Nonlinear pricing in linear cities with elastic demands

Nonlinear road pricing charges each traveler based on his/her trip’s corresponding particular attribute level. In order to help authorities in designing road pricing systems at a strategic level, this paper attempts to address two fundamental questions: (i) what is the value of pricing’s nonlinearity for mitigating traffic congestion? (ii) if a nonlinear toll function is implemented, should it be convex, concave or other shape? Specifically, we consider distance-based pricing in linear cities. For linear monocentric cities with heterogeneous travelers, we show that the system optimal distance-based pricing indeed exhibits nonlinearity. It is proved that: (i) the cost-based system optimal toll function is monotonically increasing and concave with respect to the traveled distance; (ii) the time-based system optimal toll function always exists and is unique. If the initial proportion of each traveler group is invariant along a corridor and the demand function is of exponential type, then the time-based system optimal toll function enables the travelers, living further away from a city center, to face a lower toll level per unit distance. For a linear polycentric city, we demonstrate: (i) there always exists the system optimal differentiated (in terms of city centers) toll functions; (ii) it is highly possible that the system optimal non-differentiated toll function does not exist. Hence, we further propose an optimal toll design model, prove the Lipschitz continuity of its objective and adopt a global-optimization algorithm to solve it.     

Walking accessibility and property prices

Walking is an imperative travel mode, especially for short trips. Walking accessibility, which is defined as the ease of reaching essential destinations in the walk-in catchment area, may affect property prices because residents are more likely to be willing to pay for this attribute. In addition, different categories of public services may have varied influencing directions and magnitude. These two hypotheses are tested in this study. Taking Xiamen, China as a case study, we estimate the cumulative opportunities of public services on foot and develop a set of hedonic pricing models (more specifically, two pre-specified ordinary least squares models, four Box-Cox transformed models, and two spatial econometric models) to estimate, whether and to what extent, walking accessibility contributes to price premiums (or discounts). Using a database of 22,586 second-hand residential properties in 358 multi- or high-storey residential complexes, we find that (1) walking accessibility to public services contributes to the variations in housing prices and plays a role in determining housing prices; (2) different categories of services have vastly divergent, even opposite, influencing impacts; and (3) walking accessibility to primary schools, commercial centers, and sports and cultural centers have positive effects on house prices whereas walking accessibility to comprehensive hospitals adversely affects housing prices. Methodologically, we confirm that spatial econometric methods improve estimation accuracy and have more explanatory power relative to the standard non-spatial models. Robustness check analysis further guarantees the plausibility of this study.     

Predicting market potential and environmental benefits of deploying electric taxis in Nanjing,China

This paper investigates the market potential and environmental benefits of replacing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the taxi fleet in Nanjing, China. Vehicle trajectory data collected by onboard global positioning system (GPS) units are used to study the travel patterns of taxis. The impacts of charger power, charging infrastructure coverage, and taxi apps on the feasibility of electric taxis are quantified, considering taxi drivers’ recharging behavior and operating activities. It is found that (1) depending on the charger power and coverage, 19% (with AC Level 2 chargers and 20% charger network coverage) to 56% (with DC chargers and 100% charger network coverage) of the ICE vehicles can be replaced by electric taxis without driving pattern changes; (2) by using taxi apps to find nearby passengers and charging stations, drivers could utilize the empty cruising time to charge the battery, which may increase the acceptance of BEVs by up to 82.6% compared to the scenario without taxi apps; and (3) tailpipe emissions in urban areas could be significantly reduced with taxi electrification: a mixed taxi fleet with 46% compressed-natural-gas-powered (CNG) and 54% electricity-powered vehicles can reduce the tailpipe emissions by 48% in comparison with the fleet of 100% CNG taxis.     

Distributed MPC for cooperative highway driving and energy-economy validation via microscopic simulations

Traffic congestion and energy issues have set a high bar for current ground transportation systems. With advances in vehicular communication technologies, collaborations of connected vehicles have becoming a fundamental block to build automated highway transportation systems of high efficiency. This paper presents a distributed optimal control scheme that takes into account macroscopic traffic management and microscopic vehicle dynamics to achieve efficiently cooperative highway driving. Critical traffic information beyond the scope of human perception is obtained from connected vehicles downstream to establish necessary traffic management mitigating congestion. With backpropagating traffic management advice, a connected vehicle having an adjustment intention exchanges control-oriented information with immediately connected neighbors to establish potential cooperation consensus, and to generate cooperative control actions. To achieve this goal, a distributed model predictive control (DMPC) scheme is developed accounting for driving safety and efficiency. By coupling the states of collaborators in the optimization index, connected vehicles achieve fundamental highway maneuvers cooperatively and optimally. The performance of the distributed control scheme and the energy-saving potential of conducting such cooperation are tested in a mixed highway traffic environment by the means of microscopic simulations.     

