A hybrid deep learning based traffic flow prediction method and its understanding

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have recently demonstrated the capability to predict traffic flow with big data. While existing DNN models can provide better performance than shallow models, it is still an open issue of making full use of spatial-temporal characteristics of the traffic flow to improve their performance. In addition, our understanding of them on traffic data remains limited. This paper proposes a DNN based traffic flow prediction model (DNN-BTF) to improve the prediction accuracy. The DNN-BTF model makes full use of weekly/daily periodicity and spatial-temporal characteristics of traffic flow. Inspired by recent work in machine learning, an attention based model was introduced that automatically learns to determine the importance of past traffic flow. The convolutional neural network was also used to mine the spatial features and the recurrent neural network to mine the temporal features of traffic flow. We also showed through visualization how DNN-BTF model understands traffic flow data and presents a challenge to conventional thinking about neural networks in the transportation field that neural networks is purely a “black-box” model. Data from open-access database PeMS was used to validate the proposed DNN-BTF model on a long-term horizon prediction task. Experimental results demonstrated that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches.     

基于客流需求的城市轨道交通动态时刻表优化模型

为使城市轨道交通列车运行时刻表更贴合客流需求,依据不断变化的客流需求确定每列车的发车时刻和停站时间,采用多目标优化方法构建以乘客出行时间费用和列车运行时间费用最小为目标、列车发车时刻和停站时间为决策变量的城市轨道交通动态时刻表优化模型,并采用粒子群算法求解。以广州地铁13号线为例进行验证,结果表明优化后的时刻表更满足客流需求,能有效地提高乘客出行效率,具有更好的动态适应性。     

Policy packages for modal shift and CO2 reduction in Lille,France

This paper proposes different policy scenarios to cut CO₂ emissions caused by the urban mobility of passengers. More precisely, we compare the effects of the ‘direct tool’ of carbon tax, to a combination of ‘indirect tools’ – not originally aimed at reducing CO₂ (i.e. congestion charging, parking charges and a reduction in public transport travel time) in terms of CO₂ impacts through a change in the modal split. In our model, modal choices depend on individual characteristics, trip features (including the effects of policy tools), and land use at origin and destination zones. Personal “CO₂ emissions budgets” resulting from the trips observed in the metropolitan area of Lille (France) in 2006 are calculated and compared to the situation related to the different policy scenarios. We find that an increase of 50% in parking charges combined with a cordon toll of €1.20 and a 10% travel time decrease in public transport services (made after recycling toll-revenues) is the winning scenario. The combined effects of all the policy scenarios are superior to their separate effects.     

考虑空车调配协调的货物列车开行方案优化研究

为实现空车调配与货物列车开行方案协调优化，结合基本运行图架构与车流径路，构建货运时空服务拓展网络。考虑配空与装卸取送、集编发等环节的时间接续要求，节点与区段不对流空车要求，以重车流全程运送与空车配送等广义总费用最少为目标，建立整数规划弧路模型。针对既有算法设计局限性，结合重车或空车配空的时间接续要求，提出将不同的 k 短路重车流方案与空车配空方案相关联的改进可行解构造方法，设计混合差分进化求解算法。实例研究表明，考虑空车调配进行重车、空车流组织协调优化，能够减少空车走行费用，及时满足装车需求，有效保证作业车流配合中转车流集结编组及时挂线，提高方案可实施性。     

Time use in travel surveys and time use surveys – Two sides of the same coin?

An in-depth understanding of travel behaviour determinants, including the relationship to non-travel activities, is the foundation for modelling and policy making. National Travel Surveys (NTS) and time use surveys (TUS) are two major data sources for travel behaviour and activity participation. The aim of this paper is to systematically compare both survey types regarding travel activities and non-travel activities. The analyses are based on the German National Travel Survey and the German National Time Use Survey from 2002.The number of trips and daily travel time for mobile respondents were computed as the main travel estimates. The number of trips per person is higher in the German TUS when changes in location without a trip are included. Location changes without a trip are consecutive non-trip activities with different locations but without a trip in-between. The daily travel time is consistently higher in the German TUS. The main reason for this difference is the 10-min interval used. Differences in travel estimates between the German TUS and NTS result from several interaction effects. Activity time in NTS is comparable with TUS for subsistence activities.Our analyses confirm that both survey types have advantages and disadvantages. TUS provide reliable travel estimates. The number of trips even seems preferable to NTS if missed trips are properly identified and considered. Daily travel times are somewhat exaggerated due to the 10-min interval. The fixed time interval is the most important limitation of TUS data. The result is that trip times in TUS do not represent actual trip times very well and should be treated with caution.We can use NTS activity data for subsistence activities between the first trip and the last trip. This can potentially benefit activity-based approaches since most activities before the first trip and after the last trip are typical home-based activities which are rarely substituted by out-of-home activities.     

