TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Widespread implementation of the DCP-DN design method for low volume roads has been promoted internationally over the past decade or so. The method has progressed from a simple determination of the in situ CBR investigation based on DCP-CBR correlations with respective cover requirements to a more sophisticated method using the DCP penetration data directly and omitting any need to use correlations with the CBR. This paper summarises the development of the method, and some of its advantages and compares the design structures with other recognised and widely implemented designs.

- by
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

This article brings a discussion about using the Cost Deployment methodology for technological innovation in the World Class Manufacturing (WCM) systems at Fiat Group Automobiles Production System (FAPS). It aims to show how this tool acts in the technical pillars of the WCM, and its proper use as an alternative to innovate in production processes, achieving a drastic reduction in wastes and cost optimization during specific activities in production systems. The Cost Deployment builds a distinctive transversal method of WCM which helps to promote and provide extremely effectiveness in the activation of more specific methods that have been tried successfully in the Japanese manufacturing improvements. It also allows to link the operational performances, usually measured with indicators such as efficiency, providing number of defects, hours of desaturation. The used methodology was based on a literature review about the proposed topic. It ends up finding that the Cost Deployment tool is one of the most sophisticated technological innovations existing for the production systems of the World Class Manufacturing.

- by Luan Carlos Santos Silva
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

In this paper we present new numerical simulation approaches for determining the energy processes under periodic conditions caused by time-discontinuous forces in the wheel-rail contacts. The main advantage of the presented method is the total elimination of frequency analysis, which in effect introduces important simplifications in the identification of the effects in the contact. The second important feature is the fact that the method is based on the analysis of appropriate loops on the energy phase plane leading to an easy estimation of the rail strength through the evaluation of the loop's area. That model based simulation in the applied dynamics relies on advanced methods for model setup, robust and efficient numerical solution techniques and powerful simulation tools for practical applications. Fundamental properties of contact displacements of the rail surface have been considered on the basis of the newly established method. The contact zone between railway wheels and the rail surfaces made of bulk materials is perceived as strong enough to resist the normal (vertical) forces introduced by heavy loads and the dynamic response induced by track and wheel irregularities. The analysis is carried out for a wheel running on an elastic rail rested on sleepers arranged on completely rigid foundation. The equations of displacement motion are established through the application of the Lagrange equations approach. The established model of the wheel-rail contact dynamics has been applied to that same roll plane but with taking into account a nonlinear characteristic of the sleeper with respect to the ground. Attention then is focused completely on the modeling of the energy absorbed by the rail. The applied method employs the energy state variables as time functions leading to determine the susceptibility of a given contact on the strength induced by the rail roll. 133 I X J X J X J X J P(t)·10 -2 [Ns] v(t) Loop of one period energy Figure 14. Loop of one-period energy.

- by Zdzislaw Trzaska
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

A significant portion of run-off-road crashes are single vehicle crashes that occur due to collisions with fixed objects and overturning. These crashes typically tend to be more severe than other types of crashes. Single vehicle run-offroad crashes that occurred between 2004 and 2008 were extracted from Kansas Accident Reporting System (KARS) database to identify the important factors that affected their severity. Different driver, vehicle, road, crash, and environment related factors that influence crash severity are identified by using binary logit models. Three models were developed to take different levels of crash severity as the response variables. The first model taking fatal or incapacitating crashes as the response variable seems to better fit the data than the other two developed models. The variables that were found to increase the probability of run-off-road crash severity are driver related factors such as driver ejection, being an older driver, alcohol involvement, license state, driver being at fault, medical condition of the driver; road related factors such as speed, asphalt road surface, dry road condition; time related factors such as crashes occurring between 6 pm and midnight; environment related factors such as daylight; vehicle related factors such as being an SUV, motorcycles, vehicle getting destroyed or disabled, vehicle maneuver being straight or passing; and fixed object types such as trees and ditches.

- by Sunanda Dissanayake
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Baltic Exchange Dirty Tanker Index (BDTI) is an important assessment index in world dirty tanker shipping industry. Actors in the industry sector can gain numerous benefits from accurate forecasting of the BDTI. However, limitations exist in traditional stochastic and econometric explanation modeling techniques used in freight rate forecasting. At the same time research in shipping index forecasting e.g. BDTI applying artificial intelligent techniques is scarce. This analyses the possibilities to forecast the BDTI by applying Wavelet Neural Networks (WNN). Firstly, the characteristics of traditional and artificial intelligent forecasting techniques are discussed and rationales for choosing WNN are explained. Secondly, the components and features of BDTI will be explicated. After that, the authors delve the determinants and influencing factors behind fluctuations of the BDTI in order to set inputs for WNN forecasting model. The paper examines non-linearity and non-stationary features of the BDTI and elaborates WNN model building procedures. Finally, the comparison of forecasting performance between WNN and ARIMA time series models show that WNN has better forecasting accuracy than traditionally used modeling techniques.

