公路工程招标工作中存在的问题及应对技巧

文章介绍了我国公路工程招标的主要形式,就公路工程招标工作中存在的一些问题,提出了解决建议和应对技巧,为提高与改进公路项目招标工作提供参考.     

Impact of telecommuting and intelligent transportation systems on residential location choice

The impacts of telecommuting and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) on urban development patterns were investigated in terms of households' residential location choice decisions. A discrete choice modelling approach framework was used. A stated preference (SP) logit analysis was carried out to estimate the parameters of the utility function. An attitude survey of employees of selected public and private sector organizations in the Ottawa-Carleton Region (Canada) yielded the required data for model estimation. In addition to obtaining background information, the survey elicited SP responses by presenting a number of hypothetical residential choice scenarios defined according to the principles of SP experimental design. Results show that telecommuting and ITS measures are highly significant factors in the residential choice model. This leads to the conclusion that these reinforce dispersed residential patterns and encourage moves towards outlying sites. Implications of this conclusion for urban land development planning are noted.     

TRIP DISTRIBUTION MODELLING USING FUZZY LOGIC AND A GENETIC ALGORITHM

This article examines possibilities for the application of soft computing techniques for the prediction of travel demand. The model, based on fuzzy logic and a genetic algorithm, successfully solves the trip distribution problem. The possibilities of using the proposed model in solving trip generation, modal split and route choice problems have also been indicated. The model has been tested on a real numerical example. Exceptionally good correspondences between estimated and real values of passenger flows have been obtained.     

A volatile relationship: The effect of changing gasoline prices on public support for mass transit

The determinants of public opinion toward public transit is a little-researched topic, though a better understanding of what makes consumers willing to support transit may reveal which attributes of transit consumers value most. One determinant of people’s willingness to support investments in mass transit may be the price of fuel for transit’s principal competition, the private automobile. In this paper, I examine the relationship between the cost of gasoline and stated willingness to invest public money in mass transit improvements. I hypothesize that fuel price volatility—in addition to price itself—is a determinant of support for more mass transit funding, controlling for other factors. As the price of gasoline becomes more uncertain, the public should, all else equal, support investment in mass transportation, a form of transportation that may provide some measure of protection from the price of fuel. Results suggest a strong effect of price volatility on consumers’ willingness to support transit expenditures.     

User perspectives in public transport timetable optimisation

The present paper deals with timetable optimisation from the perspective of minimising the waiting time experienced by passengers when transferring either to or from a bus. Due to its inherent complexity, this bi-level minimisation problem is extremely difficult to solve mathematically, since timetable optimisation is a non-linear non-convex mixed integer problem, with passenger flows defined by the route choice model, whereas the route choice model is a non-linear non-continuous mapping of the timetable. Therefore, a heuristic solution approach is developed in this paper, based on the idea of varying and optimising the offset of the bus lines. Varying the offset for a bus line impacts the waiting time passengers experience at any transfer stop on the bus line.In the bi-level timetable optimisation problem, the lower level is a transit assignment calculation yielding passengers’ route choice. This is used as weight when minimising waiting time by applying a Tabu Search algorithm to adapt the offset values for bus lines. The updated timetable then serves as input in the following transit assignment calculation. The process continues until convergence.The heuristic solution approach was applied on the large-scale public transport network in Denmark. The timetable optimisation approach yielded a yearly reduction in weighted waiting time equivalent to approximately 45 million Danish kroner (9 million USD).     

Innovative systems for the transportation disadvantaged: Toward more efficient and operationally usable planning tools

When considering innovative forms of public transport for specific groups, such as demand responsive services, the challenge is to find a good balance between operational efficiency and 'user friendliness' of the scheduling algorithm even when specialized skills are not available. Regret insertion-based processes have shown their effectiveness in addressing this specific concern. We introduce a new class of hybrid regret measures to understand better why the behaviour of this kind of heuristic is superior to that of other insertion rules. Our analyses show the importance of keeping a good balance between short- and long-term strategies during the solution process. We also use this methodology to investigate the relationship between the number of vehicles needed and total distance covered - the key point of any cost analysis striving for greater efficiency. Against expectations, in most cases decreasing fleet size leads to savings in vehicle mileage, since the heuristic solution is still far from optimality.     

