Transit network design with allocation of green vehicles: A genetic algorithm approach

The use of fossil fuels in transportation generates harmful emissions that accounts for nearly half of the total pollutants in urban areas. Dealing with this issue, local authorities are dedicating specific efforts to seize the opportunity offered by new fuels and technological innovations in achieving a cleaner urban mobility. In fact, authorities are improving environmental performances of their public transport fleet by procuring cleaner vehicles, usually called low and zero emission vehicles (LEV and ZEV, respectively). Nevertheless there seems to be a lack of methodologies for supporting stakeholders in decisions related to the introduction of green vehicles, whose allocation should be performed since the network design process in order to optimize their available green capacity.In this paper, the problem of clean vehicle allocation in an existing public fleet is faced by introducing a method for solving the transit network design problem in a multimodal, demand elastic urban context dealing with the impacts deriving from transportation emissions.The solving procedure consists of a set of heuristics which includes a routine for route generation and a genetic algorithm for finding a sub-optimal set of routes with the associated frequencies.     

Sub‐optimal decision‐making and the transportation problem

A modification to the transportation problem is outlined that aims to improve the quality of predictions of trip matrices, and at the same time, allow some behavioural and economic insights. A framework is suggested within which this modification may be made and a suitable statistic and iterative process are described. A simple example demonstrates the validity of the modification and suggests some areas of difficulty with the approach.     

Breakthrough innovations in intermodal freight transport

Breakthrough innovations, whether technological, organizational or both, are a necessity if the market share of intermodal freight transport is to expand. The main growth potential lies in the markets for flows over short distances, for perishable and high-value commodities, for small consignments, and for flows that demand speed, reliability and flexibility. It will take radical innovations to produce a breakthrough in the modal split and allow these new markets to be conquered. This special issue is based on papers presented at an international conference on freight transport automation and multimodality, held in Delft in May 2002, that are illustrative of the direction of breakthrough research and development (R&D) aimed at increasing the market share for intermodal transport.     

An analysis of trends in passenger and freight transport energy consumption in India

This primary objective of this paper is to examine the causes for the change in energy consumption in the transport sector in India. The pattern of energy consumption and their causes for change are benchmarked against select countries. A mathematical model that decomposes changes in energy consumption to various factors has been used. The changes in the energy consumption are attributed to growth in transport volume, structural change or modal shift, and energy intensity. The analysis is conducted for passenger and freight transport separately. Results indicate that the growth in transport volume has been the main cause for increase in energy consumption for both passenger and freight transport in India despite the decline in energy intensity of various transport modes. Though not surprising for a growing economy like India, this poses a challenge for the future. Currently, India is a low carbon economy.     

A new composite decision support framework for strategic and sustainable transport appraisals

This paper concerns the development of a new decision support framework for the appraisal of transport infrastructure projects. In such appraisals there will often be a need for including both conventional transport impacts as well as criteria of a more strategic and/or sustainable character. The proposed framework is based on the use of cost-benefit analysis featuring feasibility risk assessment in combination with multi-criteria decision analysis and is supported by the concept of decision conferencing. The framework is applied for a transport related case study dealing with the complex decision problem of determining the most attractive alternative for a new fixed link between Denmark and Sweden – the so-called HH-connection. Applying the framework to the case study made it possible to address the decision problem from an economic, a strategic, and a sustainable point of view simultaneously. The outcome of the case study demonstrates the decision making framework as a valuable decision support system (DSS), and it is concluded that appraisals of transport projects can be effectively supported by the use of the DSS. Finally, perspectives of the future modelling work are given.     

Optimization of transport investment and pricing policies: the role of transport pricing in network design

This paper investigates the role of transport pricing in network design and describes two facts about flow pattern in a transportation system. The first, illustrated by an example of Braess paradox, is that adding a new link to the network does not necessarily minimize the total travel time. The second is that introducing of appropriate toll pricing may reduce not only the total network time but also the travel time for each individual traveller. It follows with the investigations of different system objectives and different pricing policies (only toll pricing and distance‐based pricing are considered), and shows how they affect the system performance and flow pattern. Lastly, a systematic optimization process is proposed for integrated planning of transport network and pricing policies.     