- by Rickard Bergqvist
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

The advance of transportation technology depends on science and economics. During the 1930s, airships and airplanes competed head-to-head for the Atlantic passenger market. When World War 2 broke out, everything changed. Over the next five years, the combined combatants built over half of a million military airplanes. By the end of the war, four-engine, high-altitude bombers and jet engines were developed. Further investment in airplane technology was stimulated by the Cold War. All this public investment was adapted to civilian passenger jet airplanes. By 1980, dedicated jet airplanes were in use as cargo carriers. Despite the growth of the cargojet market over the past three decades, rising fuel costs and environmental concerns are changing the economics of airships and airplanes again. Investment in large cargo airships is returning. Much of the technology developed for fixed-wing aircraft can be applied to cargo airships. New materials, better engines, control systems and engineering eliminate the need for large ground crews and improve airship reliability and safety. However, two fundamental design issues have yet to be resolved: structural integrity and buoyancy control. A worldwide competition is underway on three continents to develop the dominant design for a cargo airship. This paper examines the alternative design approaches and presents the status of the international competition.

- by Barry Prentice
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

This paper develops a model for analyzing the potential of longer and heavier vehicles (LHVs) related to pre-and post-haulage in the intermodal rail-road transport chain (IRT). The paper considers the combined economic and emission costs among three different transport networks including intermodal rail-road transport with current Swedish regulatory framework for trucks, intermodal rail-road transport with LHVs, and direct-road transport. The objective is to analyse the potential of high-capacity transport associated with pre-and post-haulage for enhancing the competitiveness of intermodal transport from a full-costs perspective. The model developed is applied to a Swedish context and case study. Research findings reveal that the break-even of the IRT compared to the direct road transport could be significantly lowered, which suggests the LHVs contribute to exploring the market of IRT over smaller flows.

- by Rickard Bergqvist
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

The calculation of speed prediction equations has been the subject of numerous researches in the past. The majority of them present models to predict free-flow speed in terms of the road geometry at the curved road sections and more specifically in terms of the radiuses of the curves. Common characteristic is that none of them approaches the speed behavior of motorcycles since they are excluded from the datasets of the various studies. Instead, the models usually predict operating speed for other vehicle types such as passenger cars, vans, pickups and trucks. The present paper aims to cover this gap by developing speed prediction equations for motorcycles. For this purpose a new methodology is proposed while field measurements were carried out in order to obtain an adequate dataset of free-flow speeds along the curved sections of three different two lane rural roads. The aforementioned field measurements were conducted by two participants incorporating various road conditions (e.g. light conditions, experience level, familiarity with the routes). The ultimate target was the development of speed prediction equations by calculating the optimum regression curves between the curve radius' and the corresponding velocities for the different road conditions. The research revealed that the proposed methodology could be used as a very useful tool to investigate motorcyclists' behavior at curved road sections. Moreover it was feasible to draw conclusions correlating the speed adjustment with the various driving conditions.

- by Panagiotis Lemonakis and +2
- •
- Curvature, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Mashhad, the second largest city in Iran, like many other big cities, is faced with increasing traffic congestion owing to rapidly increasing population and annual pilgrimage. In recent years, Mashhad traffic and transportation authorities have been challenged with how to manage the increasing congestion with limited budgets for major roadway construction projects. Mashhad has recognized the need to improve the existing system capacity to get the most out of their current transportation system infrastructures. Since most of the delay times occur at signalized intersections, using an intelligent control system with proper capabilities to overcome the growing traffic requirements is recommended. Following comprehensive studies carried out with the aim of developing the Mashhad traffic control center, the SCATS adaptive traffic control system was introduced as the selected intelligent control system for integrating signalized intersections. The first intersection was equipped with this system in 2005. This paper describes the results of a field evaluation in which fixed actuated-coordinated signal timings are compared with those dynamically computed by SCATS. The effects of this system on optimizing fuel consumption as well as reducing air pollutants are fully discussed. It is found that SCATS consistently reduced travel times and the average delay per stopped or approaching vehicle. The positive impact of adaptive traffic control systems on fuel consumption and air pollution are also highlighted.

- by Ali Asghar Babaei Rad
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

In recent years, light emitting diodes (LEDs) have entered the lighting market, offering consumers performance and features exceeding those of traditional lighting technologies. LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are becoming more common in safety signals for railroad, highway, automotive, and many other applications. In addition to having a longer life and greater durability than incandescent bulbs, LEDs are much more energy efficient than their incandescent counterparts. Since the heat from the junction must be dissipated into the ambient somehow, changing the ambient temperature affects the junction temperature and hence the emitted light. When the LEDs are used in the railway or traffic signals, the optical proprieties of these have to maintain more rigorous specifications. Therefore the development of signals using LED as light source, able to respect intensity specifications, is not simple. In this paper, we describe problems of the temperature dependent changes of LED intensity and color shift. Besides we will introduce an innovative technique, that we have developed, to allow the use of the LEDs in applications with rigorous specifications.

- by Giuseppe Spagnolo
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Many historians feel that the word "revolution" should not be associated with the industrial breakthrough of the 18th and 19th century. This paper looks at the revolutionary nature of the Industrial Revolution with emphasis on how it... more

This paper presents the main findings of the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) for the Egyptian national railways restructuring. This paper consists of the two parts: 1) modernizing the signaling system on the Arab El Raml-Alexandria Line and creating a Central Traffic Management Center in Tanta; and 2) renewing 200 km of track in Lower and Upper Egypt. The purpose of this evaluation is to identify and examine the potential socio-cultural, economic, and physical impacts of the railway restructuring, and propose measures to mitigate its adverse impacts, and develop plans for managing and monitoring the environmental aspects of the railway restructuring. This paper describes outlines of the environmental and social sensitivities of the railway restructuring area, potentially significant impacts of the proposed project and plans for their mitigation. Detailed information on the environmental and socio economic settings of the railway restructuring, components and activities of the proposed project and the results of the environmental and social impact assessment studies are presented in the body of the paper.

