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.     

Dynamic stochastic transit assignment with explicit seat allocation model

This paper proposes a stochastic dynamic transit assignment model with an explicit seat allocation process. The model is applicable to a general transit network. A seat allocation model is proposed to estimate the probability of a passenger waiting at a station or on-board to get a seat. The explicit seating model allows a better differentiation of in-vehicle discomfort experienced by sitting and standing passengers. The paper proposes simulation procedures for calculating the sitting probability of each type of passengers. A heuristic solution algorithm for finding an equilibrium solution of the proposed model is developed and tested. The numerical tests show significant influences of the seat allocation model on equilibrium departure time and route choices of passengers. The proposed model is also applied to evaluate the effects of an advanced public transport information system (APTIS) on travellers’ decision-making.     

Including passengers’ response to crowding in the Dutch national train passenger assignment model

Transit passengers’ response to crowded conditions has been studied empirically, yet is limitedly included in transport models currently used in the design of policy and infrastructure investments. This has consequences for the practical applicability of these models in studies on, for instance, timetabling, train capacity management strategies, project appraisal, and passenger satisfaction. Here we propose four methods to include the effect of crowding, based on existing studies on passengers’ perception and response as well as often-used crowding indicators. These four alternative methods are implemented in the train passenger assignment procedure of the Dutch national transport model, and evaluated with respect to their impacts on the model results for the Dutch railway network. The four methods relate to four different ways in which an additive trip penalty and/or time-multiplier can be incorporated in the train utility function for different travel purposes, to capture the disutility of crowding as measured by the load factor. The analyses of the test case favor the hybrid method using both a boarding penalty (capturing seat availability upon boarding) and a time-multiplier (capturing physical comfort and safety throughout the trip). This method produces consistent results, while the additional computational effort that it imposes is acceptable. Further empirical underpinning is needed to conclusively show which of these methods best captures passengers’ response behavior quantitatively (for different travel purposes and conditions).     

Assessing social equity in distance based transit fares using a model of travel behavior

The goal of this study is to develop and apply a new method for assessing social equity impacts of distance-based public transit fares. Shifting to a distance-based fare structure can disproportionately favor or penalize different subgroups of a population based on variations in settlement patterns, travel needs, and most importantly, transit use. According to federal law, such disparities must be evaluated by the transit agency, but the area-based techniques identified by the Federal Transit Authority for assessing discrimination fail to account for disparities in distances travelled by transit users. This means that transit agencies currently lack guidelines for assessing the social equity impacts of replacing flat fare with distance-based fare structures. Our solution is to incorporate a joint ordinal/continuous model of trip generation and distance travelled into a GIS Decision Support System. The system enables a transit planner to visualize and compare distance travelled and transit-cost maps for different population profiles and fare structures. We apply the method to a case study in the Wasatch Front, Utah, where the Utah Transit Authority is exploring a switch to a distance-based fare structure. The analysis reveals that overall distance-based fares benefit low-income, elderly, and non-white populations. However, the effect is geographically uneven, and may be negative for members of these groups living on the urban fringe.     

An analysis of public bus transit performance in Indian cities

Maintaining and enhancing public transit service in Indian cities is important, to meet rapidly growing mass mobility needs, and curb personal motor vehicle activity and its impacts at low cost. Indian cities rely predominantly on buses for public transport, and are likely to continue to do so for years. However, the public bus transit service is inadequate, and unaffordable for the urban poor. The paper explores the factors that contribute to and affect efforts to improve this situation, based on an analysis of the financial and operational performance of the public bus transit service in the four metropolitan centres and four secondary cities during the 1990s. Overall, there were persistent losses, owing to increasing input costs and declining productivity. The losses occurred despite rapidly increasing fares, and ridership declined. The situation, and the ability to address it, is worse in the secondary cities than the metropolitan centres. We suggest a disaggregated approach based on the needs and motivations of different groups in relation to public transit, along with improved operating conditions and policies to internalize costs of personal motor vehicle use, to address the challenge of providing financially viable and affordable public bus transit service.     

