Autonomous cars: The tension between occupant experience and intersection capacity

Systems that enable high levels of vehicle-automation are now beginning to enter the commercial marketplace. Road vehicles capable of operating independently of real-time human control under an increasing set of circumstances will likely become more widely available in the near future. Such vehicles are expected to bring a variety of benefits. Two such anticipated advantages (relative to human-driver vehicle control) are said to be increased road network capacity and the freeing up of the driver-occupant’s time to engage in their choice of leisurely or economically-productive (non-driving) tasks.In this study we investigate the implications for intersection capacity and level-of-service of providing occupants of automated (without real-time human control), autonomously-operating (without vehicle-to-X communication) cars with ride quality that is equivalent (in terms of maximum rates of longitudinal and lateral acceleration) to two types of rail systems: [urban] light rail transit and [inter-urban] high-speed rail. The literature suggests that car passengers start experiencing discomfort at lower rates of acceleration than car drivers; it is therefore plausible that occupants of an autonomously-operating vehicle may wish to instruct their vehicle to maneuver in a way that provides them greater ride comfort than if the vehicle-control algorithm simply mimicked human-driving-operation.On the basis of traffic microsimulation analysis, we found that restricting the dynamics of autonomous cars to the acceleration/deceleration characteristics of both rail systems leads to reductions in a signalized intersection’s vehicle-processing capacity and increases in delay. The impacts were found to be larger when constraining the autonomous cars’ dynamics to the more-restrictive acceleration/deceleration profile of high-speed rail. The scenarios we analyzed must be viewed as boundary conditions, because autonomous cars’ dynamics were by definition never allowed to exceed the acceleration/deceleration constraints of the rail systems. Appropriate evidence regarding motorists’ preferences does not exist at present; establishing these preferences is an important item for the future research agenda.This paper concludes with a brief discussion of research needs to advance this line of inquiry.     

Flying with climate liability? Economic valuation of voluntary carbon offsets using forced choices

This study aims to examine how key aspects of voluntary climate action influence economic values of aviation carbon offsets using an Australian case study, where voluntary carbon offset programs for the aviation sector were active under a carbon tax between July 01, 2012 and July 17, 2014. An online survey was administered during the period using choice experiments. This rare and short-lived Australian experience is useful to gain insights into how individuals respond to the new public policy in terms of the perceived economic value of voluntary offsets for air travel. According to the estimation results, supporters of the mandatory tax policy held a welfare value of voluntary carbon offsets for their domestic flights that is three times larger than non-supporters (i.e., $AU27.83 vs. $AU9.40). It is $AU12.27 on average per ton of carbon offsets per person for domestic flights and $AU0.92 for international long-haul flights. The findings endorse that individuals seem to attach personal responsibility for carbon emissions (i.e. climate liability or carbon conscience) to frequent domestic flights, but not so much to intercontinental flights. Furthermore, reported flight frequencies by respondents did not place any significant impact on economic values of voluntary carbon offsets in both domestic and international frameworks. A coupled approach between forced choices and certainty responses was adapted, where no-choice options were retrieved, potentially improving choice experiments. Results suggest that airlines should consider simplifying their carbon offset programs to fixed levels (e.g. £3, £10, and £20 as in the case of British Airways), regardless of geographical boundaries, while governments should promote both mandatory and voluntary climate measures in tandem.     

舰艇编队信息融合中模糊C-均值算法改进研究

在分析舰艇编队信息处理融合的基础上,提出舰艇编队信息融合体系结构、模型和实现框架。针对原C-均值算法在处理数据时的不合理性,提出了改进的模拟C-均值算法,提高分类效果,满足信息融合的实时要求和可靠性要求。     

高职电子信息工程技术专业学生专业能力培养路径的研究与实践

对接电子信息产业人才需求,分析就业岗位工作任务、分解专业能力,在优化课程体系、增强实践教学、完善实践教学支撑体系、培养创新思维和教师队伍建设等方面,形成高职电子信息工程技术专业学生专业能力培养路径,并付之于实践,为电子信息产业培养具有较强专业能力的技术技能人才。     

Development and calibration of a long-distance passenger traffic assignment model

This paper studies the assignment of long-distance passenger traffic on a highway corridor network. First, we propose a traditional model for the long-distance traffic assignment considering interactions with local commuter traffic. It addresses the effect of local networks on highway corridors. An iterative algorithm is developed to solve for the exact solution. Then, to address the potential computational issues that arise therein, a decomposition method is proposed by introducing a new concept of corridor elasticity. An assignment procedure for long-distance passenger traffic is developed accordingly. Numerical tests show that the proposed decomposition method makes significant improvements in computational performance at a small loss of optimality. This decomposition method well approximates the exact assignment from the traditional formulation, especially when the highway corridors are near-saturation. The proposed decomposition method appears practical for application.     