Accessibility and transport infrastructure improvement assessment: The role of borders and multilateral resistance

The market potential indicator is a commonly used tool in transport planning for evaluating the potential economic effects derived from improvements in transport infrastructures. The general assumption is that exports from a given region will rise with increased accessibility, thus benefiting economic activities. However, the specification of the market potential model is typically very simple and ignores both the impact of competing rivals and the role of international borders, which leads to unrealistic results. Spatial interaction models on bilateral trade have already proved that international trade is affected by multilateral resistance, borders, adjacency, language or currency. Nevertheless, apart from some recent analyses that simply calibrate the distance decay parameter from trade datasets, these variables have hardly been integrated into research on market potential. This paper sets out to demonstrate that more realistic results are obtained by calibrating the distance-decay parameter and introducing the impact of competing rivals and border effects into the market potential formulation. The proposed model is then applied to the assessment of the accessibility impacts of new road transport infrastructure in the European Union between 2001 and 2012, which shows that the greatest improvements in accessibility were experienced by peripheral countries with high road infrastructure investment.     

基于HLA的智能交通信息试验平台研究

从智能交通信息平台的概念出发,研究利用已有的智能交通系统资源建立智能交通信息试验平台。首先对比分析了已有的平台体系结构开发方法,即面向过程的开发方法和面向对象的开发方法,两者都已不能适应复杂大系统的开发需求。通过引入计算机建模与仿真领域的HLA（高层体系结构）技术,创造性地提出了基于HLA的体系结构开发方法,结合信息试验平台需求分析,设计了智能交通信息试验平台的逻辑结构。平台分4层来组织,分别是基础数据层、数据库层、应用服务层和用户主体层,在若干接口程序的衔接下,各类联邦成员协同作用以实现信息平台的功能。结合现有的技术设备条件,实现了信息平台的物理连接。平台搭建后运营正常,已接入信息平台的ITS系统包括车载导航系统和城市商用车辆调度系统,并为其他子系统的接入预留了接口。     

智能车辆安全辅助驾驶技术研究近况

论述了安全辅助驾驶技术的研究现状、研究的必要性以及研究进展。安全辅助驾驶技术包括车道偏离预警与保持、前方车辆探测及安全车距保持、行人检测、驾驶员行为监测、车辆运动控制与通讯等。分析了各种传感器的优缺点及其在实际应用过程中存在的问题,基于单一传感器不能很好地解决安全辅助驾驶技术可靠性和环境适应能力的要求,应结合激光雷达技术解决图像模糊问题,利用红外传感器增强机器视觉识别的可靠性,未来的安全辅助驾驶技术应该采取多种传感器融合的技术,结合毫米波雷达和激光雷达系统具有深度测量精确的特点,将极大的推动汽车安全辅助驾驶系统的应用和推广。     

多尺度图像边缘检测技术在车辆识别中的应用

指出了图像边缘检测的定义及现有算法的不足,并对Canny边缘检测离散准则及该准则下的最优线性滤波器进行了论述。根据边缘检测离散准则,利用数值方法求出该准则下边缘检测的最优线性滤波器及对应的平滑算子,将其与Canny边缘检测技术相结合进行边缘检测,检测出不同尺度下多幅边缘图像,并根据小尺度下图像边缘细节信息丰富、边缘定位精度高,大尺度下图像边缘稳定、抗噪性好等特点,将检测到的多尺度边缘进行融合,得到抗噪性好的精确的单像素宽边缘;同时将该方法应用于汽车特征提取,检测到完整连续的汽车边缘图像,为车型识别提供条件。试验结果表明:该方法不仅能准确检测出图像边缘,而且能有效地抑制噪声,是边缘检测的实用方法。