- by Mousa Ali
- •
- Socio Economic, Environmental, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Road accessibility is considered to be one of the major factors influencing (or correlated to) rural households' access toand participation in markets. However, there are few studies that investigate this important topic. This paper, therefore, explores the issue from both theoretical and practical perspectives with household and village level data from Northern Ethiopia. It is generally assumed that road accessibility significantly contributes to both access to-and participation in markets by rural households. The results in this study, however, suggest that neither participation in major markets nor the amount of purchased agricultural inputs use are significantly different for households with respect to the degree of road accessibility in the study area. Nevertheless, the situation seems somewhat better in locations with good access to roads. On the other hand, the results in this study confirm that road accessibility significantly contributes to reducing farm gate prices of manufactured goods and increasing farm gate prices of agricultural goods.

- by Torbjørn Årethun
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety performance of four exit ramp types and the major contributing factors on motorcycle crashes and injury severity of motorcycle riders. A six-year crash data were collected in Florida, and a web-based survey (234 samples) was conducted. 573 crashes were found at 419 exits, including 178 diamond exits, 71 directional exits, 85 loop exits and 85 outer connection exits. For a diamond exit, both the survey and crash data showed that this type was safer and more preferable by motorcycle riders; while a loop exit was the most dangerous exit due to the sharp curve and a certain length of curve with limited visibility. For a directional exit, longer ramp lengths and the reverse curvature are the major factors causing motorcycle crashes. For an outer connection exit, the riders rated it as a safe type; however, the data showed higher average crash frequency and rate than those at diamond exits or directional exits. The possible reason could be the unexpected curvature in the middle of the ramp, which could be dangerous if the rider is not familiar with the exit ramp location or doesn't pay attention to the ramp curvatures. The crash predictive model was developed, and the result indicated that if all remained the same, a directional exit, a loop exit, or an outer connection exit will have 16%, 27%, and 42% more crashes than a diamond exit, respectively. The findings from this study can help policy-makers and engineers to develop and apply effective countermeasures to reduce motorcycle crashes and injury severity levels for different exit ramp types.

- by Peisung Lin
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Purpose: Professional high speed sea navigational procedures are based on turn points, courses, dangers and steering cues in the environment. Since navigational aids have become less expensive and due to the fact that electronic sea charts can be integrated with both radar and transponder information, it may be assumed that traditional navigation by using paper based charts and radar will play a less significant role in the future, especially among less experienced navigators. Possible navigational differences between experienced and non-experienced boat drivers is thus of interest with regards to their use of navigational aids. It may be assumed that less experienced navigators rely too much on the information given by the electronic sea chart, despite the fact that it is based on GPS information that can be questioned, especially in littoral waters close to land. Method: This eye tracking study investigates gaze behaviour from 16 experienced and novice boat drivers during high speed navigation at sea. Results: The results show that the novice drivers look at objects that are close to themselves, like instrumentation, while the experienced look more at objects far away from the boat. This is in accordance with previous research on car drivers. Further, novice boat drivers used the electronic navigational aids to a larger extent than the experienced, especially during high speed conditions. The experienced drivers focused much of their attention on objects outside the boat. Conclusions: The findings verify that novice boat drivers tend to rely on electronic navigational aids. Experienced drivers presumably use the navigational aids to verify what they have observed in the surrounding environment and further use the paper based sea chart to a larger extent than the novice drivers.

This paper reviews the effectiveness of vehicle activated signs. Vehicle activated signs are being reportedly used in recent years to display dynamic information to road users on an individual basis in order to give a warning or inform about a specific event. Vehicle activated signs are triggered individually by vehicles when a certain criteria is met. An example of such criteria is to trigger a speed limit sign when the driver exceeds a pre-set threshold speed. The preset threshold is usually set to a constant value which is often equal, or relative, to the speed limit on a particular road segment. This review examines in detail the basis for the configuration of the existing sign types in previous studies and explores the relation between the configuration of the sign and their impact on driver behavior and sign efficiency. Most of previous studies show that these signs have significant impact on driver behavior, traffic safety and traffic efficiency. In most cases the signs deployed have yielded reductions in mean speeds, in speed variation and in longer head-ways. However most experiments reported within the area were performed with the signs set to a certain static configuration within applicable conditions. Since some of the aforementioned factors are dynamic in nature, it is felt that the configurations of these signs were thus not carefully considered by previous researchers and there is no clear statement in the previous studies describing the relationship between the trigger value and its consequences under different conditions. Bearing in mind that different designs of vehicle activated signs can give a different impact under certain conditions of road, traffic and weather conditions the current work suggests that variable speed thresholds should be considered instead.

