Discussions on rail in urban areas and rail history

This paper includes discussions on rail in urban areas and railway history. More specifically commonly used terms and definitions for rail services, policy and practice in urban areas are discussed followed by an overview of railway developments around the world.     

杭温铁路楠溪江主跨240m混凝土斜拉桥设计

新建杭州—温州铁路(义乌—温州段)工程楠溪江特大桥主桥采用(40.5+79.5+240+79.5+40.5) m双塔双索面混凝土斜拉桥,半漂浮体系,主梁为预应力混凝土单箱单室截面,H形桥塔,平行双索面,索塔锚固采用钢锚箱。对主桥地理位置、技术标准及结构设计进行详细阐述,使用有限元分析软件对主桥进行结构检算,建立实体模型分析桥面板受力特点,并研究混凝土斜拉桥工后徐变变形控制措施。研究结果表明:该桥结构受力合理,各项指标均满足规范要求;桥面板以横向受力为主;通过调整斜拉索索力和主梁底板预应力钢束,可以控制主梁后期收缩徐变,且调整斜拉索索力方式控制效果更加明显。     

A bi-criteria indicator to assess supply chain network performance for critical needs under capacity and demand disruptions

In this paper, we develop a supply chain/logistics network model for critical needs in the case of disruptions. The objective is to minimize the total network costs, which are generalized costs that may include the monetary, risk, time, and social costs. The model assumes that disruptions may have an impact on both the network link capacities as well as on the product demands. Two different cases of disruption scenarios are considered. In the first case, we assume that the impacts of the disruptions are mild and that the demands can be met. In the second case, the demands cannot all be satisfied. For these two cases, we propose two individual performance indicators. We then construct a bi-criteria indicator to assess the supply chain network performance for critical needs. An algorithm is described which is applied to solve a spectrum of numerical examples in order to illustrate the new concepts.     

Car ownership and access to jobs in Spain

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of urban structure on household car ownership in a context of rapid job and population decentralization. We capture the effect of urban structure through a measure of job accessibility to employment by public transport. An ordered probit explaining the number of cars per household is estimated as a function of individual, household and spatial variables. The data used in the analysis come from the Spanish Institute of Statistics’ 2001 Micro-census for the areas of Barcelona and Madrid. The results show that spatial variables play a significant role in explaining the probability of car ownership. We provide the car ownership elasticities with respect the job accessibility measure. Additionally, we carried out simulation exercises in which the expected number of vehicles decreases as accessibility improves.     

Exploring vessel-price dynamics: the case of the dry bulk market

We investigate second-hand vessel price heterogeneity. Based on a sample of 5,591 purchase and sale transactions in the dry bulk sector over the period 1998–2016, we deploy a nonparametric regression technique to assess the determinants of vessel price and vessel price variability. Next, we use quantile regression to estimate the effect of regressors (sources of heterogeneity) at different parts of the vessel price distribution. We find evidence that main sources of vessel price heterogeneity are the age of the ship (the older the vessel the higher its maintenance cost), the 3-month LIBOR (reflecting the cost of financing) and the annual charter rate (revenues from operation). Their influence is stronger at all higher quantiles (periods of expansion) and the median of the vessel price distribution.     

Self- and peer-assessments of ambulance drivers' driving performance

The aim of the present study was to develop and examine the quality of the Ambulance Driver Self-assessment Questionnaire (ADSQ) and the Ambulance Driver Peer-assessment Questionnaire (ADPQ) measuring aspects of, driving performance, driving style and driving competence. In addition the ADSQ measures self-reflection and safety-attitudes. The aim of the study was also to examine ambulance drivers' self- and peer-assessments as well as to examine the accuracy of self-assessments by comparing self-assessed and peer-assessed driving performance, driving style and competence. 76 ambulance drivers employed at two ambulance stations in northern Sweden completed ADSQ and ADPQ. Item analyses were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the items, and based on the results some revisions were made to improve the questionnaires. The revised questionnaires were functioning rather well, although some subscale demonstrated low internal consistency. Subscale inter-correlations provided support for construct validity. Self- and peer-assessments indicated safe driving performance and good driver competence, which is positive from a traffic safety perspective. A comparison of mean self- and peer-assessment ratings, controlling for age, gender and driving experience showed no significant differences, except for the subscale overtaking. This indicates that ambulance drivers' self-assessments are realistic in most areas.     

新建高速公路智慧化建设探析

文章依托杭州绕城高速公路西复线智慧公路建设, 阐述了为什么要建设智慧公路、 建设什么样的智慧公路以及如何建设智慧公路, 从工程建设阶段对基础设施数字化、 基于大数据的路网综合管理、 新一代国家交通控制网三个智慧公路等试点方向实现路径和技术手段进行研究, 拟解决高速公路智慧化程度不高、 公路管理信息滞后、 与司乘人员公路出行信息不对称无互动等问题, 对新建高速公路智慧化建设具有参考意义。