A traffic-condition-based route guidance strategy for a single destination road network

Most of existing route guidance strategies achieves user optimal equilibrium by comparing travel time. Measuring travel time, however, might be uneasy on an urban road network. To contend with the issue, the paper mainly considers easily obtained inflow and outflow of a link and road capacity as input, and proposes a route guidance strategy for a single destination road network based on the determination of free-flow or congested conditions on alternative routes. An extended strategy for a complex network and a feedback approximation for avoiding forecast are further explored. Weaknesses of the strategy are also explicitly analyzed. To test the strategy, simulation investigations are conducted on two networks with multiple parallel routes. The results indicate that the strategy is able to provide stable splitting rates and to approximate user optimal equilibrium in different conditions, in particular when traffic demand is high. This strategy has potential to be applied in an urban road network due to its simplicity and easily obtained input data. The strategy is also applicable for single destination if some alternatives and similar routes are available.     

城市轨道交通客运服务标准编制研究

城市轨道交通客运服务标准应主要针对乘客的需求而制定,是当前需要优先制定的服务业标准之一。通过对城市轨道交通客运服务及特性进行分析,结合国际相关服务标准以及我国现行的服务标准及标准化模式,提出了“以人为本”、系统性和与国际接轨的标准编制原则。乘客乘车是一个按时间顺序的活动过程,沿乘客乘车时间次序展开服务次序,是标准编制的重要技术方法。确定城市轨道交通客运服务内容是城市轨道交通客运服务标准编制的一项主要任务。在借鉴国外先进服务标准理念的基础上,通过轨道交通客运服务质量和从乘客实际需求出发来规范服务内容。最后,对乘客相应权益的规定做了说明。     

公路生态系统服务功能分析及评估

文章探讨了公路生态系统的生态服务功能,提出价值评估指标体系及定量评估方法,为公路生态系统的恢复或重建提供理论依据,对全面、正确评价公路生态系统有积极意义。     

粤港澳航运服务合作机制研究综述

港澳是广东经济发展最重要的外部推动力,是"经济转型"举足轻重的合作伙伴,进一步深化粤港澳各领域合作,是全面深化推进改革的重要举措.基于粤港澳区域经济一体化发展为背景,以航运服务合作为出发点,对国内外关于粤港澳航运服务理论研究的相关文献进行了梳理,归纳粤港澳现代航运服务的发展特点、发展规律、发展现状,总结了粤港澳航运服务存在的问题,针对我国目前在粤港澳航运服务合作机制方面研究空白,提出了今后的研究方向和重点:合作方法和模式研究、合作政策衔接研究、合作策略和措施研究.     

湖北城际铁路动车组选型与交路优化研究

以湖北城际铁路为例,通过比照区间运行速度、参考我国高级动车的技术配置合理选择车型,并优化原交路,最终对原、现两种方案的成本效益对比分析,实证表明,该方案有助于减少动车购置成本,降低亏损,并简化原有运输组织工作.     

基于Android系统的列车移动信息服务平台设计与订餐系统的实现

我国铁路经过6次大提速后,硬件设施水平得到了大幅提升,但与之配套的旅客信息服务体系却相对滞后。目前绝大多数铁路列车上的媒体终端是单向播发系统,研发适合铁路列车的车载移动信息服务平台已迫在眉睫。本文针对铁路旅客信息服务需求,运用系统分析法和功能分析法研发设计了集管理、服务、监控、娱乐四大功能于一体的列车车载移动信息服务平台,该平台的应用功能主要包括列车点餐、视频点播、音乐点播、电子书、新闻发布、广告发布、列车时刻表、整晚点信息发布、游戏、监控等。在车载信息服务平台的基础上,选择平台应用案例中点餐功能进行研究和开发,运用个案研究法实现了基于Android的列车订餐系统。