Bus control strategies in corridors with signalized intersections

This paper proposes a new dynamic bus control strategy aimed at reducing the negative effects of time-headway variations on route performance, based on real-time bus tracking data at stops. In routes with high demand, any delay of a single vehicle ends up causing an unstable motion of buses and producing the bus bunching phenomena. This strategy controls the cruising speed of buses and considers the extension of the green phase of traffic lights at intersections, when a bus is significantly delayed. The performance of this strategy will be compared to the current static operation technique based on the provision of slack times at holding points. An operational model is presented in order to estimate the effects of each controlling strategy, taking into account the vehicle capacity constraint. Control strategies are assessed in terms of passenger total travel time, operating cost as well as on the coefficient of headway variation. The effects of controlling strategies are tested in an idealized bus route under different operational settings and in the bus route of highest demand in Barcelona by simulation. The results show that the proposed dynamic controlling strategy reduces total system cost (user and agency) by 15–40% as well as the coefficient of headway variation 53–78% regarding the uncontrolled case, providing a bus performance similar to the expected when time disturbance is not presented.     

Personalized real-time traffic information provision: Agent-based optimization model and solution framework

The advancement of information and communication technology allows the use of more sophisticated information provision strategies for real-time congested traffic management in a congested network. This paper proposes an agent-based optimization modeling framework to provide personalized traffic information for heterogeneous travelers. Based on a space–time network, a time-dependent link flow based integer programming model is first formulated to optimize various information strategies, including elements of where and when to provide the information, to whom the information is given, and what alternative route information should be suggested. The analytical model can be solved efficiently using off-the-shelf commercial solvers for small-scale network. A Lagrangian Relaxation-based heuristic solution approach is developed for medium to large networks via the use of a mesoscopic dynamic traffic simulator.     

Geometric design safety estimation based on tire–road side friction

A closed-loop drive–vehicle–road–environment system (DVRES) model was established using Adams/Car and Matlab/Simulink. Dynamic responses of lateral tire forces based on tire–road side friction and road geometric characteristics are used to investigate vehicle side slip for geometric design safety estimation. The root mean square, the maximum values of lateral tire forces, comfort limit on curves and vehicle trajectories are used to quantify the safety margin of side friction. The simulation results show that the safety margins of lateral tire forces for radius, operating speed and superelevation rate were 18.2%, 19.3% and 17.6%, respectively, to guarantee good vehicle lateral reliability and ride comfort, while lower speeds are optimal in wet and slippery roads. Finally, a case study was conducted to illustrate the analysis of road design safety, and on-site experiment testing further validated the accuracy and reliability of the closed-loop DVRES model.     

Expirable parking reservations for managing morning commute with parking space constraints

When total parking supply in an urban downtown area is insufficient, morning commuters would choose their departure times not only to trade off bottleneck congestion and schedule delays, but also to secure a parking space. Recent studies found that an appropriate combination of reserved and unreserved parking spaces can spread the departures of those morning commuters and hence reduce their total travel cost. To further mitigate both traffic congestion and social cost from competition for parking, this study considers a parking reservation scheme with expiration times, where commuters with a parking reservation have to arrive at parking spaces for the reservation before a predetermined expiration time. We first show that if all parking reservations have the same expiration time, it is socially preferable to set the reservations to be non-expirable, i.e., without expiration time. However, if differentiated expiration times are properly designed, the total travel cost can be further reduced as compared with the reservation scheme without expiration time, since the peak will be further smoothed out. We explore socially desirable equilibrium flow patterns under the parking reservation scheme with differentiated expiration times. Finally, efficiencies of the reservation schemes are examined.     

An inverse finite element method for the analysis of VIV data

This paper presents an algorithm for the frequency domain solution of dynamic linear “inverse” problems, that is for the processing of measurement data (strain, acceleration etc.) acquired on a mechanical structure, in order to estimate the loads acting on the structure and its corresponding response. The problem is formulated as a constrained (force equilibrium) optimization (small deviations from measurements, small loads) problem, which is transformed into an unconstrained problem, then into differential equations. The algorithm is applied to the estimation of hydrodynamic forces induced by the shedding of vortices from an offshore oil riser.     