- by Mark Dougherty and +1
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

The primary goal of crowd evacuation in urban underground passages or subways is to evacuate as many evacuees as possible to safe areas in the shortest time when emergency events occur. This paper chooses the underground passages of one metro in Istanbul, Turkey as research object, and uses a study method which combines by sites investigation, field test and computer simulation of the creating new software. It is called Building Evacuate Module software. We present a depth analysis of the related factors which include the number and width of passage, channelization setting and the number of pedestrians with the evacuation time. And the influential effect of public opinion is explained by using big data technology. In addition, pedestrians evacuation condition are recorded in three evacuation period, the morning peak, common and evening peak by the observation and statistic obtained with video, and build the model to simulate the change of evacuation time with pedestrians. So it reveals when the number of pedestrians reaches to more than 200, evacuation time increases significantly and the field experiment and simulation condition are consistent basically.

- by hasan hastemoglu
- •
- Transport Planning, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development process of a large scale dry port and to analyse what measures and actions are needed in order to support the decision making process and ensure an effective and efficient dry port that serves the City and the region's current and future needs. The purpose is explored in the context of Saudi Arabia and the city of Arriyadh. Key issues identified related to the dry port development are long term planning and crosssector collaboration. The interconnection between the dry port and the overall transport system and aspects, such as location of business, city logistics, road and rail infrastructure, local, regional and national regulations, etc., is strong. This puts challenge on the coordination and alignment of the different organizations, their strategies and objectives. In a complex situation, such as developing a dry port with many stakeholders, it is crucial that the roles of all actors are clearly defined. This is essential for utilizing the dry port as a regional tool for planning. In that regard, it is appropriate that the site location decision is clearly connected with an overall city freight vision and strategy.

- by Rickard Bergqvist
- •
- Development Process, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Contactless mobile payment devices are fast, convenient and user friendly means for executing small value business transactions. This kind of transactions is preferred to be executed conveniently and on the fly by just tapping a mobile payment device to a mobile terminal. Mobility, convenience and fast transaction execution are very important payment system properties in potentially crowded places such as in public transportation. These properties are in practice causing transaction execution problems, such as: delays in offline transaction execution, transaction atomicity failures caused by mobile data communication drops, lack of central control on mobile transaction system components and increased vulnerability risk caused by easy physical access to the mobile transaction system components. This paper describes a holistic transaction processing model for resolving mentioned problems in micropayment mobile touch-and-go transaction systems. Defined processing model was implemented on real public transportation mobile payment system where it was proven as a robust solution for execution of small value touch-and-go mobile ticketing transactions.

- by Amor Chowdhury
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Agencies in Iowa have utilized both overhead flashing beacons and stop-sign mounted beacons. Although several studies have shown that overhead flashing beacons are effective, some concerns have been raised about driver confusion. The main concern is that a driver may interpret a multiface flashing beacon with a red indication for their approach as an all-way stop control. As a result, the Iowa DOT has been advocating use of stop-sign mounted beacons rather than overhead flashing beacons. Since little information is available about this countermeasure, data for intersections with (treatment) and without (control) stop-sign mounted beacons were identified and a cross-sectional analysis conducted (due to few confirmable installation dates). Rural stop-controlled intersections with stop-sign mounted beacons in Iowa (USA) were identified (40 in total). Intersection characteristics such as number of approaches, intersection angle etc. were extracted. Additionally, characteristics of individual approaches such as roadway surface (gravel/paved), advanced stop-sign rumble strips, and advance signing were recorded. One or more control locations were manually selected for each treatment intersection based on matching roadway configuration, presence of lighting, advance stop line rumble strips, number of approaches, channelization, traffic volume, and proximity. Propensity scores were estimated to match 40 control locations for comparison. Negative binomial models for different injury combinations at nighttime and daytime were developed with an indicator variable for presence and absence of stop-sign mounted beacons. Presence of stop-sign mounted beacons was associated with a 5%-54% reduction in nighttime crashes. Injury nighttime crashes decreased by 54% and total nighttime crashes reduced by 18%.

- by Shauna Hallmark
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

The aim of the work performed in this paper is to present a composite indicators framework to guide sustainable transportation planning in Lebanon by assessing the sustainability marginal cost of Land Transport modes used mostly based on ICE (internal combustion engine) auto dependence. The framework covers 6 indicators of the triple bottom line of sustainability (economy, society, and environment): operating cost, energy consumption, noise exposure, congestion delay, emissions, and safety. The framework process follows an evaluation toolkit that monitors the cost implied from listed individual indicators of transport mode. Moreover, this evaluation methodology can be used to estimate to an acceptable degree the cost variation resulting from transport mode modifications within same geographical zone. This cost variance is the main interest of investors and decision makers seeking profits and successful results of their transportation planning process. A case study is executed in Lebanon GBA (Greater Beirut Area), where the annual cost of an alternative consisting of light rail transit (LRT) to passenger cars (PC) system is assessed; applying the stated methodology. Results show clearly an environmental amelioration with a reduction of 4,651,817,100 MJ of energy and 181,936 ton of CO 2 emissions in addition to a saving of 255,643,035$ annually.

