Adaptive road border crossing system management: the role of priority programs

Land border crossings in North America, such as those between Canada and U.S.A., are expected to experience severe imbalance of travel demand and capacity of processors. During peak travel periods, this is already the case at high traffic locations. The land border crossing authorities have to address problems of congestion, national security and environmental impacts in the operation of the existing systems and to continue to address these problems as a part of infrastructure expansion plans. There is a need to adapt the crossing system management in order to accommodate efficiency and productivity‐oriented priority crossing measures. From a methodological perspective, it is a challenge to evaluate the role of priority crossing measures within the complex border crossing system. This paper reports research on modelling priority crossing initiatives. A microsimulation approach was used to model and analyse integrated processors of the Peace Bridge crossing system between Fort Erie (Ontario) and Buffalo (New York) under different scenarios of travel demand, customs processing times, priority crossing and queue jump lanes for automobile and truck traffic. Findings show the extent to which a border crossing system with priority crossing and queue jump lanes is more efficient and productive than one without these innovations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What are the value and implications of two-car households for the electric car?

The major barriers to a more widespread introduction of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) beyond early adopters are the limited range, charging limitations, and costly batteries. An important question is therefore where these effects can be most effectively mitigated. An optimization model is developed to estimate the potential for BEVs to replace one of the conventional cars in two-car households and to viably contribute to the households’ driving demand. It uses data from 1 to 3 months of simultaneous GPS logging of the movement patterns for both cars in 64 commuting Swedish two-car households in the Gothenburg region.The results show that, for home charging only, a flexible vehicle use strategy can considerably increase BEV driving and nearly eliminate the unfulfilled driving in the household due to the range and charging limitations with a small battery. The present value of this flexibility is estimated to be on average $6000–$7000 but varies considerably between households. With possible near-future prices for BEVs based on mass production cost estimates, this flexibility makes the total cost of ownership (TCO) for a BEV advantageous in almost all the investigated households compared to a conventional vehicle or a hybrid electric vehicle. Because of the ubiquity of multi-car households in developed economies, these families could be ideal candidates for the initial efforts to enhance BEV adoptions beyond the early adopters. The results of this research can inform the design and marketing of cheaper BEVs with small but enough range and contribute to increased knowledge and awareness of the suitability of BEVs in such households.     

Airlines within airlines: Assessing the vulnerabilities of mixing business models

In this paper we examine two questions; what is it that makes some cases of airlines within airlines apparently successful while in many other cases it is just the opposite? And second, why would a carrier attempt such a strategy, is there a common set of circumstances or is each case unique? In the US, Canada and Europe a number of legacy carriers have sought to respond to LCC entry by creating an LCC within the legacy carriers; most have failed but some have succeeded, most notably in Australia and Germany. We first examine the evolution of the LCC business model and illustrate the different forms it takes today. Following this we provide a discussion of the underlying sources of cost advantage of the LCC and assess which sources are sustainable in the longer term. Finally we examine the conditions under which these apparent successes have occurred and look for common threads. We find market dominance, judicious network planning and co-ordination are necessary conditions for success.     

The flight perturbation problem

Airlines spend considerable time, effort and financial resources on planning. It is essential to create a competitive timetable and construct a fleet and a crew schedule that utilizes these resources to the maximum. Unfortunately, it is all too common that an airline is faced with the necessity of reconstructing their schedules due to some unforeseen event, for example an aircraft breakdown or a crew member that is indisposed. In this paper, an application that can help airlines solve the complex problem of reconstructing aircraft schedules is presented. A mixed integer multicommodity flow model with side constraints is developed and further reformulated into a set packing model using the Dantzig—Wolfe decomposition. Cancellations, delays and aircraft swaps are used to resolve the perturbation, and the model ensures that the schedule returns to normal within a certain time. Two column generation schemes for heuristically solving the model are tested on real problem data obtained from a Swedish domestic airline. The computational tests show that the application is capable of presenting high quality solutions in a few seconds and therefore can be used as a dynamic decision support tool by the airlines.     