Scheduling of Intelligent and Autonomous Vehicles under pairing/unpairing collaboration strategy in container terminals

A new class of Intelligent and Autonomous Vehicles (IAVs) has been designed in the framework of Intelligent Transportation for Dynamic Environment (InTraDE) project funded by European Union. This type of vehicles is technologically superior to the existing Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), in many respects. They offer more flexibility and intelligence in maneuvering within confined spaces where the logistic operations take place. This includes the ability of pairing/unpairing enabling a pair of 1-TEU (20-foot Equivalent Unit) IAVs dynamically to join, transport containers of any size between 1-TEU and 1-FFE (40-foot Equivalent) and disjoin again. Deploying IAVs helps port operators to remain efficient in coping with the ever increasing volume of container traffic at ports and eliminate the need for deploying more 40-ft transporters in the very confined area of ports. In order to accommodate this new feature of IAVs, we review and extend one of the existing mixed integer programming models of AGV scheduling in order to minimize the makespan of operations for transporting a set of containers of different sizes between quay cranes and yard cranes. In particular, we study the case of Dublin Ferryport Terminal. In order to deal with the complexity of the scheduling model, we develop a Lagrangian relaxation-based decomposition approach equipped with a variable fixing procedure and a primal heuristics to obtain high-quality solution of instances of the problem.     

Dynamic diurnal social taxonomy of urban environments using data from a geocoded time use activity-travel diary and point-based business establishment inventory

In this paper, we explore the diurnal dynamics of joint activity participation in a small city in Pennsylvania, USA, using behavioral data and an inventory of business establishments. We account for the variation caused by the collective impact of social, temporal and spatial choices of individuals to produce predicted space–time visualizations of activity participation. The focus is on how social contexts of an activity impact the temporal and spatial decisions regarding the activity locations and how this impact varies depending on activity types. A comparison across activity types and social interaction types is made among spatial patterns during a day. The CentreSIM dataset, which is a household-based activity diary survey collected in Centre County (Pennsylvania, USA) in 2003, provides very detailed social interaction information enabling the analysis of social, spatial and temporal aspects of activity participation. In this paper we use this information to develop a spatio-temporal interpolation method and demonstration based on kriging. In this way, we extract the dynamic social taxonomy of places from the behavioral information in the dataset and suggest how urban and transportation models can be informed from the dynamics of places by observing “what is taking place” (activities being pursued in the context of this paper) combined with “what exists” (business establishments) or “what is available” (businesses that are open). The method here can also be used to improve the design of urban environments (e.g., filling gaps in desired activity locations), manage specific places (e.g., extending the opening and closing times of businesses), study transportation policies that are sensitive to time of day (e.g., pricing of parking to discourage crowding and traffic congestion), and modeling of spatio-temporal decisions of social activities in travel demand models (e.g., to guide the development of model specification and representation of the space in which behavioral models are applied).     

城市轨道交通高峰线路客流协同控制方法

在线路客流控制中，需同时考虑各个车站控流方案的可执行性与协同性. 采用 Fisher 最优分割法确定合理客流控制时段，基于此建立以乘客总等待时间最少和旅客周转量最大为目标的线路客流协同控制线性规划模型. 基于成都地铁2 号线AFC数据进行实验，针对协同控流与非协同控流方案，以及不同客流控制时段划分方案下的协同控流方案进行对比实验. 算例中：协同控流方案在旅客周转量下降约1.0%的情况下，乘客总等待时间减少约 56.7%；基于Fisher 最优分割法确定的时段划分方案中协同控流方案在乘客总等待时间方面最优，并具有很好的可执行性.     

用模糊逻辑实现动力定位船舶的艏向寻优

由于各种环境因素随时间不断变化，船舶作为动力定位作业时，最优艏向也是不断变化的，所以艏向寻优是动力定位的关键技术之一，本文用模糊逻辑实现艏向寻优，其优点是，不依赖于环境要素的测量值和数学模型，寻优与控制相结合，反应快，准确程度高。     

灾后恢复阶段多期道路交通网络重建规划

灾后路网重建规划可分为应急阶段和全面恢复阶段。文中建立了灾后恢复阶段多期路网重建规划的双层模型，并采用灵敏度分析方法进行求解。上层模型考虑到建设资源的限制，以工程总效益最大为目标建立多期工程效益模型；下层模型是基于出行时间可靠性的用户均衡分配模型。最后结合实际路网进行了算例分析，证明模型和算法是有效的。