- by Firas Barraj
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Differences between countries' internalization degrees and between transport modes both tend to risk distorting competition and creating socioeconomic inefficiency. This review examines regulations and charges for freight transports for different transport modes in Sweden and compares the situation with other key European countries. The aim was to identify best practices and benchmarking for Swedish conditions. The project involved both a literature study and interviews with different stakeholders. It was found that today's fee structure for goods transports often deviated from the views of different stakeholders and market segments. The problem is that it is difficult to estimate and plan well in advance due to a lack of relevant data. Economic transport data are often extracted from heavily aggregated data where resource consumption and production costs for transport are unclear, preventing reliable estimates and obstructing the calculation of marginal costs and internalization of externalities through charges imposed on the respective transport modes and transport units. Furthermore, there is little research on how railroad and shipping are affected by changes and introduction of truck fees. The latter implies that truck fees must be seen from a European perspective to assess their effect on the overall transport system. Other aspects that are important to highlight are the extent and point in time for railroad deregulation. Further, it became clear from the stakeholder analysis that all fees and policies need to be both comprehensible and transparent through good communication of rules and by explaining the fee structures to all those concerned.

- by Hilda Karlsson and +1
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

This paper presents a novel concept, the Hybrid Power Pack (HPP), which consists of a hybridization kit for transforming small city cars, powered by an original diesel engine, into a parallel hybrid vehicle. The study was jointly conducted by the University of Rome "Sapienza" and the Enea Casaccia research center. The idea is to design a hybrid powertrain that can be installed in a typical microcar, which means that all systems and components will be influenced by the limited space available in the motor compartment of the vehicle. In this paper the details of the mechanical and electrical realization of the powertrain will be discussed and the simulation of a small city car equipped with HPP will be presented and the results discussed and analyzed. The hybrid system also includes the battery pack which is composed of twenty-four Li-ion cells made by EIG, connected in series. The storage system is controlled as regards the voltage and temperature by a Battery Management System (BMS). All the above components are connected and managed by a control unit. The HPP presented in this paper obtains a reduction in fuel consumption higher than 20%. The solution presented with the HPP with its management strategy and the addition of the "plug-in function" makes the hybrid vehicle suitable in terms of performance and consumption in every driving conditions. The ideal strategy behind the "plug-in function" could represent a guideline for further achievements and experimentations, because it offers a simple hardware layout and a real reduction in fuel consumption.

- by R. Capata
- •
- Engineering, Energy, Hybrid, Sustainability

Taxi plays an important role in providing passenger mobility. Taxi services are among the most frequently used passenger transport services in many cities in the world. Taxis are an integral part of a city's image. In a recent IRU/EU report taxis are considered as part of the collective public transport chain. In this context taxis role is a complementary mobility option to public transport rather than a competitive one. In the growing city of Dubai taxis are utilized by many local and foreign residences as well as by tourists and visitors. The annual number of taxi trips reached 104 million trips in 2016, while the fleet is growing currently at 9613 and is expected to reach around 12,765 by 2020. Riding a taxi in Dubai is known to be pleasant, comfortable, convenient and relatively affordable experience. The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is the Dubai government authority responsible for the planning and governance of the taxi sector in Dubai. The RTA through its agency namely the Public Transport Agency (PTA) exercises such roles. This research is meant to provide a system analysis and structured assessment of the taxi sector in Dubai with the objective of identifying strengths and gaps as well as reviewing the literature and conducting stakeholder consultation hence culminating on developing a comprehensive taxi strategy in Dubai. Such strategy would be targeted to achieve customer satisfaction leading eventually to customer happiness. All in all this is expected to provide an added value and benefit to the business planning for PTA as well as for the overall strategic and futuristic planning by RTA.

- by Mohammad Mazin
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Suitable speed limit is important for providing safety for road users. Lower-than-required posted speed limits could cause the majority of drivers non-compliant and higher-than-required posted speed limits may also increase the number of crashes with related severities. The speed limit raised in Kansas from 70 mph to 75 mph on a number of freeway segments in 2011. The goal of this study is to assess the safety impacts of the freeway sections influenced by speed limit increase. Three years before and three years after speed limit increase was considered and three methods were used: 1-Empirical Bayes (EB), 2-before-and-after with comparison group, and 3-cross-sectional study. The Crash Modification Factors (CMFs) were estimated and showed 16 percent increase for total crashes according to EB method. Further, the before-and-after with comparison group method showed 27 percent increase in total crashes and 35 percent increase on fatal and injury crashes. The crosssectional method also presented 25 percent increase on total crashes and 62 percent increase on fatal and injury crashes. It was seen that these increases were statistically significant.

- by Ahad Amini Pishro
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) play a fundamental role in reducing traffic congestion and increasing safety during daily transportation. These systems can also be useful in improving social welfare leading to general satisfaction. Proper performance evaluation can be efficient in improving the performance of these systems, and providing a scientific assessment index system can assist decision-makers in smart communities to plan for the development of ITS. However, the evaluation of these systems requires identifying appropriate indicators of performance evaluation that are consistent with the views of the beneficiaries of these systems. In this paper, performance evaluation indicators of ITS have been identified, and three indicators entitled "environmental and safety", "assistance in reducing traffic congestion" and "attractive public transport" are presented to evaluate the performance of these systems. Moreover, the intelligent transport systems of the Tehran-Karaj Freeway in Iran are studied, and inferential statistical methods are employed to test the research hypotheses. It is worth noticing that in this study, a one-sample T-test method is used for hypotheses assessment and the SPSS software was used to analyze the findings. Also, the results demonstrated that the performance of ITS in the Tehran-Karaj Freeway regarding the indicators, such as "Declaration of route blocking information due to maintenance or reconstruction" and "Declaration of path geometry conditions" has not been acceptable.

