and the assumptions required. Equations are developed to allow appropriate signal timings to be calculated for pre-signalised intersections. Further equations are then developed to enable delays to priority and non-priority traffic, with and without pre-signals, to be estimated with delay being taken here as the key performance criterion. The paper concludes with three application examples illustrating how the equations are applied and the impacts of pre-signals in different situations.The analyses confirm the potential benefits of pre-signals, where these signals apply to non-priority traffic only. Where buses are also subject to a pre-signal, it is shown that disbenefits to buses can often occur, unless bus detectors are used to gain priority signalling.     

轿车三维分离流动特性的研究

本文介绍了使用激光片光技术及激光多普勒测速仪对某型国产轿车尾流的三维分离流的尾迹和速度分布测定的试验研究。本项研究表明，光学流态显示和数字图象技术相结合，可以有效地揭示汽车的尾流结构，诊断阻力来源，本项研究为建立汽车三维分离流动的动态仿真理论模型提供了依据。     

常用桥梁伸缩装置问题分析

根据桥梁伸缩装置出现的问题进行了调查研究,对常用桥梁伸缩装置进行了分析,总结了各类桥梁伸缩装置的主要破坏形式,并对伸缩装置破坏的原因进行了分析,提出了设计、制造、施工和管理等方面问题的解决方法.实践证明,只要各个方面结合起来,桥梁伸缩装置破坏的问题就能得到很好的解决.     

非港湾式公交停车对道路交通流的影响分析

公交车进出站点不仅影响本身,也给其他车辆运行带来很大干扰。文章首先比较全面地分析非港湾式公交停车影响下道路交通流特征,然后借助于EXCEL软件,构建关于公交停车频率、公交停车时间、最大公交停车长度及其存在时间、道路流量的车速和车头时距多元线性模型,并进行了严格的数学检验。该研究为合理分析路段交通流状况、正确计算区间行驶车速与车头时距提供了依据。     

Analytical and simulation approaches to understand combined effects of transit signal priority and road-space priority measures

Transit signal priority (TSP) may be combined with road-space priority (RSP) measures to increase its effectiveness. Previous studies have investigated the combination of TSP and RSP measures, such as TSP with dedicated bus lanes (DBLs) and TSP with queue jump lanes (QJLs). However, in these studies, combined effects are usually not compared with separate effects of each measure. In addition, there is no comprehensive study dedicated to understanding combined effects of TSP and RSP measures. It remains unclear whether combining TSP and RSP measures creates an additive effect where the combined effect of TSP and RSP measures is equal to the sum of their separate effects. The existence of such an additive effect would suggest considerable benefits from combining TSP and RSP measures. This paper explores combined effects of TSP and RSP measures, including TSP with DBLs and TSP with QJLs. Analytical results based on time-space diagrams indicate that at an intersection level, the combined effect on bus delay savings is smaller than the additive effect if there is no nearside bus stop and the traffic condition in the base case is under-saturated or near-saturated. With a near-side bus stop, the combined effect on bus delay savings at an intersection level can be better than the additive effect (or over-additive effect), depending on dwell time, distance from the bus stop to the stop line, traffic demand, and cycle length. In addition, analytical results suggest that at an arterial level, the combined effect on bus delay savings can be the over-additive effect with suitable signal offsets. These results are confirmed by a micro-simulation case study. Combined effects on arterial and side-street traffic delays are also discussed.     

Investigation of tailpipe and evaporative emissions from China IV and Tier 2 passenger vehicles with different gasolines

The limited understanding of vehicular emissions in China, especially evaporative emissions, is one obstacle to establishing tighter standards. To evaluate tailpipe and evaporative emissions, two typical China IV vehicles and one Tier 2 vehicle with an onboard refuelling vapour recovery (ORVR) system were selected and tested. One of the China IV vehicles was fuelled with gasoline, E10 and M15, respectively, to investigate the effect of fuel properties on vehicular emissions. For each vehicle, cold-start tailpipe emission tests were conducted first, followed by an evaporation test. Based on the emission factors and real-world vehicle activity data, the annual tailpipe and evaporative hydrocarbon (HC) emissions of each vehicle were calculated and compared. The results show that E10 and M15 significantly reduced the tailpipe CO and particle number (PN) emissions but seriously aggravated the NOx emissions, especially for M15. The hot soak losses (HSLs) and diurnal breathing losses (DBLs) were slightly impacted by the fuel properties. The annual evaporative emissions with E10 and M15 were higher than that with gasoline. The ORVR system effectively controlled the evaporative emissions, especially for DBLs. Evaporative emissions from the China IV vehicles were 1.1–1.4 times the tailpipe HC emissions. Additionally, the evaporative emission factors of the China IV vehicles were almost 50% lower than the standard (2.0 g/test), whereas their annual evaporative emissions were almost 1.8–2.8 times higher than those from the Tier 2 vehicle. Therefore, controlling evaporative emissions currently remains a great need in China, and the ORVR might be a recommended evaporative control technology.     

