Time taken for residents to adopt a new public transport service: examining heterogeneity through duration modelling

When a new public transport service is introduced it would be valuable for public authorities, financing organisations and transport operators to know how long it will take for people to start to use the service and what factors influence this. This paper presents results from research analysing the time taken for residents living close to a new guided bus service to start to use (or adopt) the service. Data was obtained from a sample of residents on whether they used the new service and the number of weeks after the service was introduced before they first used it. Duration modelling has been used to analyse how the likelihood of starting to use the new service changes over time (after the introduction of the service) and to examine what factors influence this. It is found that residents who have not used the new service are increasingly unlikely to use it as time passes. Those residents gaining greater accessibility benefits from the new service are found to be quicker to use the service, although the size of this effect is modest compared to that of other between-resident differences. Allowance for the possibility that there existed a proportion of the sample that would never use the new service was tested using a split population model (SPD) model. The SPD model indicates that 36% of residents will never use the new service and is informative in differentiating factors that influence whether Route 20 is used and when it is used.

The determinants of long distance travel in Great Britain

This study analyses of the determinants of long distance travel in Great Britain using data from the 1995-2006 National Travel Surveys (NTSs). The main objective is to determine the effects of socio-economic, demographic and geographic factors on long distance travel. The estimated models express the distance travelled for long distance journeys as a function of income, gender, age, employment status, household characteristics, area of residence, size of municipality, type of residence and length of time living in the area. A time trend is also included to capture common changes in long distance travel over time not included in the explanatory variables. Separate models are estimated for total travel, travel by each of four modes (car, rail, coach and air), travel by five purposes (business, commuting, leisure, holiday and visiting friends and relatives (VFRs)) and two journey lengths (<150 miles and 150+ miles one way), as well as the 35 mode-purpose-distance combinations.The results show that long distance travel is strongly related to income: air is most income-elastic, followed by rail, car and finally coach. This is the case for most journey purposes and distance bands. Notable is the substantial difference in income elasticities for rail for business/commuting as opposed to holiday/leisure/VFR. In addition, the income elasticity for coach travel is very low, and zero for the majority of purpose-distance bands, suggesting coach travel to be an inferior mode in comparison to car, rail and air. Regarding journey distance, we find that longer distance journeys are more income elastic than shorter journeys.For total long distance travel, the study indicates that women travel less than men, the elderly less than younger people, the employed and students more than others, those in one adult households more than those in larger households and those in households with children less than those without. Long distance travel is also lowest for individuals living in London and greatest for those in the South West, and increases as the size of the municipality declines.     

Value of travel time reliability: A review of current evidence

Travel time reliability is a fundamental factor in travel behavior. It represents the temporal uncertainty experienced by travelers in their movement between any two nodes in a network. The importance of the time reliability depends on the penalties incurred by the travelers. In road networks, travelers consider the existence of a trip travel time uncertainty in different choice situations (departure time, route, mode, and others). In this paper, a systematic review of the current state of research in travel time reliability, and more explicitly in the value of travel time reliability is presented. Moreover, a meta-analysis is performed in order to determine the reasons behind the discrepancy among the reliability estimates.     

Prediction of travel time variability for cost-benefit analysis

Unreliable travel times cause substantial costs to travelers. Nevertheless, they are often not taken into account in cost-benefit analyses (CBA), or only in very rough ways. This paper aims at providing simple rules to predict variability, based on travel time data from Dutch highways. Two different concepts of travel time variability are used, which differ in their assumptions on information availability to drivers. The first measure is based on the assumption that, for a given road link and given time of day, the expected travel time is constant across all working days (rough information: RI). In the second case, expected travel times are assumed to reflect day-specific factors such as weather conditions or weekdays (fine information: FI). For both definitions of variability, we find that the mean travel time is a good predictor. On average, longer delays are associated with higher variability. However, the derivative of variability with respect to delays is decreasing in delays. It can be shown that this result relates to differences in the relative shares of observed traffic ‘regimes’ (free-flow, congested, hyper-congested) in the mean delay. For most CBAs, no information on the relative shares of the traffic regimes is available. A non-linear model based on mean travel times can then be used as an approximation.     

