Mental models of driving and speed: biases,choices and reality

This paper provides a review of research performed by Svenson with colleagues and others work on mental models and their practical implications. Mental models describe how people perceive and think about the world including covariances and relationships between different variables, such as driving speed and time. Research on mental models has detected the time-saving bias [Svenson, O. (1970). A functional measurement approach to intuitive estimation as exemplified by estimated time savings. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 86, 204–210]. It means that drivers relatively overestimate the time that can be saved by increasing speed from an already high speed, for example, 90–130?km/h, and underestimate the time that can be saved by increasing speed from a low speed, for example, 30–45?km/h. In congruence with this finding, mean speed judgments and perceptions of mean speeds are also biased and higher speeds given too much weight and low speeds too little weight in comparison with objective reality. Replacing or adding a new speedometer in the car showing min per km eliminated or weakened the time-saving bias. Information about braking distances at different speeds did not improve overoptimistic judgments of braking capacity, but information about collision speed with an object suddenly appearing on the road did improve judgments of braking capacity. This is relevant to drivers, politicians and traffic regulators.     

The impact of private autonomous vehicles on vehicle ownership and unoccupied VMT generation

With 36 ventures testing autonomous vehicles (AVs) in the State of California, commercial deployment of this disruptive technology is almost around the corner (California Department of Transportation, 2016). Different business models of AVs, including Shared AVs (SAVs) and Private AVs (PAVs), will lead to significantly different changes in regional vehicle inventory and Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT). Most prior studies have already explored the impact of SAVs on vehicle ownership and VMT generation. Limited understanding has been gained regarding vehicle ownership reduction and unoccupied VMT generation potentials in the era of PAVs. Motivated by such research gap, this study develops models to examine how much vehicle ownership reduction can be achieved once private conventional vehicles are replaced by AVs and the spatial distribution of unoccupied VMT accompanied with the vehicle reduction. The models are implemented using travel survey and synthesized trip profile from Atlanta Metropolitan Area. The results show that more than 18% of the households can reduce vehicles, while maintaining the current travel patterns. This can be translated into a 9.5% reduction in private vehicles in the study region. Meanwhile, 29.8 unoccupied VMT will be induced per day per reduced vehicles. A majority of the unoccupied VMT will be loaded on interstate highways and expressways and the largest percentage inflation in VMT will occur on minor local roads. The results can provide implications for evolving trends in household vehicles uses and the location of dedicated AV lanes in the PAV dominated future.     

Liner shipping network design with emission control areas: A genetic algorithm-based approach

To curb emissions, containerized shipping lines face the traditional trade-off between cost and emissions (CO₂ and SO_x) reduction. This paper considers this element in the context of liner service design and proposes a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model based on a multi-commodity pickup and delivery arc-flow formulation. The objective is to maximize the profit by selecting the ports to be visited, the sequence of port visit, the cargo flows between ports, as well as the number/operating speeds of vessels on each arc of the selected route. The problem also considers that Emission Control Areas (ECAs) exist in the liner network and accounts for the vessel carrying capacity. In addition to using the MILP solver of CPLEX, we develop in the paper a specific genetic algorithm (GA) based heuristic and show that it gives the possibility to reach an optimal solution when solving large size instances.     

Modeling free-flow speed according to different water depths—From the viewpoint of dynamic hydraulic pressure

In this paper, we propose a method of modeling free flow speed from the viewpoint of hydroplaning. First, the lift forces for different water depths were estimated using Bernoulli’s equation. Compared with the result of the experimental test performed by the Japan Automobile Research Institute, the hydrodynamic pressure coefficient was determined to be 0.03 (tf s²/m⁴). The validation of the predicted lift force is found in another published paper. A very good match is found between the computed values by the proposed numerical model and the data in other published papers. Then, the loss of contact force is considered to evaluate the hydroplaning performance of a tire. To simulate the hydroplaning speed, a tire-sliding model was utilized to obtain the traction and friction forces between the road surface and the tire. The observation data obtained in Japan in 2009 is compared with the physically computed hydroplaning speed, yielding the conclusion that the traction force at the measured desired speed is, on average, 23.4% of the traction force at hydroplaning speed. The analytical model offers a useful tool to quantitatively show that the free flow speed changes as the water depth increase.     

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.     

