Simultaneous optimization of transit line configuration and passenger line assignment

Passenger transportation in most large cities relies on an efficient mass transit system, whose line configuration has direct impacts on the system operating cost, passenger travel time and line transfers. Unfortunately, the interplay between transit line configuration and passenger line assignment has been largely ignored in the literature. This paper presents a model for simultaneous optimization of transit line configuration and passenger line assignment in a general network. The model is formulated as a linear binary integer program and can be solved by the standard branch and bound method. The model is illustrated with a couple of minimum spanning tree networks and a simplified version of the general Hong Kong mass transit railway network.     

一类非线性结构动力系统的混沌运动分析

讨论一类非线性结构动力系统混沌运动的条件。利用Melnikov函数法对相应的非线性动力方程进行分析,得出了系统出现Smade混沌运动时系统参数之间的关系。     

交通发展中的技术及技术含量的判断

交通运输与技术是需要深入探究的系统工程问题. 从技术与经济发展关系的角度入手,解读了新技术的应用与交通运输发展的关系;系统分析了交通运输中的技术、技术含量、技术含量判断方法等,指出新技术的应用要以提高运输效率和质量为目的;从系统工程的角度分析,得出交通运输系统的关键技术主要体现在交通基础设施、运输工具、装载设备、运输组织管理和服务水平等5个方面.最后简要介绍了交通运输领域部分新技术的应用情况.     

基于串并联模型框架的舰载C3I系统作战效能分析

在诸多作战效能评估的方法中,串并联这一概念和思想有其独特的方法论意义与价值,通过对研究的问题给出指标的评价树,自底向上分层建模,可极大地提高构模速度,减轻构模难度.本文首先明确了串并联模型框架,而后分析了串并联模型框架的应用条件和适用范围,最后应用串并联模型框架对舰载C^3I系统的作战效能进行评估.     

Real time location prediction with taxi-GPS data streams

The prediction of the destination location at the time of pickup is an important problem with potential for substantial impact on the efficiency of a GPS-enabled taxi service. While this problem has been explored earlier in the batch data set-up, we propose in this paper new solutions in the streaming data set-up. We examine four incremental learning methods using a damped window model namely, Multivariate multiple regression, Spherical-spherical regression, Randomized spherical K-NN regression and an Ensemble of these methods for their effectiveness in solving the destination prediction problem. The performance of these methods on several large datasets are evaluated using suitably chosen metrics and they were also compared with some other existing methods. We found that the Multivariate multiple regression method has the best performance in terms of prediction accuracy but the Spherical-spherical regression method is the best performer when we take into account the accuracy time trade-off criterion. The next pickup location problem, where we are interested in predicting the next pickup location for a taxi given the dropoff location coordinates of the previous trip as input is also considered and the aforementioned methods are examined for their suitability using real world datasets. As in the case of destination prediction problem, here also we find that the Multivariate multiple regression method gives better performance than the rest when we consider prediction accuracy but the Spherical-spherical regression method is the best performer when the accuracy-time trade-off criterion is taken into account.     

Environmental noise inequity in the city of Barcelona

Environmental noise is a growing concern for urban planners and public health experts. Continuous noise exposure has implications for people’s physical and mental health. Urban planning strategies are also involved in the need for regular noise assessments within urban areas. The objective of this study is to evaluate the exposure to noise of vulnerable population groups in the city of Barcelona, and to determine whether they are affected by an environmental inequity regarding this nuisance. Assessment of noise levels was performed by two methods of analysis—real measures and simulation—in order to build the noise database at block level for the 10 districts of the city. The results obtained by various statistical tests and spatial regression analysis show that children and low-income individuals are not affected by environmental inequity. On the other hand, we found a positive relationship between noise levels and the other groups considered: namely, the unemployed and people over age 65.     