The value of service reliability

This paper studies the impact of service frequency and reliability on the choice of departure time and the travel cost of transit users. When the user has (α, β, γ) scheduling preferences, we show that the optimal head start decreases with service reliability, as expected. It does not necessarily decrease with service frequency, however. We derive the value of service headway (VoSH) and the value of service reliability (VoSR), which measure the marginal effect on the expected travel cost of a change in the mean and in the standard deviation of headways, respectively. The VoSH and the VoSR complete the value of time and the value of reliability for the economic appraisal of public transit projects by capturing the specific link between headways, waiting times, and congestion. An empirical illustration is provided, which considers two mass transit lines located in the Paris area.     

Evaluating the effects of bus design on passenger flow: Is agent-based simulation a feasible approach?

In this paper, we propose an agent-based simulation approach that is capable of simulating the flow of passengers on board buses and at bus stops. The intention is that it will be applied during vehicle development to analyze how vehicle design affects passenger flow, and thus also how it affects system performance such as dwell time. In turn, this could aid the developers in making design decisions early in the development process. Besides introducing the simulation tool itself, the paper explores the realism of the data generated by the tool. A number of passenger flow experiments featuring a full-scale bus mockup and 50 participants were carried out. The setup of these experiments mirrored a number of ‘bus journeys’ (regarding vehicle design, number of passengers boarding/alighting at each stop and so on) that had previously been simulated using the simulation tool. When the data from the simulations were compared with the data from the passenger flow experiments, it could be concluded that the tool is indeed able to generate realistic passenger flows, although with some errors when a large number of passengers board/alight. The simulated dwell times were rationally affected by the tested bus layout aspects. It was concluded that the tool makes it possible to evaluate how variations in bus layouts affect passenger flow, providing data of sufficiently high quality to be useful in early phases of vehicle design.     

Driving to save time or saving time to drive? The enduring appeal of the private car

Use of the private car is often viewed as highly problematic. It is regularly associated with global physical, social and ecological harms such as climate change and the high incidence of lifestyle diseases, including heart disease. Attempts to address these problems generally include provision for day-to-day physical mobility based on alternatives to the private car. Labelled alternative transport, these modes include public transport, walking and cycling. Yet the private car continues as the preferred way to travel in many cities. A deeper understanding of this preference can reveal under explored sites of resistance to alternative transport modes.This paper contributes to these understandings by examining the role the car as a time saving device plays in sustaining automobility. Its central proposition is that individual decisions to drive are not necessarily motivated by the desire to save time. The paper draws on empirical evidence on the journey to work in Australia’s largest city, Sydney. Using a systematic process of trip substitution analysis, a group of people were identified who could use alternative transport to get to work in the same amount of time it currently takes them to drive. These people then participated in a series of in-depth interviews where deeper attachments and motivations for private car use were explored.This approach has enabled development of the multi-layered understanding that informs the central proposition that individual decisions to drive are not necessarily motivated by the desire to save time. Instead, automobility is sustained by appeals to flexibility and autonomy, as well as the interminable pull of the sensory experience provided by the cocoon of the car. This way of thinking about resistance to alternative transport exposes a series of inconsistencies between the expectations of those planning for, and those anticipated to one day use, alternative transport.     

Resolving the property right of transportation emissions through public–private partnerships

The application of public–private partnerships (P3’s) in the transportation sector has grown in popularity worldwide. Despite this important shift in the provision of transportation service, there are clear gaps in knowledge about the impacts of P3 projects, especially on emissions from transportation systems as a whole. Not only should policy makers evaluate the emissions impacts from P3 projects, but they should also think about innovative models that address or charge for emissions into P3 contracts. This addition to P3 contracts could provide a new solution to the long-existing property right paradox: who owns (is responsible for) emissions from transportation systems? This study attempts to fill the research gap by analyzing these innovative models. Using the road network of Fresno, California, as our case study, we offer a number of interesting insights for policy makers. First, average peak emissions costs range from 1.37 cents per mile (the do-nothing case) to 1.20 cents per mile (profit-maximizing cases) per vehicle. Although emissions costs from the P3 projects are lowest for the profit-maximizing cases, the system-wide emissions costs of these cases are highest because of spillover effects. Second, charging project owners for the emissions costs of P3 projects is not an effective way to reduce emissions or the total costs of travel, especially on a VMT basis. Instead, the public sector should implement emissions-included social cost-based price ceilings. When employing these limits, project owners could still be charged for the emissions costs. Finally, using total travel time as the only objective function for evaluating P3 projects can be misleading. Several P3 projects have shown better outcomes using total travel cost with the inclusion of emissions and fuel consumption costs, instead of using total travel time as the only objective function.