Socioeconomic and usage characteristics of transportation network company (TNC) riders

Transportation - The widespread adoption of smartphones followed by an emergence of transportation network companies (TNC) have influenced the way individuals travel. The authors use the 2017...     

Widening the Panama Canal and U.S. ports: historical and economic impact analyses

ABSTRACT

The economic history of the U.S. illustrates how the role of many cities has been changed by being seaports or located on navigable rivers or lakes. Based on the widening of the Panama Canal in 2016, the West Coast ports that include the west coast seaports of California, Oregon, and Washington were expected to become less important, while the freight shares of the East Coast and Gulf ports would increase. By how much it has been not easy to measure or predict so far, but this study attempted to define some of the key parameters in the measurement. As well as several relevant background topics, both the demand- and supply-side versions of the National Interstate Economic Model, have been applied for the measurement of economic impacts. U.S. port authorities and policy makers at the local and national levels who respond and develop plans for coping with the new realities of the Panama Canal are able to understand the extent to which changes in shippers’ and land-mode transporters’ behaviors would undermine the logistics and the costs of their activities. Therefore, this study is important for a diverse spectrum of port development strategies in the U.S. to respond to the Canal expansion.     

冲绳城市单轨运输系统

简要介绍了冲绳城市单轨运输系统的设施和车辆概况.     

Fluxes of dissolved inorganic carbon in three estuarine systems of the Cantabrian Sea (north of Spain)

The diffusive and in situ fluxes of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA) have been measured and an estimation has been made of the water–atmosphere fluxes of CO₂ in three estuarine systems of the Cantabrian Sea during the spring of 1998. Each of these systems undergoes a different anthropogenic influence. The diffusive fluxes of dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity obtained present values ranging between 0.54–2.65 and 0.0–2.4 mmol m⁻² day⁻¹, respectively. These ranges are in agreement with those of other coastal systems. The in situ fluxes are high and extremely variable (35–284 mmol TA m⁻² day⁻¹, 43–554 mmol DIC m⁻² day⁻¹ and 22–261 mmol dissolved oxygen (DO) m⁻² day⁻¹), because the systems studied are very heterogeneous. The values of the ratio of the in situ fluxes of TA and DIC show on average that the rate of dissolution of CaCO₃ is 0.37 times that of organic carbon oxidation. Equally, the interval of variation of the relationship between the benthic fluxes of inorganic carbon and oxygen (F_DIC/F_DO) is very wide (0.3–13.9), which demonstrates the different contributions made by the processes of aerobic and anaerobic degradation of the organic matter, as well as by the dissolution–precipitation of CaCO₃. The water–atmosphere fluxes of CO₂ present a clear dependence on the salinity. The brackish water of these systems (salinity<20), where maximum fluxes of 989 mmol m⁻² day⁻¹ have been estimated, act as a source of CO₂ to the atmosphere. The more saline zones of the estuary (salinity>30) act as a sink of CO₂, with fluxes between −5 and −10 mmol m⁻² day⁻¹.     

Shape Optimization of Elliptical Road Containers Due to Liquid Load in Steady-State Turning

A numerical analysis of liquid load in elliptical road containers undergoing a steady-state turning manoeuvre is presented for containers of unrestricted size and for containers of fixed capacity. The liquid load is expressed in terms of the horizontal and vertical forces and the overturning moment created by these forces around the middle bottom point of the container. The moment is obtained by integrating the liquid free-surface equation and using numerical calculation of the resulting expressions. An optimization study with an objective to minimize the peak overturning moment is performed on containers of fixed capacity to identify the optimal height/width ratio of the container. The results of this investigation being of a general nature, i.e. with no restriction for an application, are particularly intended for road tankers under a steady turning manoeuvre, where they can be applied with high degree of accuracy.     

Young drivers and graduated licensing: The Ontario case

Despite improvements in road safety over the past several decades, accident rates remain high for young drivers. One accident countermeasure that is expected to improve the safety record of this group is graduated licensing. The philosophy behind this licensing system is that novice drivers, of whom the majority are young, should be restricted to relatively safe driving environments during the initial learning period. Graduated licensing was implemented in the Province of Ontario, Canada in 1994. The objective of this study is to estimate the potential benefits and costs for young drivers associated with two components of the Ontario graduated licensing package: the late-night driving curfew and the high-speed roadway restrictions. Based on accident and travel data for the year 1988, accident-involvement rates per kilometre driven were calculated for different driver groups for various combinations of time of day and roadway speed limit. These rates were then applied to the expected mobility profiles of young drivers affected by graduated licensing. The results of the study support the late-night curfew and suggest that this component of the licensing package should reduce total accident involvements for the affected group by up to 10 percent and fatal accident involvements by up to 24 percent, while reducing their total driving by only four percent. By contrast, the empirical evidence suggest that the high-speed roadway restrictions are likely to increase accident involvements, and thus it is strongly recommended that this component of Ontario's graduated licensing package be changed.     

Transit assignment under crowded conditions

This paper presents a transit assignment algorithm for crowded networks. Both congestion in vehicles and queuing at stations are explicitly taken into account in predicting passenger flows for a fixed pattern of origin-destination trip demands. The overflow effects due to insufficient capacity of transit lines are considered to be concentrated at transit stations, while the in-vehicle congestion effects (or discomforts) are considered to be dependent on in-vehicle passenger volume. Overflow delay at a transit station is dependent on the number of excess passengers required to wait for the next transit car. We use a logit model to determine the split between passengers that chose to wait for the next transit car and passengers that chose to board on the alternative transit lines. The proposed algorithm predicts how passenger will choose their optimal routes under both queuing and crowded conditions.     

A study of passenger discomfort measures at the Hong Kong mass transit railway system

This note investigates the important attributes relating to the crowding effects at the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) stations in Hong Kong. Data was collected at two sets of three MTR stations to study the responses of the passengers due to the discomfort at crowded vehicles and platforms. Stated preference surveys were used to study the effects of passenger discomfort measures.     

Basic Analytical Study of Pantograph-catenary System Dynamics

For a high speed electrical rail system, good dynamic performance of the pantograph-catenary system is vital for smooth and continuous current collection. It has been known for many years that to achieve this the head of the pantograph should be made as light as possible and the average stiffness of the catenary should be high. These conclusions, however, have been reached by numerical modelling and operational experience. In this paper the pantograph-catenary system is modelled as a time-varying, single degree-of-freedom system to facilitate an analytical investigation of the system dynamics. Although the model is very simple, it allows physical insight into the dynamic behaviour of the system, and because the excitation is parametric it also allows the stability of the system to be investigated. The finite element method is used to determine the catenary characteristics and Floquet theory is used to analyse the behaviour of the coupled system.     

The role of professional associations in shipping

This article is in three parts. The first covers the historical development of qualifying associations. The second covers the particular role of maritime institutions that include The Royal Institution of Naval Architects, The Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology and The Nautical Institute. The third and final section considers the future for maritime professional associations in the context of international shipping.