- by Arshia Taimouri
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Improving the rail transport security requires development and implementation of neoteric monitoring and control facilities in conditions of increasing speed and intensity of the train movement and high level of terrorist threat. Use of Earth remote sensing (ERS), permitting to obtain information from large areas with a sufficiently high resolution, can provide significant assistance in solving the mentioned problems. This paper discusses the possibility of using various means of remote sensing such as satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), also known as drones, for receiving information in different ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum. The paper states that joint using of both these means gives new possibilities in improving railroad security.

- by Sergey I Ivashov
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

- by Margareta Lützhöft and +1
- •
- Technology Use in Transportation, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

The aim of analysis is to understand how unreliable information influences user behaviour and how much it discourages public transport use. For this purpose, a Stated Preference Survey was carried out in order to know the preferences of public transport users relating to information needs and uncertainty on the information provided by Advanced Traveller Information System (ATIS). The perceived uncertainty is defined as information inaccuracy. In our study, we considered the difference between forecasted or scheduled waiting time at the bus stop and/or metro station provided by ATIS, and that experienced by user, to catch the bus and/or metro. A questionnaire was submitted to an appropriate sample of Palermo's population. A Latent Class Logit model was calibrated, taking into account attributes of cost, information inaccuracy, travel time, waiting time, and cut-offs in order to reveal preference heterogeneity in the perceived information. The calibrated model showed various sources of preference heterogeneity in the perceived information of public transport users as highlighted by the analysis reported. Finally, the willingness to pay was estimated, confirming a great sensitivity to the perceived information, provided by ATIS. Pay Recently, Molin and Timmermans [5] evaluated the willingness to pay for additional information through web enabled public transport information systems. Dziekan and Kottenhoff , showed the main effects of the ATIS: reduced wait time, positive psychological factors, such as reduced uncertainty, simplified use and a greater

- by Fumitaka Kurauchi
- •
- Uncertainty, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

High speed rail systems have blossomed in technological advances since their debut in the 1960's with the Japanese Shinkansen line. As miles upon miles of tracks increase around the world, bringing added mobility to travelers while decreasing emissions, various technologies are leading the way to a faster tomorrow. This article explores the differences in what countries around the world are using to supply the next generation of travel modes. This paper details the differences in technological implementations from Asia, Europe, and North America. High speed rail systems are far more developed in other countries, especially China, and have required substantial government investment. The United States, with limited HSR development, stands to benefit from the technological advances of others and learn from the economic impacts of HSR in other countries.

- by Junfeng Jiao
- •
- Engineering, High Speed Rail, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Bus systems provide a versatile form of public transportation with the flexibility to serve a variety of access needs throughout an urban area. Efficient operation of the public transport is a key factor for the improvement of living condition in Dhaka city. Transport service performance should be assessed from the passengers’ perspectives to evaluate these perceptions in transportation planning. The exploration of service quality of bus is essential in order to provide a better service in future. The objective of this research is to access overall customer satisfaction in public bus transport of Dhaka city. A questionnaire survey was conducted in five locations in Dhaka city. Bus users’ satisfaction was analyzed by discrete choice logit model towards quality, reliability, safety and security and service provided by buses functioning in Dhaka city. The result indicated that more than half of the respondents believed that the present condition of bus service is not satisfactory. In c...

- by Tanvir Haque
- •
- Business, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

A large number of crashes occur on curves even though they account for only a small percentage of a system's mileage. Excessive speed has been identified as a primary factor in both lane departure and curve-related crashes. A number of countermeasures have been proposed to reduce driver speeds on curves, which ideally result in successful curve negotiation and fewer crashes. Dynamic speed feedback sign (DSFS) systems are traffic control devices that have been used to reduce vehicle speeds successfully and, subsequently, crashes in applications such as traffic calming on urban roads. DSFS systems show promise, but they have not been fully evaluated for rural curves. To better understand the effectiveness of DSFS systems in reducing crashes on curves, a national field evaluation of DSFS systems on curves on rural two lane roadways was conducted. Two different DSFS systems were selected and placed at 22 sites in seven states. Control sites were also identified. A full Bayes modeling methodology was utilized to develop crash modification factors (CMFs) for several scenarios including total crashes for both directions, total crashes in the direction of the sign, total single-vehicle crashes, and single-vehicle crashes in the direction of the sign. Using quarterly crash frequency as the response variable, crash modification factors were developed and results showed that crashes were 5% to 7% lower after installation of the signs depending on the model.

