Integrated airline planning: Robust update of scheduling and fleet balancing under demand uncertainty

The airline schedule planning problem is defined as the sequence of decisions that need to be made to obtain a fully operational flight schedule. Historically, the airline scheduling problem has been sequentially solved. However, there have already been many attempts in order to obtain airline schedules in an integrated way. But due to tractability issues it is nowadays impossible to determine a fully operative and optimal schedule with an integrated model which accounts for all the key airline related aspects such as competitive effects, stochastic demand figures and uncertain operating conditions. Airlines usually develop base schedules, which are obtained much time in advance to the day of operations and not accounting for all the related uncertainty. This paper proposes a mathematical model in order to update base schedules in terms of timetable and fleet assignments while considering stochastic demand figures and uncertain operating conditions, and where robust itineraries are introduced in order to ameliorate miss-connected passengers. The proposed model leads to a large-scale problem which is difficult to be solved. Therefore, a novel improved and accelerated Benders decomposition approach is proposed. The analytical work is supported with case studies involving the Spanish legacy airline, IBERIA. The presented approach shows that the number of miss-connected passengers may be reduced when robust planning is applied.     

Modeling real-time human mobility based on mobile phone and transportation data fusion

Even though a variety of human mobility models have been recently developed, models that can capture real-time human mobility of urban populations in a sustainable and economical manner are still lacking. Here, we propose a novel human mobility model that combines the advantages of mobile phone signaling data (i.e., comprehensive penetration in a population) and urban transportation data (i.e., continuous collection and high accuracy). Using the proposed human mobility model, travel demands during each 1-h time window were estimated for the city of Shenzhen, China. Significantly, the estimated travel demands not only preserved the distribution of travel demands, but also captured real-time bursts of mobility fluxes during large crowding events. Finally, based on the proposed human mobility model, a predictive model is deployed to predict crowd gatherings that usually cause severe traffic jams.     

铁路路基动态变形模量的数值模拟分析

介绍铁路路基动态变形模量理论计算公式的推导及动态变形模量的测试原理,采用有限元软件模拟动态变形模量的测试过程,分析承载板与土体接触压力、路基动态变形模量的影响因素,并计算动态变形模量的有效测试深度.结果表明:在承载板中心一定范围内,接触压力模拟结果较理论计算值大;土体的动弹性模量对接触压力影响很小,可以忽略;路基动态变形模量测试冲击荷载作用下,土体只发生弹性变形;动态变形模量与土体动弹性模量呈线性关系,路基动态变形模量的模拟结果大于理论计算值;土体的泊松比对动态变形模量影响较小;动态变形模量有效测试深度建议取0.5~0.6 m.     

上海松江区现代有轨电车规划研究

现代有轨电车因其环保、舒适、高效、低造价、高品质等特点,在国际上得到广泛应用,我国多个城市也在规划和建设之中。但是,由于其在国内尚为一种全新的交通方式,没有标准或规范予以指导,规划及设计体系不完善,有些已建项目已呈现问题。文章结合上海松江区规划背景及交通特征,阐述有轨电车示范线T1、T2线的布局规划、建设的必要性及适应性,为即将开展有轨电车规划及建设的城市提供借鉴与参考。     

基于需求弹性的城市公交票价优化方法及实证分析

城市公交票价是公交系统健康发展的重要因素，票价制定需兼顾公交企业的市场性和公益性双重属性，在保证服务质量的同时，考虑运营成本和最大限度吸引公交需求，实现经济效益和社会效益的双赢.在本文中，根据用户均衡理论，构建了城市多方式交通出行的需求分析模型，采用灵敏度分析方法给出了城市公交价格-需求弹性的计算方法.在此基础上，充分考虑了各种方式的交通特征、公交需求弹性、公交运营成本及政府限价等因素，提出了城市公交票价优化的数学规划模型，并给出了求解算法.最后，以国内某城市居民出行调查及公交运营数据为基础，分析了不同条件下公交客运需求的变化规律及城市公交票价的优化策略.     

