Towards data-driven car-following models

Car following models have been studied with many diverse approaches for decades. Nowadays, technological advances have significantly improved our traffic data collection capabilities. Conventional car following models rely on mathematical formulas and are derived from traffic flow theory; a property that often makes them more restrictive. On the other hand, data-driven approaches are more flexible and allow the incorporation of additional information to the model; however, they may not provide as much insight into traffic flow theory as the traditional models. In this research, an innovative methodological framework based on a data-driven approach is proposed for the estimation of car-following models, suitable for incorporation into microscopic traffic simulation models. An existing technique, i.e. locally weighted regression (loess), is defined through an optimization problem and is employed in a novel way. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using data collected from a sequence of instrumented vehicles in Naples, Italy. Gipps’ model, one of the most extensively used car-following models, is calibrated against the same data and used as a reference benchmark. Optimization issues are raised in both cases. The obtained results suggest that data-driven car-following models could be a promising research direction.     

Economic factors affecting the registration of lower CO2 emitting aircraft in Europe

We examine the various forces influencing the development and uptake of environmentally beneficial technical changes, focusing on airline technology. Within this context, we consider not only the nature of competition within the final market in which aircraft, an intermediate product, are sold, but also that of the product market itself, the commercial airline industry. The reasons for the gradual reduction in CO₂ per seat per aircraft movement in aircraft design are examined in terms of the real costs of aviation fuel, changes in the nature of the supply industry, the movement towards carbon cap-trade policies, and endogenous technical progress in the technology of the industry. The latter being taken as an empirical proxy for the role market forms play in influencing the fuel efficiency of the types of aircraft used. The results support the existence of these latter forces on the demand for aircraft types, allowing for other influences that affect aircraft technology.     

Integrated Transport System of the South-Moravian Region and its impact on rural development

It is generally presupposed that the infrastructure and availability of services of general interest (like schools, medical care, social services and also public transport) impact on present demographic development in rural areas, namely depopulation and aging. Such services affect the quality of life of local people and sometimes they perform a vital necessity. It is possible to say that the absence of the mentioned services should be compensated by an effective system of public transport. In other case, especially those people who are not able to use individual cars due to the age, health, legal conditions or financial situation are bequeathed on an assistance of the family or neighbors or they stay cut off and excluded. This paper is aimed at the verification of the presupposition in the case of the South-Moravian Region – NUTS 3 region occupying the south-eastern part of the Czech Republic, bordering with Austria and Slovakia. The research method lies in analysis of the frequency, travel time and fare of public transport system and its comparison with demographic development in rural areas, especially in the peripheral ones. The results are discussed in view of the system of central places in the region and present urbanization processes like suburbanization, counterurbanization and reurbanization.     

Fractional-order-based ACC/CACC algorithm for improving string stability

Traffic flow optimization and driver comfort enhancement are the main contributions of an Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system. If communication links are added, more safety and shorter gaps can be reached performing a Cooperative-ACC (CACC). Although shortening the inter-vehicular distances directly improves traffic flow, it can cause string unstable behavior. This paper presents fractional-order-based control algorithms to enhance the car-following and string stability performance for both ACC and CACC vehicle strings, including communication temporal delay effects. The proposed controller is compared with state-of-the-art implementations, exhibiting better performance. Simulation and real experiments have been conducted for validating the approach.     

Large-scale dynamic transportation network simulation: A space-time-event parallel computing approach

This paper describes a computationally efficient parallel-computing framework for mesoscopic transportation simulation on large-scale networks. By introducing an overall data structure for mesoscopic dynamic transportation simulation, we discuss a set of implementation issues for enabling flexible parallel computing on a multi-core shared memory architecture. First, we embed an event-based simulation logic to implement a simplified kinematic wave model and reduce simulation overhead. Second, we present a space-time-event computing framework to decompose simulation steps to reduce communication overhead in parallel execution and an OpenMP-based space-time-processor implementation method that is used to automate task partition tasks. According to the spatial and temporal attributes, various types of simulation events are mapped to independent logical processes that can concurrently execute their procedures while maintaining good load balance. We propose a synchronous space-parallel simulation strategy to dynamically assign the logical processes to different threads. The proposed method is then applied to simulate large-scale, real-world networks to examine the computational efficiency under different numbers of CPU threads. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the implemented parallel computing algorithm can significantly improve the computational efficiency and it can reach up to a speedup of 10 on a workstation with 32 computing threads.     

Fully autonomous vehicles: analyzing transportation network performance and operating scenarios in the Greater Toronto Area,Canada

Fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) have the potential to considerably change urban mobility in the future. This study simulates potential AV operating scenarios in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada, and assesses transportation system performance on a regional level. For each scenario, the base capacities of certain types of road links are modified to simulate the theoretical increase in throughput enabled by AV driving behavior. Another scenario examines driverless parking operations in downtown Toronto. Simulation results indicate that the increased attractiveness of freeways relative to other routes leads to slightly increased average travel distance as vehicles divert to access higher capacity road links. Average travel time is found to decrease by up to one-fifth at the 90% AV market penetration level. Concurrently, localized increases in congestion suggest that proactive transportation planning will be needed to mitigate negative consequences of AV adoption, especially in relation to induced demand for personal automobile travel.     

基于因子分析法的公路运输绩效评价研究

公路运输是国民经济的基础产业,提高公路运输绩效是发展国民经济的根本途径。在构建公路运输绩效评价指标体系的基础上,利用2003年的调研统计资料,用因子分析法对全国各省市的公路运输系统绩效进行综合评价,指出影响道路运输系统绩效的主要因素,将各省的公路运输系统绩效进行比较,探索影响排名的因素,明确提高公路运输绩效的方向。     

深入实施科技强交战略 为发展现代交通运输业提供支撑和保障

全国交通运输科技大会全面回顾总结了＂十一五＂交通运输科技工作,研究分析交通运输科技发展面临的新形势、新要求,部署＂十二五＂科技工作。文章基于交通运输科技大会的部署与要求,介绍了＂十一五＂交通运输科技工作取得的成绩与经验,分析了＂十二五＂交通运输科技发展的总体思路和重点任务,提出了做好＂十二五＂交通运输科技工作的具体要求。     

战略成本管理的基本方法及其在交通运输企业的应用

介绍了战略定位分析、价值链分析和成本动因分析等西方战略成本管理的基本方法,并对它们在交通运输企业中的应用作了初步探讨,对于培育交通运输企业的竞争优势、降低成本、提高成本效益具有重要意义。     

高速公路网异构GIS-T信息共享的本体模型

针对中国高速公路网内交通地理信息系统(GIS-T) 在信息表达上相互异构的问题, 通过分析异构根源提出了基于本体的GIS-T信息共享方案, 按照抽象拓扑、几何构件、线性参照、附加设施与动态数据的交通信息组织模式, 建立了高速公路网本体(FNO) 模型。以西安市周边的局部高速公路网为例, 分析了FNO对交通信息的一致性表达方式。分析结果表明: 高速公路网内所有GIS-T对FNO语义的理解相同, 对交通信息的表达具有一致认知, 确保交通信息的跨GIS-T共享。可见, 该本体模型能够提高中国高速公路网内异构GIS-T的互操作能力, 更好地支撑上层的交通信息管理与集成共享等应用。