Potentials of using social media to infer the longitudinal travel behavior: A sequential model-based clustering method

This study explores the possibility of employing social media data to infer the longitudinal travel behavior. The geo-tagged social media data show some unique features including location-aggregated features, distance-separated features, and Gaussian distributed features. Compared to conventional household travel survey, social media data is less expensive, easier to obtain and the most importantly can monitor the individual’s longitudinal travel behavior features over a much longer observation period. This paper proposes a sequential model-based clustering method to group the high-resolution Twitter locations and extract the Twitter displacements. Further, this study details the unique features of displacements extracted from Twitter including the demographics of Twitter user, as well as the advantages and limitations. The results are even compared with those from traditional household travel survey, showing promises in using displacement distribution, length, duration and start time to infer individual’s travel behavior. On this basis, one can also see the potential of employing social media to infer longitudinal travel behavior, as well as a large quantity of short-distance Twitter displacements. The results will supplement the traditional travel survey and support travel behavior modeling in a metropolitan area.     

基于家庭属性差异的大学生出行方式选择行为研究

为剖析家庭属性差异对大学生出行方式选择行为的影响，基于非集计理论，构建家庭属性差异的大学生出行选择多元Logit 模型. 根据四川省2 571 份大学生出行行为调查问卷，运用SPSS 软件标定模型参数，获取影响大学生出行选择的主要家庭属性因素，并进行敏感性分析. 结果表明：家庭平均年收入、经济净流对大学生出行方式选择有显著的影响；以航空运输为参考，家庭平均年收入、经济净流对公路运输方式选择的影响大于铁路运输；“祖辈替孙辈购买机票”的折扣票务形式可提高大学生选择航空出行的概率.     

The potential mitigation of CO2 emissions via modal substitution of high-speed rail for short-haul air travel from a life cycle perspective – An Australian case study

The objective of this study is to provide a strategic evaluation of the mitigation of CO₂ emissions via modal substitution of high-speed rail for short-haul air travel on the Sydney–Melbourne, Australia city-pair from a life cycle perspective. It has been demonstrated that when considering CO₂ emissions from vehicle operations, the modal shift from air to high-speed rail on this city-pair has the potential to provide a means of CO₂ mitigation. However, uncertainty exists with regard to the level of mitigation potential when considering the whole-of-life performance of the systems. Given the significant difference in the infrastructure requirements between the air mode and the high-speed rail mode, this study quantifies the life cycle CO₂ load attributable to each system and examines the effect on CO₂ mitigation potential. The study concluded that while the inclusion of the linehaul infrastructure did increase the CO₂ load associated with high-speed rail mode, it did not equate to or exceed the CO₂ load per trip as experienced by the air mode. The avoided annual life cycle CO₂ emission in the target year 2056 was 0.37 Mt representing an 18% reduction when compared to the air mode only on the city pair. In fact, the scenario comparison indicated that the substitution of high-speed rail for short-haul air travel on the city pair resulted in CO₂ emissions avoidance throughout the longitudinal period.     

做好交通行业政务信息工作的研究

以山东省港航业政务信息工作为例，对如何做好交通行业政务信息工作进行研究。做好交通行业政务信息工作的关键是要根据交通行业的特点，构建交通政务信息网络；围绕港航行业管理内容，突出港航信息特色；同时也离不开领导的重视和支持。     

福州轨道交通建设安全管控平台的设计与应用

福州城市轨道交通建设规模不断增大，复杂的地质、环境条件以及众多工种施工的交叉作业和人员活动，给安全生产带来挑战。针对建设全过程安全管控的具体业务关系和需求分析，梳理和固化工作岗位、职责、流程、响应、整改等安全管理的事项和要求，强化对管控过程的追溯和考核管理。研究信息平台的业务需求、平台架构、网络拓扑、功能模块、数据库设计方法和实现思路，利用Ssm框架、Quartz框架、Encache技术以及SQLServer数据库技术，设计开发基于B/S模式的城市轨道交通安全管控信息系统，应用于在建的5条线路。信息平台的应用，可实现安全管理的标准化、科学化和精细化，极大地提高管理水平和工作效率。