Driving cycle prediction model based on bus route features

Bus fuel economy is deeply influenced by the driving cycles, which vary for different route conditions. Buses optimized for a standard driving cycle are not necessarily suitable for actual driving conditions, and, therefore, it is critical to predict the driving cycles based on the route conditions. To conveniently predict representative driving cycles of special bus routes, this paper proposed a prediction model based on bus route features, which supports bus optimization. The relations between 27 inter-station characteristics and bus fuel economy were analyzed. According to the analysis, five inter-station route characteristics were abstracted to represent the bus route features, and four inter-station driving characteristics were abstracted to represent the driving cycle features between bus stations. Inter-station driving characteristic equations were established based on the multiple linear regression, reflecting the linear relationships between the five inter-station route characteristics and the four inter-station driving characteristics. Using kinematic segment classification, a basic driving cycle database was established, including 4704 different transmission matrices. Based on the inter-station driving characteristic equations and the basic driving cycle database, the driving cycle prediction model was developed, generating drive cycles by the iterative Markov chain for the assigned bus lines. The model was finally validated by more than 2 years of acquired data. The experimental results show that the predicted driving cycle is consistent with the historical average velocity profile, and the prediction similarity is 78.69%. The proposed model can be an effective way for the driving cycle prediction of bus routes.     

A systematic analysis of multimodal transport systems with road space distribution and responsive bus service

A smart design of transport systems involves efficient use and allocation of the limited urban road capacity in the multimodal environment. This paper intends to understand the system-wide effect of dividing the road space to the private and public transport modes and how the public transport service provider responds to the space changes. To this end, the bimodal dynamic user equilibrium is formulated for separated road space. The Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) model is employed to depict the dynamics of the automobile traffic for its state-dependent feature, its inclusion of hypercongestion, and its advantage of capturing network topology. The delay of a bus trip depends on the running speed which is in turn affected by bus lane capacity and ridership. Within the proposed bimodal framework, the steady-state equilibrium traffic characteristics and the optimal bus fare and service frequency are analytically derived. The counter-intuitive properties of traffic condition, modal split, and behavior of bus operator in the hypercongestion are identified. To understand the interaction between the transport authority (for system benefit maximization) and the bus operator (for its own benefit maximization), we examine how the bus operator responds to space changes and how the system benefit is influenced with the road space allocation. With responsive bus service, the condition, under which expanding bus lane capacity is beneficial to the system as a whole, has been analytically established. Then the model is applied to the dynamic framework where the space allocation changes with varying demand and demand-responsive bus service. We compare the optimal bus services under different economic objectives, evaluate the system performance of the bimodal network, and explore the dynamic space allocation strategy for the sake of social welfare maximization.     

Multi-criteria optimization of traffic signals: Mobility,safety, and environment

Two-dimensional multi-objective optimizations have been used for decades for the problems in traffic engineering although only few times so far in the optimization of signal timings. While the other engineering and science disciplines have utilized visualization of 3-dimensional Pareto fronts in the optimization studies, we have not seen many of those concepts applied to traffic signal optimization problems. To bridge the gap in the existing knowledge this study presents a methodology where 3-dimensional Pareto Fronts of signal timings, which are expressed through mobility, (surrogate) safety, and environmental factors, are optimized by use of an evolutionary algorithm. The study uses a segment of 5 signalized intersections in West Valley City, Utah, to test signal timings which provide a balance between mobility, safety and environment. In addition, a set of previous developed signal timing scenarios, including some of the Connected Vehicle technologies such as GLOSA, were conducted to evaluate the quality of the 3-dimensional Pareto front solutions. The results show success of 3-dimensinal Pareto fronts moving towards optimality. The resulting signal timing plans do not show large differences between themselves but all improve on the signal timings from the field, significantly. The commonly used optimization of standard single-objective functions shows robust solutions. The new set of Connected Vehicle technologies also shows promising benefits, especially in the area of reducing inter-vehicular friction. The resulting timing plans from two optimization sets (constrained and unconstrained) show that environmental and safe signal timings coincide but somewhat contradict mobility. Further research is needed to apply similar concepts on a variety of networks and traffic conditions before generalizing findings.     

车务可视化信息系统设计与实现

车务可视化信息系统通过三维模型及虚拟漫游的展现形式,将铁路运行及运营的动态信息进行集成和柔性展示,实现旅客服务信息及运输管理相关数据的整合,通过可视化的展现方式既方便旅客及管理人员,又充分展示铁路信息化建设的成果。