Modification of the Highway Capacity Manual two‐lane highway analysis procedure for Spanish conditions

The US Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) methodology is used in Spain to evaluate traffic operation and quality of service. The effect of passing manoeuvre on two‐lane highway operational performance is considered through adjustment factors to average travel speeds and percent time spent following. The procedure is largely based on simulations in TWOPAS and passing behaviours observed during US calibrations in the 1970s. It is not clear whether US driving behaviour and vehicles' performance are comparable with Spanish conditions. The objective of this research is to adapt the HCM 2010 methodology to Spanish driver behaviour, for base conditions (i.e. no passing restrictions). To do so, TWOPAS was calibrated and validated based on current Spanish passing field data. The calibration used a genetic algorithm. The case study included an ideal two‐lane highway with varying directional traffic flow rate, directional split and percentage of trucks. The updated methodology for base conditions is simpler than the current HCM 2010 and does not rely on interpolation from tables. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

汽车发动机排气门辅助制动系统试验分析

文章介绍了排气门辅助制动系统的构造及其工作原理,通过平板式制动试验台试验与整车道路试验,验证了排气门辅助制动系统对汽车运行的安全性、经济性和驾乘舒适性都有着显著的提高。     

隧道长度对瞬变压力的影响

与阻塞比和车速不同,隧道长度对瞬变压力的影响呈现出明显的非单调性。这是在高速铁路隧道设计中必须考虑的问题。根据现场实测资料,研究分析了压力波的传播、反射和叠加规律,提出了单线隧道相应于压力变化不同情况的"最不利隧道长度"的计算图表及公式。     

Evolution of the household vehicle fleet: Anticipating fleet composition, PHEV adoption and GHG emissions in Austin, Texas

In today’s world of volatile fuel prices and climate concerns, there is little study on the relationship between vehicle ownership patterns and attitudes toward vehicle cost (including fuel prices and feebates) and vehicle technologies. This work provides new data on ownership decisions and owner preferences under various scenarios, coupled with calibrated models to microsimulate Austin’s personal-fleet evolution.Opinion survey results suggest that most Austinites (63%, population-corrected share) support a feebate policy to favor more fuel efficient vehicles. Top purchase criteria are price, type/class, and fuel economy. Most (56%) respondents also indicated that they would consider purchasing a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) if it were to cost $6000 more than its conventional, gasoline-powered counterpart. And many respond strongly to signals on the external (health and climate) costs of a vehicle’s emissions, more strongly than they respond to information on fuel cost savings.Twenty five-year simulations of Austin’s household vehicle fleet suggest that, under all scenarios modeled, Austin’s vehicle usage levels (measured in total vehicle miles traveled or VMT) are predicted to increase overall, along with average vehicle ownership levels (both per household and per capita). Under a feebate, HEVs, PHEVs and Smart Cars are estimated to represent 25% of the fleet’s VMT by simulation year 25; this scenario is predicted to raise total regional VMT slightly (just 2.32%, by simulation year 25), relative to the trend scenario, while reducing CO₂ emissions only slightly (by 5.62%, relative to trend). Doubling the trend-case gas price to $5/gallon is simulated to reduce the year-25 vehicle use levels by 24% and CO₂ emissions by 30% (relative to trend).Two- and three-vehicle households are simulated to be the highest adopters of HEVs and PHEVs across all scenarios. The combined share of vans, pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), and cross-over utility vehicles (CUVs) is lowest under the feebate scenario, at 35% (versus 47% in Austin’s current household fleet). Feebate-policy receipts are forecasted to exceed rebates in each simulation year.In the longer term, gas price dynamics, tax incentives, feebates and purchase prices along with new technologies, government-industry partnerships, and more accurate information on range and recharging times (which increase customer confidence in EV technologies) should have added effects on energy dependence and greenhouse gas emissions.     

Identification of emission hotspots in roundabouts corridors

This study describes a methodology to quantify and characterize the vehicular emissions of functionally interdependent roundabouts at a corridor level. Corridor segments include those upstream of each roundabout, the circulating area, downstream of the roundabout as well as midblock sub-segments between adjacent roundabouts. The main purpose of the study is to identify the locations along the corridors where emissions tend to be consistently high. These locations are termed “Emission Hotspots”. The methodology is applied to four existing roundabout corridors in San Diego (California) and Avon (Colorado) in the United States, and in Mealhada and Chaves (Portugal). An extensive sample of second-by-second speed traces is available for these four corridors with roundabouts.The analysis shows that when roundabouts are fairly spaced and have similar geometric design features, no significant differences are observed between emissions of roundabouts located in the corridor. In such cases, the downstream sub-segments are the emission hotspots both in absolute terms (overall contribution on total emissions is higher than 34%) and per unit distance (22% higher than the average corridor value). When roundabouts are unequally spaced the highest emissions hotspots (more than 9% above the average corridor value) are found at the circulating area sub-segments. The results also demonstrate that the entry deflection angle has a slight impact on the spatial distribution of emissions especially in the case of closely spaced roundabouts.     