- by Shauna Hallmark
- •
- Engineering, Bayesian Modeling, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

- by V. Razevig
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

The vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) technology based on the approved IEEE 802.11p standard and the appendant inter-vehicle communication (IVC) has the potential to dramatically change the way transportation systems work. The fundamental idea is to change the individual behavior of each vehicle by exchanging information among traffic participants to realize a cooperative and more efficient transportation system. Certainly, the evaluation of such systems is a comprehensive and challenging task in a real world test bed, therefore, simulation frameworks are a key tool to analyze IVC. Several models are needed to emulate the real behavior of a VANET in all aspects as much realistically as necessary. The intention of this survey is to provide a comprehensive overview of publications concerning IVC simulations of the year 2013 and to see how IVC simulation has changed since 2009. Based on this analysis, we will answer the following questions: What simulation techniques are applied to IVC? Which aspects of IVS have been evaluated? What has changed within five years of IVC simulations? We also take a closer look at commonly used software tools and discuss their functionality and drawbacks. Finally, we present open questions concerning IVC simulations.

- by Jochen Seitz
- •
- Simulation, Survey, Inter Vehicle Communications, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Several initiatives have been launched to help prevention of traffic accidents and near-accidents across the European Union. To aid the overall goal of reducing deaths and injuries related to traffic, one must understand the causation of the traffic accidents in order to prevent them. Rather than deploying a person to physically monitor a location, the task is eased by camera equipment installed in existing infrastructure, e.g. poles, and buildings, etc. In rural areas there is however a very limited infrastructure available which complicates the data acquisition. But even if there is infrastructure available in either the rural area or the urban area, this might not serve as an ideal position to capture video data from. In this work, we survey and provide an overview of available and relevant portable poles setups with respect to capturing data in both urban areas and rural areas. The conclusion of the survey shows a lack of a mobile, lightweight, compact, and easy deployable portable pole. We therefore design and develop a new portable pole meeting these requirements. The new proposed portable pole can be deployed by 2 persons in 2 hours in both rural areas as well as urban areas due to its compactness. The deployment and usage of the new portable pole is a complimentary tool, which may improve the camera capturing angle in case existing infrastructure is insufficient. This ultimately improves the traffic monitoring opportunities. Further, the survey of selected portable poles provides an excellent overview and can aid multiple applications within road traffic.

- by Harry Lahrmann
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

There is considerable safety potential in ensuring that motorists respect the speed limits. High speeds increase the number and severity of accidents. Technological development over the last 20 years has enabled the development of systems that allow automatic speed control. The first generation of automatic speed control was pointbased, but in recent years a potentially more effective alternative automatic speed control method has been introduced. This method is based upon records of drivers' average travel speed over selected sections of the road and is normally called average speed control or section control. This article discusses the different methods for automatic speed control and presents an evaluation of the safety effects of average speed control, documented through changes in speed levels and accidents before and after the implementation of average speed control at selected sites in the UK. The study demonstrates that the introduction of average speed control results in statistically significant and substantial reductions both in speed and in number of accidents. The evaluation indicates that average speed control has a higher safety effect than point-based automatic speed control.

- by Harry Lahrmann
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

In this paper, a novel reconfiguration technique is developed in the context of a fault-tolerant Networked Control System (NCS) in two train wagons. All sensors, controllers and actuators in both wagons are connected on top of a single Gigabit Ethernet network. The network also carries wired and wireless entertainment loads. A Markov model is used to prove that this reconfiguration technique reduces the effect of a failure in the error detection and switching mechanisms on the reliability of the control function. All calculations are based on closed-form solutions and verified using the SHARPE software package.

- by Ramez Daoud
- •
- Transportation, Fault Tolerance, Reliability, Coverage

- by Ramez Daoud
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have been receiving significant interest from various stakeholders worldwide. ITS promise major enhancements to the efficiency, safety, convenience and sustainability of transportation systems. To satisfy the diverse vehicular application requirements, this paper proposes an integration of IEEE 802.11-based VANET and LTE cellular network using mobile vehicular gateways. IEEE 802.11 g is used for V2V communications and LTE for V2I communications. A burst communication technique is applied to prevent packet losses in the critical uplink ITS traffic. A performance simulation-based study is conducted to validate the feasibility of the proposed system in an urban vehicular environment. The system performance is evaluated in terms of data loss, data rate, delay and jitter. The results indicate that the proposed Multi-RAT system offers acceptable performance that meets the requirements of the different vehicular applications.

- by Ramez Daoud
- •
- Heterogeneous Networks, Intelligent Transportation Systems, LTE, Vanet

In this paper, a new reliable hierarchical model is suggested for a two-wagon train Networked Control System. Each wagon has a Controller that carries the control load and an Entertainment server that handles the entertainment. A supervisory controller runs on top of the two controllers and the two entertainment servers. Contrary to a similar model in the literature, the Supervisory node replaces a Controller as soon as it fails (Active Supervisor). All system states are analyzed and simulated using OPNET. It is shown that, for all states, this architecture has zero control packets dropped and the end-to-end delay is below the maximum target delay. A comparison between this Active model and the other model in the literature is presented. It is found that the entertainment in this new architecture is kept available for the passengers in more of the system states when compared to the architecture previously presented in the literature.