双块式轨枕外形质量快速检测系统研制及应用

SK?2型双块式混凝土轨枕是高速铁路无砟轨道结构中的重要预制件,单一生产厂日均产量达到800~1400根,但目前的人工检测方式无法满足双块式轨枕的出厂检验要求。本文提出的双块式轨枕外形质量快速检测系统可满足TB/T 3397—2015《CRTS双块式无砟轨道混凝土轨枕》的出厂检验要求,与双块式轨枕生产线相匹配,大大提高了检测效率,实现了双块式轨枕全参数、自动化、智能化检测。检测数据自动上传至生产管理平台,可对双块式轨枕生产质量进行跟踪管理。     

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.     

高速铁路轨道的波阻抗及影响因素研究

高速铁路轨道在雷击或故障冲击电流作用下会产生暂态冲击过电压,该过电压的大小由轨道的波阻抗决定。通过建立高速铁路线路的仿真模型,分析直角冲击波在轨道上的传播与折反射过程,提出轨道的波阻抗的计算方法,研究钢轨类型、土壤电阻率、钢轨对地过渡电阻对波阻抗的影响。结果表明:P60型轨道波阻抗数值为235. 55Ω;轨道的波阻抗主要受钢轨类型和土壤电阻率的影响,高速铁路轨道的波阻抗在在210～250Ω变化;在高速铁路轨道仿真模型中,线路末端电阻等于波阻抗时,可以有效地消除折反射对仿真结果的影响,末端电阻的取值不需要考虑钢轨地过渡电阻的影响。研究给出高速铁路轨道波阻抗的范围及仿真模型中末端电阻的取值方法,可以为轨道过电压计算、分析与仿真提供理论与方法参考。     

The load-dependent vehicle routing problem and its pick-up and delivery extension

The present paper examines a Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) of major practical importance which is referred to as the Load-Dependent VRP (LDVRP). LDVRP is applicable for transportation activities where the weight of the transported cargo accounts for a significant part of the vehicle gross weight. Contrary to the basic VRP which calls for the minimization of the distance travelled, the LDVRP objective is aimed at minimizing the total product of the distance travelled and the gross weight carried along this distance. Thus, it is capable of producing sensible routing plans which take into account the variation of the cargo weight along the vehicle trips. The LDVRP objective is closely related to the total energy requirements of the vehicle fleet, making it a credible alternative when the environmental aspects of transportation activities are examined and optimized. A novel LDVRP extension which considers simultaneous pick-up and delivery service is introduced, formulated and solved for the first time. To deal with large-scale instances of the examined problems, we propose a local-search algorithm. Towards an efficient implementation, the local-search algorithm employs a computational scheme which calculates the complex weighted-distance objective changes in constant time. Solution results are presented for both problems on a variety of well-known test cases demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed solution approach. The structure of the obtained LDVRP and VRP solutions is compared in pursuit of interesting conclusions on the relative suitability of the two routing models, when the decision maker must deal with the weighted distance objective. In addition, results of a branch-and-cut procedure for small-scale instances of the LDVRP with simultaneous pick-ups and deliveries are reported. Finally, extensive computational experiments have been performed to explore the managerial implications of three key problem characteristics, namely the deviation of customer demands, the cargo to tare weight ratio, as well as the size of the available vehicle fleet.     

冲压机械振动对高铁桥梁及行车动力影响分析

高速铁路桥梁的平顺性和稳定性对运营列车的平稳性和安全性有很大影响。为研究冲压机械产生的外部振动激励对高铁桥梁的影响,首先通过对此机械引起的地面振动进行实测,并结合有限元分析软件,确定最大冲击荷载作用下产生的地面振动及传播至桥墩处的振动;然后通过建立列车-轨道-桥梁耦合动力学模型,将桥墩处的地面振动作为激励输入,分析列车以不同速度通过时车辆、桥梁动力学响应。结果表明:地面冲击振动有限元模型计算结果与实测结果基本相符,验证了模型的可靠性;地面振动对桥梁响应会产生一定的影响,距振源50 m处地面振动对桥梁所产生的影响较距振源80 m处(桥墩处)的大,但对运行车辆的影响很小;随着车速由250 km/h至350 km/h,车辆及桥梁各结构的动态响应均有所增大,但都未超出安全限值。因此,冲压机械冲击作用导致的地面振动对列车-轨道-桥梁系统动态服役性能影响非常有限。