Optimal bus fleet management strategy for emissions reduction

Transportation is a major cause for environmental degradation via exhaust emissions. For many transit-oriented metropolitan areas, bus trips often constitute a sizeable mode share. Managing the bus fleet, in particular updating buses to comply with the newer emissions standards, therefore, can have a substantial impact on transportation-induced air quality. This paper presents the approach of remaining life additional benefit–cost (RLABC) analysis for maximising the total net benefit by either early-retiring or retrofitting the current bus fleet within their lifespans. By referring to the net benefits for different bus types estimated by RLABC analysis, the most beneficial management scheme for the current bus fleet can be identified. Optimal bus fleet management (BFM) models based on the RLABC analysis for the operator and the government are developed. Then a government subsidy plan is produced to achieve win–win solutions, which will offer efficient and flexible management schemes. To illustrate the approach, the largest bus company in Hong Kong, which carries more than 23% of the total trips in Hong Kong, is taken as a case study example. Instead of adopting a fixed retirement plan, such as replacing buses at the age of 17 as is currently practised, the proposed method develops an optimal BFM scheme that progressively phases out buses or retrofits them. This study produces promising results to demonstrate the large benefit of this approach for optimal bus fleet management.     

照明长度和亮度随车速变化的隧道照明智能控制系统研究

随着我国交通运输业日益发达,越来越多的公路隧道投入运营,其安全性和运营成本之间的矛盾也越来越受到关注,如何在保证隧道运营安全的前提下,尽可能的降低运营成本成为亟待解决的难题。本文从隧道照明安全节能的角度出发,提出一种根据车速改变加强照明区段长度的隧道照明控制系统,满足照明质量的同时进行隧道的"按需照明"。系统将车速信息分为50 km/h以下、50~70 km/h、70~90 km/h、90 km/h以上四个速度区段,每个速度区段设计不同的加强照明区段长度;通过电感式线圈检测进入隧道的车辆速度作为控制输入参数,控制相应区段进行照明。     

The identification and empirical characterization of vehicular (Lagrangian) fundamental diagrams in multilane traffic flow

Traditional macroscopic traffic flow modeling framework adopts the spatial–temporal coordinate system to analyze traffic flow dynamics. With such modeling and analysis paradigm, complications arise for traffic flow data collected from mobile sensors such as probe vehicles equipped with mobile phones, Bluetooth, and Global Positioning System devices. The vehicle‐based measurement technologies call for new modeling thoughts that address the unique features of moving measurements and explore their full potential. In this paper, we look into the concept of vehicular fundamental diagram (VFD) and discuss its engineering implications. VFD corresponds to a conventional fundamental diagram (FD) in the kinematic wave (KW) theory that adopts space–time coordinates. Similar to the regular FD in the KW theory, VFD encapsulates all traffic flow dynamics. In this paper, to demonstrate the full potential of VFD in interpreting multilane traffic flow dynamics, we generalize the classical Edie's formula and propose a direct approach of reconstructing VFD from traffic measurements in the vehicular coordinates. A smoothing algorithm is proposed to effectively reduce the nonphysical fluctuation of traffic states calculated from multilane vehicle trajectories. As an example, we apply the proposed methodology to explore the next‐generation simulation datasets and identify the existence and forms of shock waves in different coordinate systems. Our findings provide empirical justifications and further insight for the Lagrangian traffic flow theory and models when applied in practice. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于测速与测距技术的汽车安全座椅设计

为提高汽车的正面防撞安全性能,降低甚至避免二次碰撞危害,文章特提出一种新型的汽车安全座椅的设计方案。文章介绍了基于测速与测距技术的汽车安全座椅在功能、结构设计及椅背倾角调节等方面的关键问题,并从基础理论的角度进行了可行性验证,说明该技术能提前预测碰撞危险,并及时采取措施避让,提高了汽车的安全性。     

ECE R29-02和ECE R29-03法规对商用车驾驶室结构要求的对比分析

对比分析了欧洲商用车被动安全现行法规ECE R29-02及其修订案ECE R29-03的异同,将已进行实车试验并满足ECE R29-02法规要求的某重型商用车驾驶室作为研究对象,通过仿真计算得到了该商用车在ECER29-03中的性能表现.定性提出了ECE R29-03对结构的考核重点和加强纵梁及A柱强度,并适当增加前端结构吸能能力等满足新版法规要求的一系列结构改进措施.