Point-to-point speed enforcement systems: Speed limits design criteria and analysis of drivers’ compliance

Point-to-point (P2P) speed enforcement is a relatively new approach to traffic law enforcement. Its technology allows vehicles whose average speed exceeds the speed limit over the controlled section to be fined. It therefore encourages compliance over distances longer than those where spot enforcement policies have been in place.In this paper, a procedure for consistently setting speed limits with such enforcement systems is proposed. Such a method has been applied to design the speed limits on two motorways in the district of Naples, Italy, where P2P enforcement systems became operational in 2009 and 2010. The speed limits, which were set using the Italian geometric design standard to assess vehicle stability and stopping sight distance, have been compared with those provided by using well-known international standards.The impact of the newly designed speed limits and of the P2P enforcement system on drivers’ speeding behaviour has been quantified for each highway section and vehicle type. In fact, accurate measurements of the average travel speeds of each vehicle crossing the enforced sections, before and after the activation of the system, were available. The migration from the old speed limits with spot speed enforcement to the new approach resulted in a notable increase in drivers’ compliance to the speed limits with a remarkable decrease in both the average of individual speeds and in their standard deviation.In addition, the analysis of 3 years of data shows that a gradual adaptation of drivers’ behaviour to the system took place. In particular, a decreasing compliance to the speed limits points to a non-optimal system management. Finally, the results of a revealed preference survey allowed us to make a behavioural interpretation regarding the significantly different impacts measured on the two motorways.     

乾元公司铁路专用线场站模式探讨

目前,传统的铁路专用线建设模式是铁路专用线自接轨站接轨,通过区间正线引入厂区的建设模式,这种模式的区间正线受地形条件、厂区位置和沿线规划影响较大,这些影响将不可避免地导致铁路专用线建设工程投资的增加,如能根据运输性质考虑缩短区间正线长度,在接轨站旁边设装车作业站,将大大减少专用线工程投资.以乾元公司铁路专用线建设模式为例来研究铁路专用线场站模式,就如何在接轨站旁边设装车作业站,实现接轨站设备与铁路专用线共用进行探讨.     

Estimation of delay variability at signalized intersections for urban arterial performance evaluation

Urban arterial performance evaluation has been broadly studied, with the major focus on average travel time estimation. However, in view of the stochastic nature of interrupted flow, the ability to capture the characteristics of travel time variability has become a critical step in determining arterial level of service (LOS). This article first presents a stochastic approach that integrates classic cumulative curves and probability theories in order to investigate delay variability at signalized intersections, as a dominant part of the link travel time variability. This serves as a basis for arterial travel time estimation, which can be obtained through a convolution of individual link travel time distributions. The proposed approach is then applied in the estimation of travel time along one arterial in Shanghai, China, with abundant automatic vehicle identification (AVI) data sources. The travel time variability is evaluated thoroughly at 30-min intervals, with promising results achieved in comparison to the field measurements. In addition, the estimated travel time distributions are utilized to illustrate the probability of multiple LOS ranges, namely, reliability LOS. The results provide insights into how we might achieve a more reliable and informative understanding of arterial performance.     

Plate scanning tools to obtain travel times in traffic networks

The management of vehicle travel times has been shown to be fundamental to traffic network analysis. To collect travel time measurement, some methods focus solely on isolated links or highway segments, and where two measurement points, at the beginning and at the end of a section, are deemed sufficient to evaluate users' travel time. However, in many cases, transport studies involve networks in which the problem is more complex. This article takes advantage of the plate scanning technique to propose an algorithm that minimizes the required number of registering devices and their location in order to identify vehicles candidates to compute the travel times of a given set of routes (or subroutes). The merits of the proposed method are explained using simple examples and are illustrated by its application to the real network of Ciudad Real.     

Subjective-utility travel time budget modeling in the stochastic traffic network assignment

ABSTRACT

In this article, we propose a new model called subjective-utility travel time budget (SU-TTB) model to capture travelers' risk-averse route choices. In the travel time budget (TTB) and mean-excess travel time (METT) model, a predefined confidence level is needed to capture the risk-aversion in route choice. Due to the day-to-day route travel time variations, the exact confidence level is hard to be predicted. With the SU-TTB model, we assume travelers' confidence level belongs to an interval that they may comply with in the route choice. The two main components of SU-TTB are the utility function and the TTB model. We can show that the SU-TTB can be reduced to the TTB and METT model with proper utility function for the confidence levels. We can also prove its equivalence with our recently proposed nonlinear-expectation route travel time (NERTT) model in some cases and give some new interpretation on the NERTT with this equivalence. Finally, we formulate the SU-TTB model as a variational inequality (VI) problem to model the risk-averse user equilibrium (RAUE), termed as generalized RAUE (GRAUE). The GRAUE is solved via a heuristic gradient projection algorithm, and the model and solution algorithm are demonstrated with the Braess's traffic network and the Nguyen and Dupuis's traffic network.     