The accuracy of proxy responses in a stated choice setting: A re-examination and some controversial conclusions

Data is typically gathered from an individual respondent who represents the group or the household. This individual is often identified as the “primary decision maker” and is asked to provide responses as a proxy for the group given that the cost of interviewing each member individually is impractical and/or expensive. The collection of joint preferences is rarely undertaken, with the use of proxy responses not uncommon in travel behaviour research. Under such a framework, there exists an assumption that the primary decision maker has perfect knowledge of other group member preferences, and bargaining behaviour, and is able to synthesise this information when providing a response on their behalf. The validity of such an assumption however remains an open question, with recent research calling the reliability of proxy responses into account (Bateman and Munro, 2009). In this paper, using three models estimated in willingness to pay space, we examine the accuracy of proxy responses in a stated choice experiment. We find that there is overlap between a proxy response and the own preferences of the individual providing the proxy choice, but while the proxy responses fail to represent the full preference heterogeneity that exists in the actual choices made by individuals, the proxy responses in aggregate provide a suitable replacement for actual data, subject to a number of caveats.     

隧道爆破信号主分量特征提取与毫秒延期识别研究

为了准确揭示隧道爆破振动信号所包含的反映爆破特征参数的重要信息,通过EMD分解与交叉小波变换组合分析方法对实测爆破信号进行分析,得到各分量与原信号的相关性系数,从而准确判别出信号的主分量。再依据相关性系数对包含主分量在内的相关分量重组并进行Hilbert变换取模值,精确识别出隧道采用的各段别雷管的毫秒延期时间。结果表明： 组合方法确定的主分量及相关分量重组信号能够突出爆破信号的主要特征,对隧道爆破信号的分析效果好。     

Aggregating mobile object trajectories: cumulative time geographic density estimation for GPS data

We present new approaches that expand upon the time geographic density estimation (TGDE) framework previously employed to estimate potential path trees. In the past, TGDE metrics have identified possible locations an individual moving object may have passed between, given known origin and destination points. This paper utilizes a new form of TGDE to investigate taxicab GPS traces over a specified time horizon with position ‘gaps’. To this end, we propose a new extension to the TGDE framework, TGDE-C, which is used to determine the cumulative TGDE values for a group of GPS traces, at a given location. These metrics are applied to multiple taxis and allow for time of day analysis. Additionally, we combine these new extensions with existing TGDE metrics that allow us to determine how accessible individual or groups of vehicles are to urban opportunities.     

船舶液压起重机延迟反馈吊重消摆控制

由于操纵和工作环境的变化,起重机的吊重在工作过程中会产生摆动,这种摆动降低了起重机的工作效率和安全性能。文章以集美大学轮机工程实验中心船舶液压起重机为研究对象,采用机电液仿真建模技术及拉格朗日方程,在MATLAB Simulink仿真软件平台上,建立起重机操作液压系统及吊重摆动模型,采用与试验数据对比的方法对所建立的模型进行验证。设计基于吊重摆动位置延迟反馈的控制器,通过将延迟反馈信号叠加到操作信号上的方法实现吊重的消摆控制。结果表明,在各种操作情况下,延迟反馈控制器均能很好地抑制吊重的摆动。     

动态载荷识别的自适应延迟逆模型方法

为减小载荷识别问题对原系统先验知识的依赖,采用系统的自适应延迟逆模型识别时域载荷。采用自适应算法辨识延迟逆模型,代替了一般识别方法中的系统特性矩阵求逆过程,避免了病态问题。随后将工作状态下的响应作为逆模型的输入,则其输出就是时域载荷的延迟估计。通过对两端简支梁结构进行载荷识别的仿真研究,以及对双层隔振试验台架的试验研究,识别了稳态激励和瞬态激励,验证了该方法的有效性。该方法不需要了解系统的数学模型及参数,因此能够应用于工程实践中。     

网络环境下无人水面艇航向控制器设计

无人水面艇自主航行中受到外部环境干扰及在控制中心-执行器网络通道中存在网络诱导特性(如网络诱导时延、数据丢包等)的影响,会降低系统性能,影响航向控制系统的稳定性.为了能使无人艇按照设定航向快速、稳定地航行,提出一种基于网络的无人艇航向控制策略.首先,建立基于网络的无人艇航向控制系统模型.基于这个模型,运用Lyapunov稳定性理论和凸分析方法导出能使网络环境下无人水面艇航向控制系统渐进稳定的控制律,并设计基于网络的航向控制器.通过仿真验证所提出方法和设计控制器的有效性.