Vehicle headway modeling and its inferences in macroscopic/microscopic traffic flow theory: A survey

Vehicle headway distribution models are widely used in traffic engineering fields, since they reflect the fundamental uncertainty in drivers' car-following maneuvers and meanwhile provide a concise way to describe the stochastic feature of traffic flows. This paper presents a systematic review of vehicle headway distribution studies in the last few decades. Since it is impossible to enumerate the merits and drawbacks of all of existing distribution models, we emphasize four advances of headway distribution modeling in this paper. First, we highlight the chronicle of key assumptions on the existing distribution models and explain why this evolution occurs. Second, we show that departure headways measured for interrupted flows on urban streets and headways measured for uninterrupted flows on freeways have common features and can be simulated by a unified microscopic car-following model. The interesting finding helps gather two kinds of headway distribution models under one umbrella. Third, we review different approaches that aim to link microscopic car-following models and mesoscopic vehicle headway distribution models. Fourth, we show that both the point scattering on the density-flow plot and the shape of traffic flow breakdown curve implicitly depend on the vehicular headway distribution. These findings reveal pervasive connections between macroscopic traffic flow models and mesoscopic headway distribution. All these new insights bring new vigor into vehicle headway studies and open research frontiers in this field.     

总人口为非常数的传染病动力学模型的稳定性分析

考虑总人口是非常数的SIRS传染病模型，在不考虑空间扩散和考虑空间扩散两种情形时，分别构建了Liapunov函数并讨论了其模型的常数平衡点的稳定性．     

固定辙叉轮轨接触关系算法研究及软件开发

基于轮轨接触理论,考虑固定辙叉复杂的轨头廓形变化及轨距线不连续,提出能够准确计算固定辙叉轮轨接触参数的算法并编制相应计算软件。通过现场试验,对LM型踏面通过60 kg/m钢轨12号合金钢组合辙叉时的轮轨接触点位置(包括沿辙叉纵向和各关键断面)进行测量,并与软件计算结果对比分析;采用该算法分析60 kg/m钢轨12号提速道岔整铸辙叉翼轨加高这一优化设计对轮轨接触参数的影响。结果表明,沿辙叉走行方向和辙叉各关键断面,实测值与软件计算的轮轨接触点变化规律基本一致;对翼轨适当加高可以优化轮轨接触关系,降低辙叉竖向不平顺,验证了该算法的正确性和软件的可行性,便于准确、高效地对固定辙叉区轮轨关系进行优化设计。     

汽车离合器膜片弹簧优化设计的数学模型分析

关于膜片弹簧的优化设计，国内学提出了多种不同的优化设计模型，对这模型进行分析研究，在此基础上提出了更为符合实际的数学模型。最后，应用此模型进行实例计算。结果表明，优化后的膜片弹簧性能明显高于原设计。     

Stated preference analysis of travel choices: the state of practice

Stated preference (SP) methods are widely used in travel behaviour research and practice to identify behavioural responses to choice situations which are not revealed in the market, and where the attribute levels offered by existing choices are modified to such an extent that the reliability of revealed preference models as predictors of response is brought into question. This paper reviews recent developments in the application of SP models which add to their growing relevance in demand modelling and prediction. The main themes addressed include a comparative assessment of choice models and preference models, the importance of scaling when pooling different types of data, especially the appeal of SP data as an enriching strategy in the context of revealed preference models, hierarchical designs when the number of attributes make single experiments too complex for the respondent, and ways of accommodating dynamics (i.e. serial correlation and state dependence) in SP modelling.An earlier modified version was presented as the keynote address to the 1993 National Conference on Tourism Research, held at the University of Sydney, 19 March 1993. The comments of Jordan Louviere, Lester Johnson, Paul Hooper, W.G. Waters II and Mark Bradley are appreciated.     

锚索抗滑桩设计中的几个问题探讨

对锚索抗滑桩设计中的合理间距、桩的嵌固深度、抗滑桩内力和变形计算等问题进行了探讨。指出对于锚索抗滑桩系统来说,最小间距应根据桩和锚索的间距综合考虑;对于锚索抗滑桩的嵌固深度,只要使其满足桩周地基承载力的要求即可,仅靠增加桩的嵌固深度,对改善桩身内力和变位的意义并不大。分析了当前计算锚索抗滑桩内力和变形的几种主要方法,讨论了影响锚索抗滑桩内力和变形分布形式的主要因素以及对锚索抗滑桩进行全局优化设计的思路。