Effectiveness of travel time reliability indicators in the light of the assessment of dynamic managed lane strategy

ABSTRACT

The aim of traffic management is to ensure a high quality of service for a maximum number of users by decreasing congestion and increasing safety. Uncertainty of travel times decreases the quality of service and leads end users to modify their plans regardless of the average travel time. Indicators describing travel time reliability are being developed and should be used in the future both for the optimization and for the assessment of active traffic management operations. This article discusses the efficiency of certain reliability indicators in an ex-post assessment of a traffic management strategy. Ex-post assessment is based on an observational before–after study. As some factors other than the studied management strategy may intervene between the two periods, and as most reliability indicators require knowledge of the full travel time distribution and not only its average, a methodology is developed for the identification of the impact of these exogenous factors on the whole distribution. Many reliability indicators are split into different parts allowing the identification of the part due to the management strategy impact. The methodology is tested numerically on a managed lane operation consisting of Hard Shoulder Running (HSR) at rush hour on a section of a French motorway. The variation of some reliability indicators appears misleading, whereas the splitting of the indicators increases our understanding of the strategy and highlights its impact. The paper gives the reliability assessment of the HSR field test and discusses different reliability indicators to identify their potential performances and shortcomings.     

Robust traffic assignment model: Formulation,solution algorithms and empirical application

ABSTRACT

The deterministic traffic assignment problem based on Wardrop's first criterion of traffic network utilization has been widely studied in the literature. However, the assumption of deterministic travel times in these models is restrictive, given the large degree of uncertainty prevalent in urban transportation networks. In this context, this paper proposes a robust traffic assignment model that generalizes Wardrop's principle of traffic network equilibrium to networks with stochastic and correlated link travel times and incorporates the aversion of commuters to unreliable routes.

The user response to travel time uncertainty is modeled using the robust cost (RC) measure (defined as a weighted combination of the mean and standard deviation of path travel time) and the corresponding robust user equilibrium (UE) conditions are defined. The robust traffic assignment problem (RTAP) is subsequently formulated as a Variational Inequality problem. To solve the RTAP, a Gradient Projection algorithm is proposed, which involves solving a series of minimum RC path sub-problems that are theoretically and practically harder than deterministic shortest path problems. In addition, an origin-based heuristic is proposed to enhance computational performance on large networks. Numerical experiments examine the computational performance and convergence characteristics of the exact algorithm and establish the accuracy and efficiency of the origin-based heuristic on various real-world networks. Finally, the proposed RTA model is applied to the Chennai road network using empirical data, and its benefits as a normative benchmark are quantified through comparisons against the standard UE and System Optimum (SO) models.     

基于OWA与灰色聚类的城市轨道交通PPP融资风险评价方法研究

针对城市轨道交通PPP融资成本高、投资回收期长、不确定性因素多等特点导致整个融资过程充满风险,且难以进行科学的评价,进而增加风险评价难度的问题,提出基于OWA与灰色聚类的城市轨道交通PPP融资风险评价方法。首先从全寿命周期角度构建城市轨道交通PPP融资风险指标体系。然后基于OWA算子对专家决策数据按照降序的方式重新排序,消除极值带来的不利影响,加权得出指标的权重值。最后考虑指标的灰色性、信息不完整性,构建灰色白化权函数实现指标信息的透明化,完成对PPP融资风险的聚类分析。应用构建的模型对郑州地铁1号线一期工程PPP融资风险进行评价,认为该地铁工程PPP融资风险等级高,应重点关注前期策划、社会资本、政策环境、设计质量、成本超支、建设质量、残值7个主要风险指标的控制,以期为该项目融资风险管理提供建议,并进一步丰富城市轨道交通PPP融资风险的评价方法。     

复杂地形条件下桥隧相连隧道洞口结构设计研究

蒙华铁路坪桥1号隧道进口洞顶基岩外凸、洞顶以下岩面高且直立、洞顶上部地形偏压高陡,地形条件极其复杂。营盘山大桥与坪桥1号隧道进口紧密相连,存在桥台与隧道洞门结构相互干扰以及边坡防护、隧道出洞和洞口场地布置等一系列难题,设计难度极大。为解决这些难题,通过对现场实际地形、地质情况进行研究,对比分析"整体式"与"分离式"桥隧相连结构的优缺点,提出桥台与隧道相结合的"整体式"桥隧相连结构方案;同时,针对地形偏压高陡,提出非对称结构设计方案,实现了隧道"零"仰坡出洞,解决了洞口边坡防护的难题;最后,提出架立临时贝雷梁的方案,解决了隧道出洞及洞口场地布置的难题。     

A receding horizon sliding control approach for electric powertrains with backlash and flexible half-shafts

Active control of electric powertrains is challenging, due to the fact that backlash and structural flexibility in transmission components can cause severe performance degradation or even instability of the control system. Furthermore, high impact forces in transmissions reduce driving comfort and possibly lead to damage of the mechanical elements in contact. In this paper, a nonlinear electric powertrain is modelled as a piecewise affine (PWA) system. The novel receding horizon sliding control (RHSC) idea is extended to constrained PWA systems and utilised to systematically address the active control problem for electric powertrains. Simulations are conducted in Matlab/Simulink in conjunction with the high fidelity Carsim software. RHSC shows superior jerk suppression and target wheel speed tracking performance as well as reduced computational cost over classical model predictive control (MPC). This indicates the newly proposed RHSC is an effective method to address the active control problem for electric powertrains.