Strain prediction for critical positions of FPSO under different loading of stored oil using GAIFOA-BP neural network

FPSO (floating, production, storage and offloading) units are widely used in the offshore oil and gas industry. Generally, FPSOs have excellent oil storage capacity owing to their huge oil cargo holds. The volume and distribution of stored oil in the cargo holds influence the strain level of hull girder, especially at critical positions of FPSO. However, strain prediction using structural analysis tools is computationally expensive and time consuming. In this study, a prediction tool based on back-propagation (BP) neural network called GAIFOA-BP is proposed to predict the strain values of concerned positions of an FPSO model under different oil storage conditions. The GAIFOA-BP combines BP model and GAIFOA which is a combination of genetic algorithm (GA) and an improved fruit fly optimization algorithm (IFOA). Results from three benchmark tests show that the GAIFOA-BP model has a remarkable performance. Subsequently, a total of 81 sets of training data and 25 sets of testing data are obtained from experiment using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors installed on the surface of an FPSO model. The numerical results show that the GAIFOA-BP is capable of predicting the strain values with higher accuracy as compared with other BP models. Finally, the reserved GAIFOA-BP model is utilized to predict the strain values under the inputs of a 10-day time series of volume and distribution of stored oil. The predicted strain results are further used to calculate the fatigue consumption of measurement points.     

基于时延特性建模的多断面短时交通流预测

针对现有交通流预测方法未充分考虑多断面车流演变规律，提出基于时延特性建模的时空相关性计算方法. 该方法采用对不同断面、不同时刻交通流的分布相似性度量，对输入的车辆到达数据序列进行切割构建时空相似度矩阵，得到相邻断面之间的时延参数. 基于时延特性建模，将多断面之间的流量信息进行融合，使用长短时记忆(LSTM)网络进行流量预测. 通过对实际路段数据的预测和结果分析，验证所提方法的有效性和实用性.     

智能网联车环境下高速匝道汇入车流轨迹优化模型

为了解决传统匝道控制车流汇入时车辆需要减速至停止，从而造成延误时间过长的问题，提出了一种智能网联车环境下的高速匝道汇入车辆轨迹优化的两阶段优化模型，其中，第1 阶段优化车辆进入匝道口的时序；第2 阶段基于第1 阶段的最优时序，优化车辆轨迹. 根据所构建的模型设计了一种启发式算法优化车辆通过匝道冲突区域的时序，然后结合 GPOPS工具优化车辆的轨迹.为了验证所提出方法的有效性，将所提出的方法应用到20 min 随机到达的车流，进行仿真实验.实验结果表明，与先进先出的方法相比，本文所提出的方法能够使总延误减少59.7%，总油耗减少10.5%，说明该方法能够实现车辆以较高的速度通过匝道冲突区域，有效地减少了车辆汇入延误，同时也节约了油耗.     

Integrating capacity analysis with high-speed railway timetabling: A minimum cycle time calculation model with flexible overtaking constraints and intelligent enumeration

Compared with most optimization methods for capacity evaluation, integrating capacity analysis with timetabling can reveal the types of train line plans and operating rules that have a positive influence on improving capacity utilization as well as yielding more accurate analyses. For most capacity analyses and cyclic timetabling methods, the cycle time is a constant (e.g., one or two hours). In this paper, we propose a minimum cycle time calculation (MCTC) model based on the periodic event scheduling problem (PESP) for a given train line plan, which is promising for macroscopic train timetabling and capacity analysis. In accordance with train operating rules, a non-collision constraint and a series of flexible overtaking constraints (FOCs) are constructed based on variations of the original binary variables in the PESP. Because of the complexity of the PESP, an iterative approximation (IA) method for integration with the CPLEX solver is proposed. Finally, two hypothetical cases are considered to analyze railway capacity, and several influencing factors are studied, including train regularity, train speed, line plan specifications (train stops), overtaking and train heterogeneity. The MCTC model and IA method are used to test a real-world case involving the timetable of the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway in China.     

Heterogeneous hazard model of PEV users charging intervals: Analysis of four year charging transactions data

Public charging infrastructure represents a key success factor in the promotion of plug-in electric vehicles (PEV). Given that a large initial investment is required for the widespread adoption of PEV, many studies have addressed the location choice problem for charging infrastructure using a priori simple assumptions. Ideally, however, identifying optimal locations of charging stations necessitates an understanding of charging behavior. Limited market penetration of PEV makes it difficult to grasp any regularities in charging behavior. Using a Dutch data set about four-years of charging transactions, this study presents a detailed analysis of inter-charging times. Recognizing that PEV users may exhibit different charging behavior, this study estimates a latent class hazard duration model, which accommodates duration dependence, unobserved heterogeneity and the effects of time-varying covariates. PEV users are endogenously classified into regular and random users by treating charging regularity as a latent variable. The paper provides valuable insights into the dynamics of charging behavior at public charging stations, and which strategies can be successfully used to improve the performance of public charging infrastructure.