- by Ramez Daoud
- •
- Train, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

The paper analyses integrating Origin-Destination (O-D) survey results with Stochastic User Equilibrium (SUE) in traffic assignment. The two methods are widely used in transportation planning but their applications have not yet fully integrated. While O-D gives a generalized trip patterns, purpose and characteristics, SUE provides optimal trip distributions using the characteristics found in O-D survey. The paper utilized O-D and SUE in route relocation study for the town of Coamo in Puerto Rico. The O-D survey was used initially in studying possible trip distribution and assignment for the new route. Initial distribution and assignment of traffic to the existing roadway networks and the proposed route were allocated utilizing the O-D survey findings. The SUE was then used to optimize the assignments considering roadway characteristics such as number of lanes, capacity limits, free flow speed, signal spacing density, travel time and gasoline cost. The travel time was optimized through the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) equation found in 2000 HCM. The optimal trips found from the SUE were then used to propose the final alignment of the new route. Traffic assignment from the SUE was slightly different from those initially assigned using O-D, indicating there was optimization. The assignment on new route was increased by 13.8% from the one assigned using O-D while assignment on the existing link was reduced by 22%.

- by Boniphace Kutela
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

This paper evaluates different factors and parameters contributing to likelihood of bicycle crash injury severity levels. Multinomial Logit (MNL) model was used to analyze impact of different roadway features, traffic characteristics and environmental conditions associated with bicycle crash injury severities. The multinomial model was used due to its flexibility in quantifying the effect of the independent variables for each injury severity categories. Model results showed that, severity of bicycle crashes increases with increase in vehicles per lane, number of lanes, bicyclist alcohol or drug use, routes with 35 -45 mph posted speed limits, riding along curved or sloped road sections, when bicyclists approach or cross a signalized intersection, and at driveways. In addition, routes with a high percentage of trucks, roadway sections with curb and gutter, cloudy or foggy weather and obstructed vision were found to have high probability of severe injury. Segments with wider lanes, wide median and wide shoulders were found to have low likelihood of severe bicycle injury severities. Limited lighting locations was found to be associated with incapacitating injury and fatal crashes, indicating that insufficient visibility can potentially lead to severe crashes. Other findings are also presented in the paper.

This paper proposes a single integrated traffic enforcement system that is able to recognize and report various traffic violations. It consists of a Wi-Fi infrastructure that enables communication between moving vehicles and a central node. Unlike existing solutions, which address single violations, the proposed model encompasses several issues like exceeding speed limits, entering a no entry street, car theft, congestion and tolling. OPNET simulations were run to test the Wi-Fi model and define its different characteristics and limitations. A proof-of-concept case was modeled, and the proposed architecture succeeded in meeting all design requirements.

- by Tarek K Refaat
- •
- TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Many modeling approaches have been proposed to help forecast and detect incidents. Accident has received the most attention from researchers due to its impacts economically. The traffic congestion costs billions of dollars to economy. The main reasons of major percentage of traffic congestion are the incidents. Road accidents continue to increase in digital age. There are many reasons for road accidents. This paper will discuss and introduce new algorithm for road accident detection. Various forecast schemes have been proposed to manage the traffic data. In this paper we will introduce road accident detection scheme based on improved exponential moving average. The proposed traffic incident detection algorithm is based on the automatic exponential moving average scheme. The detection algorithm is based on analyzing the collected traffic flow parameters. The detection algorithm is based on analyzing the collected traffic flow parameters. In addition a real-time accident forecast model was developed based on short-term variation of traffic flow characteristics.

- by J. Raiyn and +1
- •
- Moving average, Intelligent Transportation System, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

- by Giuseppe Salvo
- •
- Uncertainty, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

This paper presents a survey-based economic evaluation of security measures protecting against the risk of aviation terrorism. A sample of Norwegians were asked to state their choices between different air travel alternatives, i.e. travel time, trip costs, fatalities in terrorist acts on air transport and type of passenger screening. Screening was specified as either the current uniform screening or a new risk-based screening in which passengers are divided into three groups: high-risk, medium-risk and low-risk. Respondents were informed that risk-based screening implied they would have to identify themselves using a biometric identity card and that those not qualifying as low-risk passengers would be checked with body scanners. Our results indicate that the sampled passengers were very concerned about privacy. Maintaining existing uniform screening was preferred to a new risk-based screening system, even though risk-based screening was presented as potentially preventing future terrorist fatalities.

- by Knut Veisten and +1
- •
- Privacy, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES

Bike sharing is considered a state-of-the-art transportation program. It is ideal for short or medium trips providing riders the ability to pick up a bike at any self-serve bike station and return it to any bike station located within the system's coverage area. The bike sharing programs in the United States are still very young compared to those in European countries. Washington DC was the first jurisdiction to devise a third generation bike sharing system in the US in 2008. To evaluate the popularity of a bike sharing program, a sentiment analysis of the riders' feedback can be performed. Twitter is a great platform to understand people's views instantly. Social media mining is, thus, gaining popularity in many research areas including transportation. Social media mining has two major advantages over conventional attitudinal survey methods-it can easily reach a large audience and it can reflect the true behavior of participants because of the anonymity social media provides. It is known that self-imposed censor is common in responding to conversational attitudinal surveys. This study performed text mining on the tweets related to a case study (Capital Bike share of Washington DC) to perform sentiment analysis or opinion mining. The results of the text mining mostly revealed higher positive sentiments towards the current system.

- by Xiaoduan Sun
- •
- Public Opinion, Data Analysis, Sentiment Analysis, Attitudes