The potential demand for a urban freight consolidation centre

This paper reports the results of a stated-preference study aimed at investigating how transport decisions are made by receivers or by transport operators about the potential use of an urban freight consolidation centre in the city of Fano, Italy. Because there are no revealed preference data, a stated-choice methodology is used. The stated-choice experiments present two alternatives—one using a private vehicle subject to various traffic regulations and one using the urban freight consolidation centre with varying cost and efficiency levels. Conventional discrete choice data modelling shows that the potential demand is influenced mainly by the distance of the parking bay from the shop, by access permit cost, by the service cost of the urban freight consolidation centre, and by the delay in delivery time. Simulations are then performed to assess how the potential demand is affected by various incentives and regulations affecting urban goods distribution.

Estimating the willingness to pay and value of risk reduction for car occupants in the road environment

In recent years there has been a re-focus on the valuation of a statistical life from the ex post or human capital method to an ex ante willingness to pay (WTP) approach. This is in part a recognition that we may have been undervaluing the cost of fatalities and injuries to society associated with crashes, but also a strong belief in the need to focus on establishing the amount, ex ante, that individuals are willing to pay to reduce the risk of exposure to circumstances that might lead to death or degree of injury on the road network. This study has developed a framework in which to identify the degree of preference heterogeneity in willingness to pay by individuals who are drivers or passengers in cars to avoid being killed or injured. A stated choice experiment approach is developed. The empirical setting is a choice of route for a particular trip that a sample of individuals periodically undertakes in Australia. The particular trip is described in enough detail to provide the respondent with a familiar market environment, providing all the relevant background information required for making a decision. Mixed logit models are estimated to obtain the marginal (dis)utilities associated with each influence on the choice amongst the attribute packages offered in the stated choice scenarios. These estimates are used to obtain the WTP distributions for fatality and injury avoidance, which are then aggregated to obtain estimates of the value of risk reduction (VRR), of which the fatality class is also known as the value of a statistical life (VSL).     

融入偏好信息的列车运行过程多目标优化算法

列车运行过程优化是一个多目标、大滞后、非线性的极其复杂的优化问题.为了更好地解决上述问题,以列车能耗、舒适性、停靠准确性和运行时间为控制目标,以列车运动动力学方程为约束,建立了列车运行过程的多目标优化模型,提出了一种融入偏好信息的列车运行过程多目标遗传粒子群算法.提出的改进策略具有以下优点,在融入偏好信息的基础上通过控制粒子群中个体在解空间的分布能够更好地保持粒子群多样性,从而在进化过程中具有更明显的全局收敛的指向作用.仿真得到的速度距离曲线表明,在列车及其运行线路相同的情况下,本文所提出的算法性能较佳、寻优结果较好.     

Modeling heterogeneous parking choice behavior on university campuses

Studies on campus parking indicate more severe problems and a wider range of characteristics than commercial parking because of limited parking places, special conditions, specific policies and enclosed space on university campuses. Heterogeneous characteristics are usually ignored in analyses of campus parking behavior. In this paper, a mixed logit model is applied to analyze parking choice behavior on a campus using data collected from a stated-preference survey of Tongji University, Shanghai, China. The heterogeneity of individuals with various sociodemographic characteristics is evaluated by interaction terms and random parameters. Comparison between the proposed approach and the conditional logit model shows that the results of the mixed logit model are more interpretable because they are not limited by the independence from irrelevant alternatives assumption. Key factors that have considerable effects on campus parking choices are identified and analyzed. Important regularities are also concluded from elasticity analyses. Finally, the campus is divided into two areas according to the walking distance to a new parking lot, and the modeling results show that area-specific policies should be established because the two areas have quite distinct parking choice features.     

Structural equation modeling of user satisfaction of bus transit service quality based on stated preferences and latent variables

Few studies have been conducted on the service quality (SQ) of bus transit in developing countries. This paper presents a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to identifying the relationships among major attributes that affect the SQ of bus transit in the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh. Specifically, 22 bus transit SQ attributes, drawn from 655 questionnaires, are used to develop different SEM models for the city. Along with stated preferences, the effect of three latent variables on SQ is analyzed. Among the developed models, the best model is selected by using different statistical approaches. With the best model, selected attributes are rated according to their relative importance on SQ. Acknowledging limited resources of a developing nation, this study gives a clear way ahead to planners, operating companies and transport managers to design appropriate transport policies which will ensure more effective services to current bus users as well as attracting new passengers.     

