Shared autonomous electric vehicle (SAEV) operations across the Austin,Texas network with charging infrastructure decisions

Shared autonomous vehicles, or SAVs, have attracted significant public and private interest because of their opportunity to simplify vehicle access, avoid parking costs, reduce fleet size, and, ultimately, save many travelers time and money. One way to extend these benefits is through an electric vehicle (EV) fleet. EVs are especially suited for this heavy usage due to their lower energy costs and reduced maintenance needs. As the price of EV batteries continues to fall, charging facilities become more convenient, and renewable energy sources grow in market share, EVs will become more economically and environmentally competitive with conventionally fueled vehicles. EVs are limited by their distance range and charge times, so these are important factors when considering operations of a large, electric SAV (SAEV) fleet.This study simulated performance characteristics of SAEV fleets serving travelers across the Austin, Texas 6-county region. The simulation works in sync with the agent-based simulator MATSim, with SAEV modeling as a new mode. Charging stations are placed, as needed, to serve all trips requested (under 75 km or 47 miles in length) over 30 days of initial model runs. Simulation of distinctive fleet sizes requiring different charge times and exhibiting different ranges, suggests that the number of station locations depends almost wholly on vehicle range. Reducing charge times does lower fleet response times (to trip requests), but increasing fleet size improves response times the most. Increasing range above 175 km (109 miles) does not appear to improve response times for this region and trips originating in the urban core are served the quickest. Unoccupied travel accounted for 19.6% of SAEV mileage on average, with driving to charging stations accounting for 31.5% of this empty-vehicle mileage. This study found that there appears to be a limit on how much response time can be improved through decreasing charge times or increasing vehicle range.     

Methodology for ro-ro ship and fleet sizing with application to short sea shipping

A novel methodology is developed for determining the characteristics of a cargo roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ship and the fleet size required for a given short sea shipping route. The ship and required fleet size to satisfy the transportation demand (for each pair of speed and freight rate) are determined using a database of existing cargo ro-ro ships to obtain the main technical characteristics of the most suitable ship. The time charter, voyage costs and revenue are then calculated considering the technical characteristics of each ship. Fuel costs are corrected for the actual ship speed and loading condition. A number of restrictions in the transportation problem are considered leading to the exclusion of unfeasible solutions. The maximum profit over the period of a year is identified among the feasible pairs of speed and freight rate. This general methodology is applied in a case study that considers the route between Leixões (Portugal) and Rotterdam (Netherlands). The study allows the identification of the most suitable ship and fleet sizes for different market penetration levels and quantifies the impact on shipping company profit of changes in parameters such as fuel costs, time charter costs, emission control area, installed propulsion power and stacking factor.     

Exploring active transportation investments and associated benefits for municipal budgets: a scoping review

Municipalities play an important role in the planning and development of communities that support active transportation (AT), which refers to human-powered modes of travel, such as walking and cycling. Municipal-level stakeholders involved in land-use and transportation infrastructure planning consider multiple social, environmental and economic considerations to inform decision-making and investments in AT. Evidence around the fiscal benefits of AT investment for local governments has not been systematically identified. This scoping review sought to explore the existing evidence regarding investments in AT and opportunities for savings on municipal expenditures and revenue generation. In total, 7060 records were located and screened; of which 162 full-text articles were reviewed. Ultimately, 23 articles met our inclusion criteria and were included in this review. The available evidence focuses on potential economic benefits of AT in the areas of tax revenues, property values, consumer spending and employment, all of which are relevant sources of revenue generation in municipal operating budgets. An evidence gap was identified regarding AT infrastructure investments and benefits corresponding to municipal expenditures (e.g. maintenance cost savings). Notably, a large portion of literature was published after 2009, suggesting that municipal-level evidence on the fiscal benefits of AT investments may just be emerging.     

Building Philippine Local Government Capacity for Coastal Resource Management

The responsibility for managing coral reefs and other coastal resources was largely devolved to coastal municipalities and cities in the Philippines in 1991 with the passage of the Local Government Code. Devolution of powers and responsibilities to local government has paved the way for mainstreaming coastal resource management at the local level. However, the capacity to carry out this mandate has only recently begun to mature as municipalities and cities gain an increased awareness of the importance of coastal resources to communities and economic development. Approaches and strategies to increase local government capacity for coastal resource management are described based on the experiences of the Coastal Resource Management Project of the United States Agency for International Development. Qualitative and quantitative data are used to illustrate the possible impact of these capacity building efforts and to describe the current capacity of local government to undertake coastal resource management. After five years of project implementation, coastal municipalities have increased technical capacity, have allotted financial resources, and have achieved key performance benchmarks in the delivery of coastal resource management as a basic service.     