南京城市公共交通一卡通行应用方案研究

用模糊评价方法对南京地铁与公交一卡通行方案进行优选。分析了南京公交IC卡系统现状和地铁AFC系统选型,表明公交IC卡系统不适应技术发展趋势以及多应用的拓展,而地铁AFC系统则充分考虑了这些需求。讨论了地铁、公交一卡通行各种可能的模式及其影响因素,利用加权最小隶属度偏差模型对南京城市公共交通一卡通行应用方案进行评价,评价结果与模糊综合评判加权平均模型相一致,表明一步到位方案为最佳方案,但加权最小隶属度偏差法反映了不同方案偏离理想方案的程度。     

关于市政工程实行“代建制”的理论与实践的思考

该文论述了市政工程建设中“代建制”建设管理模式的性质和作用,阐述了上海市推行“代建制”以来形成的三种模式,并介绍了“代建制”的市场培育及发展方向。     

Environmental life-cycle assessment of transit buses with alternative fuel technology

The paper presents a life-cycle assessment of costs and greenhouse gas emissions for transit buses deploying a hybrid input-output model to compare ultra-low sulfur diesel to hybrid diesel-electric, compressed natural gas, and hydrogen fuel-cell. We estimate the costs of emissions reductions from alternative fuel vehicles over the life cycle and examine the sensitivity of the results to changes in fuel prices, passenger demand, and to technological characteristics influencing performance and emissions. We find that the alternative fuel buses reduce operating costs and emissions, but increase life-cycle costs. The infrastructure requirement to deploy and operate alternative fuel buses is critical in the comparison of life-cycle emissions. Additionally, efficient bus choice is sensitive to passenger demand, but only moderately sensitive to technological characteristics, and that the relative efficiency of compressed natural gas buses is more sensitive to changes in fuel prices than that of the other bus types.     

Design and implementation of efficient transit networks: Procedure, case study and validity test

This paper presents and tests a method to design high-performance transit networks. The method produces conceptual plans for geometric idealizations of a particular city that are later adapted to the real conditions. These conceptual plans are generalizations of the hybrid network concept proposed in Daganzo (2010). The best plan for a specific application is chosen via optimization. The objective function is composed of analytic formulae for a concept’s agency cost and user level of service. These formulae include as parameters key demand-side attributes of the city, assumed to be rectangular, and supply-side attributes of the transit technology. They also include as decision variables the system’s line and stop spacings, the degree to which it focuses passenger trips on the city center, and the service headway. These decision variables are sufficient to define an idealized geometric layout of the system and an operating plan. This layout-operating plan is then used as a design target when developing the real, detailed master plan. Ultimately, the latter is simulated to obtain more accurate cost and level of service estimates.This process has been applied to design a high performance bus (HPB) network for Barcelona (Spain). The idealized solution for Barcelona includes 182 km of one-way infrastructure, uses 250 vehicles and costs 42,489 €/h to build and run. These figures only amount to about one third of the agency resources and cost currently used to provide bus service. A detailed design that resembles this target and conforms to the peculiarities of the city is also presented and simulated. The agency cost and user level of service metrics of the simulated system differ from those of the idealized model by less than 10%. Although the designed and simulated HPB systems provide sub-optimal spatial coverage because Barcelona lacks suitable streets, the level of service is good. Simulations suggest that if the proposed system was implemented side-by-side with the current one, it would capture most of the demand.     

轨道交通风险评估WBS工程结构分解准则研究

当前国内轨道交通工程风险评估工作中常用的WBS-RBS风险辨识方法存在不少问题,文章结合工程实践进行了相关研究,明确了工程结构分解法(WBS)的具体分解方法及准则,制定了各分解模块的命名规则.该准则从工程整体上把握风险,遵从风险事件发生特征,避免了传统分类方法存在的重复、不全面等不足;从具体操作流程和分析实例来看,达到了当前风险辨识的目的和风险管控的要求.