(Unintended) Transport impacts of an energy-environment policy: The case of CNG conversion of vehicles in Dhaka

Motor vehicles are one of the major sources of air pollution in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The government took various policies to convert the petroleum vehicles on road to run on compressed natural gas (CNG), which allows both air quality improvements and energy security benefits. One of the market friendly policies to encourage the fuel switch was to increase the price differential between CNG and petrol and diesel. This has allowed a wide-scale adoption of CNG as the fuel of choice. However, several years into the policy, there is now a widespread belief among the policymakers that the CNG conversion may have increased car ownership and car travel due to their lower running costs, resulting in more congestion and a reversal of the strategy is on the cards. It is therefore important to test the hypothesis whether CNG conversion had genuinely increased car ownership and car travel in Dhaka city. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire survey and an econometric intervention analysis to understand the impact of CNG conversion on car ownership and car travel in Dhaka. Attention is also given to disentangle the self-selection and price-induced travel effects of CNG conversion. Results show that ownership did not increase, but travel of on-road vehicles increased due to the CNG policy. However, additional congestion costs are still around one half of the health benefits brought about by the policy.     

Order-first split-second methods for vehicle routing problems: A review

Cluster-first route-second methods like the sweep heuristic (Gillett and Miller, 1974) are well known in vehicle routing. They determine clusters of customers compatible with vehicle capacity and solve a traveling salesman problem for each cluster. The opposite approach, called route-first cluster-second, builds a giant tour covering all customers and splits it into feasible trips. Cited as a curiosity for a long time but lacking numerical evaluation, this technique has nevertheless led to successful metaheuristics for various vehicle routing problems in the last decade. As many implementations consider an ordering of customers instead of building a giant tour, we propose in this paper the more general name of ordering-first split-second methods. This article shows how this approach can be declined for different vehicle routing problems and reviews the associated literature, with more than 70 references.     

回声测深仪计量检定装置的研究

为研究浅水回声测深仪计量检定标准装置,以完成量值传递,文章介绍了2种不同的检定装置,可根据具体环境条件选择水槽比对方式和模拟器方式对回声测深仪进行检定,并对回声测深仪的基本原理、工作流程、2种检定装置的构造、测试结果和优缺点进行了简要的阐述。     

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.     

Vehicle restrictions and CO2 emissions in Beijing – A simple projection using available data

The Beijing Government launched a new policy on restricting vehicle ownership in late 2010 to regulate the faster motorization and the excessive vehicular carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. In this paper, we first analyzed this policy and its effect on private passenger vehicle population. The private passenger vehicle population in Beijing from 2011 to 2020 was predicted under three different scenarios: no constraint (NC), current constraint (CC) and tighter constraint (TC). Then the assessment of vehicular emissions reduction benefits was made on the basis of private passenger vehicle population, vehicle kilometers traveled and CO₂ emission factors. It was projected that the CO₂ emissions in 2020 will reach 23.90, 15.55 and 13.23 million tons under NC, CC and TC respectively. The policy is very effective in controlling the faster motorization and reducing CO₂ emissions.     

Controlled mechanical vibration applied to driver’s right heel to sustain alertness: Effects on cardiovascular behavior

Vehicle-related countermeasures to sustain driver’s alertness might improve traffic safety. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of somatosensory 20 Hz mechanical vibration, applied to driver’s right heel during prolonged, simulated, monotonous driving, on their cardiovascular hemodynamic behavior. In 12 healthy young male volunteers, during 90-min periods of simulated monotonous driving, we compared cardiovascular variables during application of 20 Hz mechanical vibration with 1.5 Hz as a control and with no vibration. The parameters recorded were indices of key cardiovascular hemodynamic phenomena, i.e., blood pressure as an indicator of stress, cardiac output, and total peripheral-vascular resistance. The principle results were that all conditions increased the mean blood pressure, and elicited a vascular-dominant reaction pattern typically observed in monotonous driving tasks. However, mean blood pressure and total peripheral-vascular resistance during the monotonous task were significantly decreased in those receiving the 20 Hz vibration as compared with 1.5 Hz and with no vibration. The observed differences indicate the cardiovascular system being more relieved from monotonous driving stress with the 20 Hz vibration. The major conclusion is that applying 20 Hz mechanical vibration to the right heel during long-distance driving in non-sleepy drivers could facilitate more physiologically appropriate status for vehicle operation and could be a potential vehicular countermeasure technology.     

翻车机牵车驱动装置优化改造

针对翻车机牵车驱动装置在设计上存在问题,从机械结构和电气控制上进行了分析,并相应地进行了优化改造,使之更合理,消除了故障隐患。     

爆胎汽车整车运动分析及控制

通过轮胎试验得到GT175/60 R14轮胎在正常胎压及零胎压下的力学特性参数,以此为依据,运用CarS im软件对爆胎汽车进行整车动力学仿真,找出汽车偏航原因,分析驾驶员不同操作所引起的整车运动性能变化以及汽车稳定性控制系统对爆胎汽车的影响。仿真结果表明,稳定性控制系统对于减轻爆胎带来的后果具有积极的作用。     

瞬时转速在多缸柴油机断油故障诊断中的应用

通过测量WD615柴油机转速传感器接头电压的变化情况获得瞬时转速信号,采用滑动平均数字滤波方法对瞬时转速进行信号处理,进而实现汽车发动机不解体情况下的断油故障的诊断,并对发动机各缸的动力均衡性和总体动力均衡性做出评价。通过对WD615发动机的测试和分析证明,该方法可靠、快捷和实用。     

公路安全保障工程对下坡急弯路段车辆运行特征影响分析

为指导公路安全保障工程的深入开展，进行了大量追踪工作。选定国道108某路段，对公路安全保障工程前后下坡急弯路段车辆运行特征数据进行了观测，主要包括公路安全保障工程实施前后事故情况、车速情况、刹车点位置情况等。基于对上述观测数据的分析，发现在该下坡上公路安全保障工程的实施使得车辆运行特征发成了变化，标志、薄层铺装等设施都起到了预期的安全效果。最后，对薄层铺装等设施的合理设计提出建议。