Workplace travel plans: can they be evaluated effectively by experts?

Employers are regularly involved in transport planning and characteristic workplace-oriented tools include: (1) travel plans for building projects, (2) mandatory travel plans, (3) subsidies to employers with an advanced travel plan and (4) best travel plan awards. In all cases, experts judge the level of car use. We argue that decision-makers might benefit from a multiple regression-based benchmark modelling tool that estimates the expected share of the car. In this paper, we estimate the share of car users in the commuting modal split at workplaces. However, since the amount of information available to experts differs, we gradually add information to the model to measure the impact of data availability. Without historic data on modal split, the current share can only be predicted moderately well, i.e. within a 20% range. Besides adding the past, results improve by using homogenous and regional subsamples. Nevertheless, quantitative analyses do not make expert knowledge obsolete.     

What Curriculum for Mobility and Transport Studies? A Critical Exploration

To understand the complex meanings of mobility and to engage in transport planning and management processes, a variety of disciplines, skills, and tools are potentially useful. Universities have a limited amount of time and resources to train future professionals though. This poses a problem: where should the teaching priorities be? By means of a web-survey, this study has asked academics based at a number of universities what the disciplines, skills, and tools that — according to their personal viewpoints — are the most relevant for practitioners in the mobility and transport sector. The respondents generally support curricula that facilitate a holistic, non-specialised, understanding of mobility and transport issues.     

Evaluating Flexible Transport Solutions

Abstract

Flexible transport services (FTS) have been of increasing interest in developing countries as a bridge between the use of personal car travel and fixed route transit services. This paper reports on findings from a recent study in Queensland Australia, which identified lessons from an international review and implications for Australia. Potential strategic directions, including a vision, mission, key result areas, strategies, and identified means of measuring performance are described. Evaluation criteria for assessing flexible transport proposals were developed, and approaches to identifying and assessing needs and demands outlined. The use of emerging technologies is also a key element of successful flexible transport services.     

八轮驱动行走机构越障越壕能力分析

提出一种能自行跨越宽沟槽的八轮行走机构,为确定其越障及越壕能力,在简化力学模型的基础上进行理论推导,分析行走机构尺寸参数与最大越障高度及越壕宽度的关系,并重点分析车轮与接触地面间的附着系数与行走机构越障和越壕能力的关系,从而推导出该新型行走机构可以越过的最大垂直障碍高度,以及可以跨越的最大壕沟宽度.     

保障基本机动性的中央财政公交投入机理

中央财政公交投入不到位是中国城市公交优先发展面临的重要问题,加强中央财政资金投入、完善公交财政保障体系才能确保未来城市公交发展的可持续动力。提出保障公民基本机动性平等是中央政府支持城市公交发展的重要价值基准,从法理上为中央财政承担城市公交支出责任提供依据。从基本公共服务供给最低水平均等化的角度出发,提出中央财政公交投入资金额度的测算方法,为中央财政公交投入的科学决策提供了参考依据。以2010年为目标年进行案例分析,测算得到全国保障基本机动性的中央财政公交投入总额为150.1亿元。     

越野汽车的机动性研究

研究了越野汽车机动性及其影响因素,并且基于越野汽车机动性模型对车辆进行评定。根据研究结论,对某两款越野汽车进行分析,得出其为真正意义上的高机动性越野汽车。     

Exploring public bicycle network structure based on complex network theory and shortest path analysis: the public bicycle system in Yixing,China

A well-functioning public bicycle system relates not only to its mode of operation, vehicle allocation, rental station layout and vehicle leasing configuration, but also the bicycle network structure and its formation. However, the latter aspects have been widely overlooked in China. Here, we help to further attract more researchers to conduct relevant studies and make suggestions for the development of public bicycle transport in many small and medium-sized cities across the world. We demonstrate how to explore the public bicycle network structure of a county-level Chinese city – Yixing – known for its clay ware and tourism. We show that complex network theory and shortest path analysis technology are useful in characterizing the public bicycle network structure, in aspects such as network topology, the spatial distribution of sub-networks and traffic flows. Finally, the paper proposes relevant urban planning strategies.     

The influence of e-carsharing schemes on electric vehicle adoption and carbon emissions: An emerging economy study

Moving toward sustainable mobility, the sharing economy business model emerges as a prominent practice that can contribute to the transition to sustainability. Using a system dynamics modeling approach, this paper investigates the impacts of an e-carsharing scheme in carbon emissions and in electric vehicle adoption. We study the VAMO scheme located in Fortaleza, Brazil, as the first e-carsharing scheme in the country. We study two policies combined: a VAMO planned growth policy and a retirement policy for conventional vehicles. Our results show that the VAMO incentive policy is an important factor to reduce emissions and to increase awareness of electric vehicles, highlighting the role of the government as an institutional entrepreneur, stimulating and sustaining the VAMO scheme. The retirement policy in combination with the VAMO incentive policy obtained the best results in our simulations, reducing 29% of CO₂ emissions and increasing 36% electric vehicle adoption, when compared to the business-as-usual scenario. The main conclusions are that such e-carsharing schemes offer direct and indirect benefits to urban mobility (specially to electric vehicle adoption) and that they depend on how the government supports them.     

An innovative model to estimate the accessibility of a destination by public transport

Accessibility is a valuable indicator for assessing the effectiveness of a transport network. Nevertheless, its analysis can lead to very heterogeneous results depending on the method adopted, thus still struggling to be considered by policy makers and in planning processes. This article contributes to the development of an accessibility analysis as a planning tool, by proposing an alternative model to estimate the relative accessibility of a destination by public transport (PT). Indeed, PT is a mobility paradigm that has been supported to reduce the negative externalities produced by private transport, especially in environmentally fragile contexts. The model includes a set of eleven factors affecting public transport operation which refer to four macro topics: connectivity, multimodality, tariff/ticketing, and info-mobility. They are integrated into a Public Transport Accessibility index which analyses a series of nodes along a route and detects the progressive variation of accessibility. Eventual shifts are highlighted, including information about the factors feeding them. The model is tested for the Lana-Zurich (IT-CH) connection, showing how the most relevant issues are caused by difficulties in the transnational and transregional integration of the services. Through this process, the model aims at backing policy makers in the detection and understanding of public transport barriers and related causes.     

基于上海轨道交通刷卡数据的乘客出行模式研究

乘客出行模式研究是深入认识城市交通的基础性工作,也是交通规划的重要技术支撑。基于上海轨道交通刷卡数据分析网络客流特征,以轨道交通出行全过程出行链视角对进出站客流量、站间客流量、乘距等出行要素的空间模式开展研究,发现上海轨道交通进站和出站客流量分布均呈现对数正态分布特征,乘客乘距服从负二项分布特征。研究同时发现,相比于幂律分布,上海站间客流量分布更加适合采用对数正态分布拟合。此外,工作日客流和周末客流在空间分布总体形态上较为接近,工作日客流分布更为集聚,周末客流分布则更为离散。