Understanding the impacts of a combination of service improvement strategies on bus running time and passenger’s perception

Transit agencies implement many strategies in order to provide an attractive transportation service. This article aims to evaluate the impacts of implementing a combination of strategies, designed to improve the bus transit service, on running time and passenger satisfaction. These strategies include using smart card fare collection, introducing limited-stop bus service, implementing reserved bus lanes, using articulated buses, and implementing transit signal priority (TSP). This study uses stop-level data collected from the Société de transport de Montréal (STM)’s automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) systems, in Montréal, Canada. The combination of these strategies has lead to a 10.5% decline in running time along the limited stop service compared to the regular service. The regular route running time has increased by 1% on average compared to the initial time period. The study also shows that riders are generally satisfied with the service improvements. They tend to overestimate the savings associated with the implementation of this combination of strategies by 3.5-6.0 min and by 2.5-4.1 min for both the regular route and the limited stop service, respectively. This study helps transit planners and policy makers to better understand the effects of implementing a combination of strategies to improve running time and passenger’s perception of these changes in service.     

Value of travel time reliability: A review of current evidence

Travel time reliability is a fundamental factor in travel behavior. It represents the temporal uncertainty experienced by travelers in their movement between any two nodes in a network. The importance of the time reliability depends on the penalties incurred by the travelers. In road networks, travelers consider the existence of a trip travel time uncertainty in different choice situations (departure time, route, mode, and others). In this paper, a systematic review of the current state of research in travel time reliability, and more explicitly in the value of travel time reliability is presented. Moreover, a meta-analysis is performed in order to determine the reasons behind the discrepancy among the reliability estimates.     

Travel time estimation from sparse floating car data with consistent path inference: A fixed point approach

Estimation of urban network link travel times from sparse floating car data (FCD) usually needs pre-processing, mainly map-matching and path inference for finding the most likely vehicle paths that are consistent with reported locations. Path inference requires a priori assumptions about link travel times; using unrealistic initial link travel times can bias the travel time estimation and subsequent identification of shortest paths. Thus, the combination of path inference and travel time estimation is a joint problem. This paper investigates the sensitivity of estimated travel times, and proposes a fixed point formulation of the simultaneous path inference and travel time estimation problem. The methodology is applied in a case study to estimate travel times from taxi FCD in Stockholm, Sweden. The results show that standard fixed point iterations converge quickly to a solution where input and output travel times are consistent. The solution is robust under different initial travel times assumptions and data sizes. Validation against actual path travel time measurements from the Google API and an instrumented vehicle deployed for this purpose shows that the fixed point algorithm improves shortest path finding. The results highlight the importance of the joint solution of the path inference and travel time estimation problem, in particular for accurate path finding and route optimization.     

基于模糊时间Petri网的列车运行时间不确定性问题的处理

定义一种应用于铁路列车运行系统的模糊时间Petri网；针对列车运行时间存在的不确定性，该Petri网引入了4个模糊集理论函数：模糊时间片、模糊使能时间、模糊发生时间和模糊延迟，来处理时间的不确定性问题；能够对列车运行过程中的时间不确定性问题进行定量分析，可以有效应用于列车交会、列车终到时间、列车运行计划调整的分析等；其相对于已有的方法具有精确分析、计算简单、简化系统、便于系统集成的特点。     

时间社会学视角下老年人对家庭出行行为的影响研究

为阐述家庭微观社会情境中老年人与同住成员之间的行为交互对个体出行决策的影响,本文从时间社会学视角出发,以昆明市有老年人家庭为分析单元,用家庭贡献度量化老年人家务活动的分担程度,构建结构方程模型揭示老年人对家庭成员日常活动时间结构的影响,进而剖析成员间的活动交互影响机理.结果表明：老年人家庭贡献度增加时,成员间在非通勤活动上的交互效用减弱;由于女家长在时间结构上呈现隐形的“时间贫困”特征,其在活动-出行模式上受老年人家庭贡献度的影响显著高于男家长;与此同时,老年人作用下女家长在非通勤活动出行决策时优先考虑家务活动的时间安排,而男家长则优先考虑自由活动的安排.     

铁路运输成本计算及计算机系统设计

针对现有铁路成本计算方法的不完善之处和网运分离的设想, 提出了通过服务时间计算点到点成本的方法, 对现行成本计算方法进行补充, 并对参数的获取和修正方法进行了探讨, 同时对计算机系统的设计进行了分析和讨论, 其内容对其他运输方式也有一定的借鉴意义     

3G数字信息技术诠释现代交通新理念 —中关村科技“奥星天网”GPS信息服务系统全面启动

交通工具对交通设施所造成的压力,必然形成单纯的资源消耗,造成交通能力相对的滞 后、并制约综合的交通系统与技术的进步,进而制约社会的进步.而现代交通的发展与进步早 已经不仅仅是道路及交通设施的量的增长,而是应综合运用现代科学技术为车辆及驾乘人员提 供综合的服务.中关村科技作为市政府建设中关村科技园区、发展高新技术产业的平台公司, 在关键时刻推出的“奥星天网"GPS信息服务系统.恰好满足了人们的这一要求.此套系统主要 提供的功能有导航、救援、紧急服务、位置查询、调度管理、便民服务、商务助理、防盗反劫等,可使交通工具轻松行使、安全停放,驾车人工作生活方便自如.     

公共交通系统营运可靠性研究

优先发展公共交通是大城市解决交通拥堵,实现城市交通可持续发展的一项重要措施,然而,公交营运水平的低下制约着公交的发展。本文借鉴可靠性理论对公共交通营运可靠性进行定义,并对公交营运时间和乘客服务可靠性分别进行了描述,据此建立起公交系统营运可靠性模型,然后采用随机模拟技术(即Monte Carlo模拟)进行求解,通过算例说明模型的可行性,最后通过分析可靠性模型得出大型活动期间改善公交营运的途径。     

A Pareto-improving hybrid rationing and pricing policy with multiclass network equilibria

This paper extends the work on Pareto-improving hybrid rationing and pricing policy for general road networks by considering heterogeneous users with different values of time. Mathematical programming models are proposed to find a multiclass Pareto-improving pure road space rationing scheme (MPI-PR) and multiclass hybrid rationing and pricing schemes (MHPI and MHPI-S). A numerical example with a multimodal network is provided for comparing both the efficiency and equity of the three proposed policies. We discover that MHPI-S can achieve the largest reduction in total system delay, MHPI can induce the least spatial inequity and MHPI-S is a progressive policy which is appealing to policy makers. Furthermore, numerical results reveal that different classes of users react differently to the same hybrid policies and multiclass Pareto-improving hybrid schemes yield less delay reduction when compared to their single-class counterparts.     

Recursive estimation of average vehicle time headway using single inductive loop detector data

Vehicle time headway is an important traffic parameter. It affects roadway safety, capacity, and level of service. Single inductive loop detectors are widely deployed in road networks, supplying a wealth of information on the current status of traffic flow. In this paper, we perform Bayesian analysis to online estimate average vehicle time headway using the data collected from a single inductive loop detector. We consider three different scenarios, i.e. light, congested, and disturbed traffic conditions, and have developed a set of unified recursive estimation equations that can be applied to all three scenarios. The computational overhead of updating the estimate is kept to a minimum. The developed recursive method provides an efficient way for the online monitoring of roadway safety and level of service. The method is illustrated using a simulation study and real traffic data.