Automated tuning of ITS management and control systems: Results from real-life experiments

The design and deployment of the majority of Management and Control Systems (MCS) for ITS involves a tedious, effort- and time-consuming manual tuning and calibration procedure not only during the initial design and deployment of the ITS but, in most cases, during its whole lifetime. Recently, we have developed and evaluated, both by means of theoretical analysis and extensive simulation experiments, a new methodology which fully automatically takes over the manual tuning and calibration procedure. Most importantly, this new methodology, called Adaptive Fine-Tuning (AFT), achieves to improve the performance of the system and compensate the effect of the continuous changes of its behavior that may be due to either internal or external factors. In this paper, we report results of implementing AFT to a real-life ITS MCS. More precisely, this paper reports and analyzes the results from implementing AFT to an urban traffic signal control application. The results from AFT real-life application demonstrate that it is capable of significantly improving the performance of the system in a safe and robust manner. Moreover, the real-life results exhibit the capability of AFT to efficiently adapt and compensate in cases of changes in the system behavior, even if these changes are significant.     

Distributed model predictive control for vessel train formations of cooperative multi-vessel systems

Recently, the cooperative control of multiple vessels has been gaining increasing attention because of the potential robustness, reliability and efficiency of multi-agent systems. In this paper, we propose the concept of Cooperative Multi-Vessel Systems (CMVSs) consisting of multiple coordinated autonomous vessels. We in particular focus on the so-called Vessel Train Formation (VTF) problem. The VTF problem considers not only cooperative collision avoidance, but also grouping of vessels. An MPC-based approach is proposed for addressing the VTF problem. A centralized and a distributed formulation based on the Alternating Direction of Multipliers Method (ADMM) are investigated. The distributed formulation adopts a single-layer serial iterative architecture, which gains the benefits of reduced communication requirements and robustness against failures. The impacts of information updating sequences and responsibility parameters are discussed. We furthermore analyze the scalability of the proposed method. Simulation experiments of a CMVS navigating from different terminals in the Port of Rotterdam to inland waterways are carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of our method. The proposed method successfully steers the vessels from different origins to form a vessel train. Due to the effective communication, vessels can timely respond to the velocity changes that others make. After the formation is formed, the distances between vessels become constant. The results show the potential to use CMVSs for inland shipping with enhanced safety.     

An empirical investigation on consumers’ intentions towards autonomous driving

Major steps towards implementation of autonomous and connected transport are being taken nowadays. The trend of automation technology being used in vehicles by the most important vehicle manufacturing industries is expected to move closer to high or fully Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) through technological advancements in sectors of robotics and artificial intelligence. Vehicles with autonomous driving capabilities are planning to be available on market, in full scale, in the next years. In the longer term substantial benefits are mainly expected for accessibility to transport, safety, traffic flow, emissions, fuel use and comfort. All these potential societal benefits will not be achieved unless AVs are accepted and used by a critical mass of people. Addressing these challenges, this paper: (a) proposes a technology acceptance modelling process by extending the original Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explain and predict consumers’ intensions towards AVs, (b) based on the proposed TAM-extended framework, a 30-question survey was conducted in order to investigate the factors influencing consumers’ intensions to use and accept AVs. Results show that the constructs of perceived usefulness, perceived ease to use, perceived trust and social influence, are all useful predictors of behavioral intentions to have or use AVs, with perceived usefulness having the strongest impact. The insights derived from this study could significantly contribute to ongoing research related to technology acceptance of AVs and are expected to allow automobile industries to improve their design and technology.     

Social welfare analysis of investment public–private partnership approaches for transportation projects

This paper has two objectives: (i) to introduce a new approach in order to gain widespread support for road pricing; and (ii) to develop a detailed social welfare analysis for road pricing schemes. We first describe our novel approach that stimulates public support for road pricing, which we refer to as an investment public–private partnership, or IP3. This approach returns a significant portion of the economic value created by road pricing back to the citizens who own the newly priced facility. We then present a social welfare framework that estimates the benefits and costs of using the IP3 approach on an urban transportation network. A P3 project’s impact on overall social welfare provides a more comprehensive evaluation criterion than the often-used Value for Money (VfM) analysis. Apart from several theoretical studies, a detailed social welfare analysis that includes all major P3 project stakeholders is absent from the literature. We use Fresno, California as our case study in order to conduct a welfare analysis on IP3s. Our results show that system-optimal tolling favors average users, but that government—and consequently taxpayers—should pay for costly tolling systems (negative profits). In contrast, unlimited profit-maximizing tolls raise substantial profits for government, for the infrastructure’s citizen-owners, and for the private sector, but the average user is worse off. From a social-welfare perspective, one should search for a Pareto improvement under which all major stakeholders are better off. Our estimates indicate that a mixed public and private tolling scheme offers such an improvement.