Evolution of the household vehicle fleet: Anticipating fleet composition, PHEV adoption and GHG emissions in Austin, Texas

In today’s world of volatile fuel prices and climate concerns, there is little study on the relationship between vehicle ownership patterns and attitudes toward vehicle cost (including fuel prices and feebates) and vehicle technologies. This work provides new data on ownership decisions and owner preferences under various scenarios, coupled with calibrated models to microsimulate Austin’s personal-fleet evolution.Opinion survey results suggest that most Austinites (63%, population-corrected share) support a feebate policy to favor more fuel efficient vehicles. Top purchase criteria are price, type/class, and fuel economy. Most (56%) respondents also indicated that they would consider purchasing a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) if it were to cost $6000 more than its conventional, gasoline-powered counterpart. And many respond strongly to signals on the external (health and climate) costs of a vehicle’s emissions, more strongly than they respond to information on fuel cost savings.Twenty five-year simulations of Austin’s household vehicle fleet suggest that, under all scenarios modeled, Austin’s vehicle usage levels (measured in total vehicle miles traveled or VMT) are predicted to increase overall, along with average vehicle ownership levels (both per household and per capita). Under a feebate, HEVs, PHEVs and Smart Cars are estimated to represent 25% of the fleet’s VMT by simulation year 25; this scenario is predicted to raise total regional VMT slightly (just 2.32%, by simulation year 25), relative to the trend scenario, while reducing CO₂ emissions only slightly (by 5.62%, relative to trend). Doubling the trend-case gas price to $5/gallon is simulated to reduce the year-25 vehicle use levels by 24% and CO₂ emissions by 30% (relative to trend).Two- and three-vehicle households are simulated to be the highest adopters of HEVs and PHEVs across all scenarios. The combined share of vans, pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), and cross-over utility vehicles (CUVs) is lowest under the feebate scenario, at 35% (versus 47% in Austin’s current household fleet). Feebate-policy receipts are forecasted to exceed rebates in each simulation year.In the longer term, gas price dynamics, tax incentives, feebates and purchase prices along with new technologies, government-industry partnerships, and more accurate information on range and recharging times (which increase customer confidence in EV technologies) should have added effects on energy dependence and greenhouse gas emissions.     

对我国道路运输行业管理方针的探讨

面对我国道路运输业存在的诸多问题,指出了加强行业管理的重要性,并对道路运输业的经济本质进行了理论分析。尽管世界各国的道路运输行业都不具备自然垄断的形态,但文章仍然在我国首次提出了道路运输业属公用事业范畴的观点,这在一定程度上给出了我国道路运输业管制与放开争议的解决思路。根据我国道路运输行业所处的发展阶段和发展环境,提出了政府对道路运输行业的管理不仅不应消弱,相反应该大大加强的观点。对于竞争不完全的市场,政府的管制是至为必要的;仅强调开放运输市场只会增加竞争的无序和资源的浪费。文章认为今后相当时期对道路运输行业应实施适度管制的管理方针,而管制的重点在于运输市场的准入。     

A multiobjective model for maximizing fleet availability under the presence of flight and maintenance requirements

Every aircraft, military or civilian, must be grounded for maintenance after it has completed a certain number of flight hours since its last maintenance check. In this paper, we address the problem of deciding which available aircraft should fly and for how long, and which grounded aircraft should perform maintenance operations, in a group of aircraft that comprise a combat unit. The objective is to achieve maximum availability of the unit over the planning horizon. We develop a multiobjective optimization model for this problem, and we illustrate its application and solution on a real life instance drawn from the Hellenic Air Force. We also propose two heuristic approaches for solving large scale instances of the problem. We conclude with a discussion that gives insight into the behavior of the model and of the heuristics, based on the analysis of the results obtained.     

Book review

Onshore Planning for Offshore Oil—Lessons from Scotland by Pamela L. Baldwin and Malcolm F. Baldwin The Conservation Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1975     

轴心受压钢构件板件宽厚比限值的分析

随着单层钢结构厂房在铁路生产房屋中的广泛应用,多数钢结构厂房柱应力水平低的现象越来越突出,造成单层钢结构厂房结构设计的经济性较差。其原因是现行《钢结构设计规范》(GB50017—2005)中受压钢构件板件的宽厚比限值与其应力水平无关,按此设计的厂房柱截面多偏大而过于保守。对轴心受压钢构件板件宽厚比限值的推导过程加以重新审视,引入应力相关折减系数,按照修正的等稳定性原则,统一分析轴心受压构件的板件宽厚比限值,并通过数据拟合,提出更加合理实用的限值公式。新的限值公式与板件的应力水平相关,与理论计算结果吻合较好。     

高速铁路矮塔斜拉桥墩塔梁固结段局部应力分析与验证

局部分析是桥梁设计中常采用的重要手段,也是设计中不可或缺的重要环节,利用实体有限元模型能反应出结构细部的受力状况,对考察结构重要部位的真实应力状态、结构设计配筋有着指导性作用。为了解高速铁路矮塔斜拉桥墩塔梁固结段的真实应力状态及验证局部分析中边界条件表达的准确性,以京沈客运专线(115+95)m双线无砟轨道预应力混凝土矮塔斜拉桥为工程背景,利用Ansys有限元建立细化的空间实体有限元模型,并对局部模型的边界条件模拟的正确性进行验证,分析表明,墩塔梁固结段进人洞角点处应力集中,应适当加强配筋,其余部位应力均满足要求,通过验证局部模型的内力传递及支反力,确保实体模型应力结果的准确性,保证结构安全。最后总结出了铁路桥梁中不失一般性的局部分析方法,从而对其他结构局部分析具有借鉴意义。