Including congestion effects in urban road traffic CO2 emissions modelling: Do Local Government Authorities have the right options?

Tailpipe emissions from vehicles on urban road networks have damaging impacts, with the problem exacerbated by the common occurrence of congestion. This article focuses on carbon dioxide because it is the largest constituent of road traffic greenhouse gas emissions. Local Government Authorities (LGAs) are typically responsible for facilitating mitigation of these emissions, and critical to this task is the ability to assess the impact of transport interventions on road traffic emissions for a whole network.This article presents a contemporary review of literature concerning road traffic data and its use by LGAs in emissions models (EMs). Emphasis on the practicalities of using data readily available to LGAs to estimate network level emissions and inform effective policy is a relatively new research area, and this article summarises achievements so far. Results of the literature review indicate that readily available data are aggregated at traffic level rather than disaggregated at individual vehicle level. Hence, a hypothesis is put forward that optimal EM complexity is one using traffic variables as inputs, allowing LGAs to capture the influence of congestion whilst avoiding the complexity of detailed EMs that estimate emissions at vehicle level.Existing methodologies for estimating network emissions based on traffic variables typically have limitations. Conclusions are that LGAs do not necessarily have the right options, and that more research in this domain is required, both to quantify accuracy and to further develop EMs that explicitly include congestion, whilst remaining within LGA resource constraints.     

Did Chinese cities that implemented driving restrictions see reductions in PM10?

Imposing driving restrictions is becoming increasingly popular as a policy intended to control urban air pollution. Existing studies on this topic offer highly mixed observations, and each study tends to focus on only one city. In this paper, we used 11 Chinese cities with driving restrictions as the treatment group, and compared them to other cities that did not implement the policy. Based on a propensity score matching and difference-in-difference analysis, we found no evidence of a decrease in PM10 concentrations in cities after they implemented driving restrictions. This finding may be attributed to an increase in the number of cars in these cities after implementing driving restrictions, but we also found no evidence of an improvement in air quality for a given number of cars after implementation of the policies.     

Simulating the air quality impacts of traffic calming schemes in a dense urban neighborhood

In this study, the effects of isolated traffic calming measures and area-wide calming schemes on air quality in a dense neighborhood were estimated using a combination of microscopic traffic simulation, emission, and dispersion modeling. Results indicated that traffic calming measures did not have as large an effect on nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations as the effect observed on nitrogen oxide (NO_x) emissions. Changes in emissions resulted in highly disproportional changes in pollutant levels due to daily meteorological conditions, road geometry and orientation with respect to the wind. Average NO₂ levels increased between 0.1% and 10% with respect to the base-case while changes in NO_x emissions varied between 5% and 160%. Moreover, higher wind speeds decreased NO₂ concentrations on both sides of the roadway. Among the traffic calming measures, speed bumps produced the highest increases in NO₂ levels.     

Local joint flexibility of tubular X-joints stiffened with external ring or external plates

In the present paper, the Local Joint Flexibility (LJF) of the ring-stiffened X-joints and plate-stiffened X-joints under compressive load is investigated. In the first phase, a finite element (FE) model was generated and verified with the results of available experimental tests and equations. In the next phase, a set number of 234 FE models were created to evaluate the role of the external ring size (β_r and τ_r), the external plate size (β_p and τ_p), and the connection geometry (γ, τ, and β) on the LJF factor (f_LJF). In these FE models, the weld connecting the chord and brace members was generated. The results indicated that the f_LJF of a plate stiffened joint can be down to 76% of the f_LJF of the corresponding un-stiffened joint. Also, the effect of the ring size on the f_LJF was more than the effect of the plate size on the f_LJF, because of the stiffener position. Despite the notable effect of the ring and the plate on the f_LJF, there is not any study or formula on tubular connections stiffened with ring or plate. Therefore, the FE results were used to propose two parametric formulas for determining the f_LJF in X-joints with external ring or external plate under brace compressive load. Moreover, the derived formulas were checked based on the UK DoE acceptance criteria.     

高速公路沥青路面施工质量控制分析

无接缝、平整、行车舒适、噪音低以及振动小、易于养护等优点,使沥青混凝土路面成为我国国内公路面层普遍采用的一种比较好的结构形式。但是如果施工中不能按照施工工艺严格的进行施工质量控制,则很容易导致路面的一系列质量问题,这不仅影响使用功能,还影响影响其社会效益。     

关于大学生心理健康教育课程的几点思考

大学生心理健康教育课程教学的目的是培养学生健康的心理和良好的心理素质,使其在思想认识、知识和技能三个层面学有所获。课程教学应遵循理论与实践相结合、教师讲授与学生体验相结合,通过课堂讲授、小组讨论与典型案例分析、心理素质训练与拓展等体验式教育方法进行教学;采用理论效果评估与实际操作效果评估相结合的方式对课程效果进行评估。     

Assessment of fatigue strength of steel butt-welded joints in as-welded condition – Alternative approaches for curve fitting and mean stress effect analysis

Experimental fatigue data for butt-welded joints in as-welded condition and under constant amplitude tensile loading (secondary bending included) were analyzed using the nominal stress system and the notch stress system. Two approaches were used; a standard fitting procedure and minimization of the sum of squared perpendicular distances from a line with a fixed and free slope. In all cases, the latter method gave better agreement between the experimental and predicted fatigue life and fatigue strength. The analyses showed both with all broken specimen data included and with reduced data that the FAT225 curve, as recommended by IIW, might be too optimistic for the notch stress approach in the case of butt-welded joints in as-welded condition. It was also found that use of the local stress ratio instead of the applied stress ratio might explain many issues concerning current observations and apparent inconsistencies in reported literature.     

Dynamic demand estimation and prediction for traffic urban networks adopting new data sources

Nowadays, new mobility information can be derived from advanced traffic surveillance systems that collect updated traffic measurements, both in fixed locations and over specific corridors or paths. Such recent technological developments point to challenging and promising opportunities that academics and practitioners have only partially explored so far.The paper looks at some of these opportunities within the Dynamic Demand Estimation problem (DDEP). At first, data heterogeneity, accounting for different sets of data providing a wide spatial coverage, has been investigated for the benefit of off-line demand estimation. In an attempt to mimic the current urban networks monitoring, examples of complex real case applications are being reported where route travel times and route choice probabilities from probe vehicles are exploited together with common link traffic measurements.Subsequently, on-line detection of non-recurrent conditions is being recorded, adopting a sequential approach based on an extension of the Kalman Filter theory called Local Ensemble Transformed Kalman Filter (LETKF).Both the off-line and the on-line investigations adopt a simulation approach capable of capturing the highly nonlinear dependence between the travel demand and the traffic measurements through the use of dynamic traffic assignment models. Consequently, the possibility of using collected traffic information is enhanced, thus overcoming most of the limitations of current DDEP approaches found in the literature.     

基于沉降差的填石路堤施工工艺与质量控制研究

结合南方地区填石路堤施工,通过填石路堤试验段研究,介绍了填石路堤的施工工艺和质量控制要求,并通过沉降差检测分析,说明了沉降差作为填石路堤质量控制指标的可行性,为同类工程提供参考.