基于客流需求的城市轨道交通动态时刻表优化模型

为使城市轨道交通列车运行时刻表更贴合客流需求,依据不断变化的客流需求确定每列车的发车时刻和停站时间,采用多目标优化方法构建以乘客出行时间费用和列车运行时间费用最小为目标、列车发车时刻和停站时间为决策变量的城市轨道交通动态时刻表优化模型,并采用粒子群算法求解。以广州地铁13号线为例进行验证,结果表明优化后的时刻表更满足客流需求,能有效地提高乘客出行效率,具有更好的动态适应性。     

Capturing correlation with a mixed recursive logit model for activity-travel scheduling

Representing activity-travel scheduling decisions as path choices in a time–space network is an emerging approach in the literature. In this paper, we model choices of activity, location, timing and transport mode using such an approach and seek to estimate utility parameters of recursive logit models. Relaxing the independence from irrelevant alternatives (IIA) property of the logit model in this setting raises a number of challenges. First, overlap in the network may not fully characterize perceptual correlation between paths, due to their interpretation as activity schedules. Second, the large number of states that are needed to represent all possible locations, times and activity combinations imposes major computational challenges to estimate the model. We combine recent methodological developments to build on previous work by Blom Västberg et al. (2016) and allow to model complex and realistic correlation patterns in this type of network. We use sampled choices sets in order to estimate a mixed recursive logit model in reasonable time for large-scale, dense time-space networks. Importantly, the model retains the advantage of fast predictions without sampling choice sets. In addition to estimation results, we present an extensive empirical analysis which highlights the different substitution patterns when the IIA property is relaxed, and a cross-validation study which confirms improved out-of-sample fit.     

Modeling the impacts of mandatory and discretionary lane-changing maneuvers

In this paper, a novel mesoscopic multilane model is proposed to enable simultaneous simulation of mandatory and discretionary lane-changing behaviors to realistically capture multilane traffic dynamics. The model considers lane specific fundamental diagrams to simulate dynamic heterogeneous lane flow distributions on expressways. Moreover, different priority levels are identified according to different lane-changing motivations and the corresponding levels of urgency. Then, an algorithm is proposed to estimate the dynamic mandatory and discretionary lane-changing demands. Finally, the lane flow propagation is defined by the reaction law of the demand–supply functions, which can be regarded as an extension of the Incremental-Transfer and/or Priority Incremental-Transfer principles. The proposed mesoscopic multilane cell transmission model is calibrated and validated on a complex weaving section of the State Route 241 freeway in Orange County, California, showing both the positive and negative impact of lane changing maneuvers, e.g., balancing effect and capacity drop, respectively. Moreover, the empirical study verifies that the model requires no additional data other than the cell transmission model does. Thus, the proposed model can be deployed as a simple simulation tool for accessing dynamic mesoscopic multilane traffic state from data available to most management centers, and also the potential application in predicting the impact of traffic incident or lane control strategy.     

Empirical estimation of price and income elasticities of air cargo demand: The case of Hong Kong

This paper estimates the price and income elasticities of air cargo demand and examines how they may change after the 2008 financial crisis. Using a set of time series data, we simultaneously estimate the aggregated demand and supply functions of air cargo at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). We find that during the entire sampling period of 2001–2013, the price elasticity for air cargo transport demand at HKIA ranges from −0.74 to −0.29, suggesting that air cargo demand in Hong Kong reacts negatively to price (as expected) but does not appear to be very sensitive to price. The income elasticity ranges from 0.29 to 1.47 and appears sensitive to seasonality adjustment approaches. However, in terms of the speed of changes, air cargo demand changes much faster than overall economy, indicating the presence of a pro-cyclical pattern of air cargo traffic with respect to the overall economy. Our analysis shows that air cargo demand becomes more sensitive to changes in both price and income after 2008.     

Commuter ride-sharing using topology-based vehicle trajectory clustering: Methodology,application and impact evaluation

This paper illustrates a ride matching method for commuting trips based on clustering trajectories, and a modeling and simulation framework with ride-sharing behaviors to illustrate its potential impact. It proposes data mining solutions to reduce traffic demand and encourage more environment-friendly behaviors. The main contribution is a new data-driven ride-matching method, which tracks personal preferences of road choices and travel patterns to identify potential ride-sharing routes for carpool commuters. Compared with prevalent carpooling algorithms, which allow users to enter departure and destination information for on-demand trips, the proposed method focuses more on regular commuting trips. The potential effectiveness of the approach is evaluated using a traffic simulation-assignment framework with ride-sharing participation using the routes suggested by our algorithm. Two types of ride-sharing participation scenarios, with and without carpooling information, are considered. A case study with the Chicago tested is conducted to demonstrate the proposed framework’s ability to support better decision-making for carpool commuters. The results indicate that with ride-matching recommendations using shared vehicle trajectory data, carpool programs for commuters contribute to a less congested traffic state and environment-friendly travel patterns.