Commute responses to employment decentralization: Anticipated versus actual mode choice behaviors of new town employees in Kunming,China

This study examines workers’ mode-choice responses to a typical job decentralization policy implemented in China’s urban development – government job relocation (GJR) to new towns in the urban periphery. Broadly, the literature suggests that job decentralization tends to increase car commuting; however, little is known about the effects of China’s GJR initiatives on individuals’ commuting mode choices. Using Kunming as a case study, this study examines how workers’ commuting mode choices have shifted in response to the GJR policy. Our study analyzes two travel survey datasets that span the job relocation process: (1) stated preference (SP) data on workers’ anticipated mode choices after a move of workplace to a planned new town; and (2) revealed preference (RP) data on workers’ actual choices of commuting mode after their jobs were moved. The findings suggest that after job relocation, workers’ actual commuting modes shift from more sustainable modes towards cars. The determinants of workers’ mode choices differ substantially between the hypothetical and actual setting of job relocation. The anticipated mode choices are largely determined by socio-demographic characteristics whereas the actual mode choices are strongly influenced by travel time and housing locations. The evidence from this study offers two important implications for future planning practice of job decentralization. First, planners and policy-makers should be skeptical about the transportation benefits of job decentralization. Second, while SP surveys can assist planners to predict individuals’ mode-choice responses, the robustness of SP results should be carefully assessed before translating into the evidence base for informing job decentralization policy-makings.     

The acquisition of pre-trip information: A stated preference approach

This paper describes a study into the effects of pre-trip information on travel behaviour, carried out as part of the DRIVE project EURONETT. The aim of the study was to investigate travellers' requirements for different types of travel information and methods of enquiry and to relate the process of information acquisition to changes in travel behaviour. The study was carried out using a stated preference approach, built on the use of a microcomputer based simulation of an in-home pre-trip information system offering information on travel times from home to City Centre, by bus and car, at different times of the day. A novel feature of the stated preference exercise was that respondents effectively generated their own choice set of alternatives through the process of information acquisition. Surveys were undertaken in parallel in Birmingham and Athens, thus allowing a comparison to be made between behaviour in typical Southern and Northern European settings.The first part of the paper discusses some of the fundamental behavioural and modelling issues raised by the introduction of advanced traveller information systems. It then describes the study methodology and the stated preference experiment. Results are presented from an analysis of the information acquisition process itself and from choice models relating the acquired information to effects on different dimensions of travel behaviour.     

Formulating a methodology for modelling revealed preference discrete choice data-the selectively replicated logit estimation

There are a number of studies on modelling with Revealed Preference (RP) data. It is a traditional technique and it is based on actual market data. The method has been extensively used in transportation as a tool for predicting travel demand. Although the method constitutes a relevant analysis on the process of modelling, it suffers from limitations, mainly associated with the lack of control over the experiment, that sometimes overwhelm the model results. This work proposes and tests a methodology for estimating a more efficient binary RP sample set. The objective is to develop and test a methodology that identifies and eliminates potentially irrational choices made. Responses are evaluated according to the set of trade-offs in values of time. Having identified these individuals they are eliminated from the original sample and a new sample is created, the selectively replicated (SR) sample. Original and SR samples are then re-estimated in a tree nested logit structure.     

基于决策偏好可控的地铁列车开行方案设计研究

以乘客的总广义出行费用最小、地铁部门运营成本最小为目标,以列车满载率、列车编组长度、列车开行频率为约束条件建立地铁列车开行方案设计多目标规划模型并求解。通过设置权重的方式,将地铁列车开行方案制定中追求的乘客总广义出行费用最小与地铁运营公司运营成本最小双目标转化为单目标。并给予了3组不同的权重设置方案,分别求得相应的最优解,分析了权重设置对最优解的影响。所提供的权重设置方法,可以准确描述决策者在地铁列车开行方案制定过程中的决策偏好,能够为地铁列车开行方案的制定提供决策支持,有较大的实用价值。     

京沪线高铁与民航旅客出行选择行为研究

随着高速铁路的快速建设,其已与民航构成了我国高速客运的主体,使交通运 输方式的供给结构发生了巨大变化.本文通过对京沪线高铁与民航旅客进行SP 和RP调 查,分析京沪线客流的构成和旅客出行方式选择行为特征,并基于非集计理论,构建京沪 线旅客出行选择的Binary Logit 模型,量化各因素对旅客选择的影响程度,该模型准确率 为88%.本文根据调查结果和模型标定参数,对旅客的性别、年龄、月收入、票价、同行人 数、程前时间和出发时间对旅客出行选择行为的影响进行深入分析,结论对了解京沪线 旅客实际出行需求状况,合理设计高铁与民航综合客运产品具有重要意义.