Urban Transport Operations Research Articles

MAS-Based Urban Rail Transport Ridership Forecast System and Traffic Generation Analysis

Ridership forecast of urban rail transport is one of the important bases for urban rail transport network planning, design, construction and operation. MAS-based ridership forecast system was designed and the architecture was proposed. The traffic generation forecast analysis was made from the three aspects of overall size forecast, resident population forecast and floating population forecast. The results showed that the system had the excellence of satisfying the randomness, non-linear and non-deterministic case for the strong adaptability, robustness and flexibility.

On Mode Split Model of MAS-Based Urban Rail Transport Ridership Forecast System

Ridership forecast of urban rail transport is one of the important bases for urban rail transport network planning, design, construction and operation. MAS-based ridership forecast system was designed and the architecture was proposed. Forecast model is one of the important parts of Forecast Agent, and is the key technology to realize ridership forecast. The forecast model is established from the aspect of mode split model based on improved Fore-stage iterative feedback method. The mode split model includes three aspect of resident population, floating population and bus sub-way. The design of mode split model provides the prerequisite for the design and development of ridership forecast system.

Rail News [Transportation Systems

The first of 37 Citadis trams ordered by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in Turkey from Alstom arrived for testing in September 2009 (see Figure 1). After testing, the Citadis fleet will replace the high-floor trams in use on the Zeytinburnu-Bagcilar line. Ulasim, Istanbul's urban transport operator, uses low-floor trams on the Zeytinburnu-Kabatas line, which currently serves the historic Golden Horn district.

Avaliação multicriterial de desempenho: um estudo de caso na indústria de transporte coletivo de passageiros

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar uma proposta de estrutura multicriterial de avaliação de desempenho em organizações. O trabalho inicia descrevendo e contextualizando conceitos relativos aos sistemas de medição de desempenho em organizações. Também descreve modelos de gestão baseados nos critérios de excelência do prêmio Malcolm Baldridge e na teoria da mentalidade enxuta. A seguir propõe um método para a construção de uma estrutura flexível de avaliação de desempenho e descreve um caso de aplicação que a exemplifica: a avaliação do desempenho de aspectos da mentalidade enxuta inseridos em uma operação de transporte coletivo. Ao final discutem-se os resultados do caso, comparam-se estes com o método de avaliação vigente em duas empresas da indústria e encaminha-se a continuidade da pesquisa.

Pragmatic Safety Approach for the Urban Guided Transport Management System UGTMS

Currently, a European research consortium of urban public transport operators, industrial train control suppliers and universities defines a system architecture for an interoperable train control system (UGTMS). One of the challenges is related to a unified and harmonized set of widely accepted safety functions, with associated and EN-compatible Safety Integrity Levels, a Europewide certification scheme and the implication of human factors. The paper presents the draft version of a pragmatic safety analysis approach developed within the project so far. Examples as well as advantages and disadvantages are discussed and open points indicate future work.

An expert system to advise on urban public transport technologies

An important feature of the “sustainable city” concept is a requirement to provide attractive public transport alternatives to the car. In order to achieve this, some cities will require a new public transport system. However, there is no systematic method of deciding which public transport technology is the most appropriate in a given situation. Expertise in this area is limited to those who have implemented a new public transport system in their own city, and such expertise is not readily available to those embarking on the process. The aim of the UTOPIA (Urban Transport Operations and Planning using Intelligent Analysis) project is to develop an expert system to assist with the decision making process in cities investigating the development of a new public transport system. This paper outlines the features required of an expert system, then it goes on to discuss the knowledge acquisition techniques used to elicit information about fourteen British and thirty-two non-British systems which are either planned or became operational after 1976. Analysis of the information gives general knowledge about the nature of the cities, the systems, and the detailed rules used in the decision making process.

CHARACTERISTICS OF JEEPNEY OPERATION AND DEMAND IN METRO MANILA, THE PHILIPPINE

This paper presents the first comprehensive information on the characteristics of the urban public transport operation and demand in the Metropolitan Manila areas wherein a paratransit mode peculiar to the Philippines called Jeepney is focused. Tha analysis is made on the basis of various field surveys extensively conducted. (Author abstract)

Corporate planning and project evaluation in urban transport

The paper describes the development of corporate objectives by Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, the largest urban transport operator in the U.K. outside London. Four corporate objectives, each covering a different dimension of performance, have been adopted. The objectives pose problems for project evaluation because a project can contribute positively to one or more, and negatively to another or others. A technique for overcoming these problems, using the ‘trade-off’ concept, is being developed, and the practical application of this technique to two major investments is discussed in detail.

Modelling the Operation of Urban Passenger Transport with the Help of Spatial Matrices

This article addresses the problem of mathematical modelling of the operation of urban passenger transport, a problem that has great practical importance for both the design of urban transport networks and the organisation of transport services for the urban population. It demonstrates that a model of urban passenger trips will only be adequate for this task if it reflects the distribution of those trips over the twenty-four-hour time period, as well as their distribution between different parts of the city: in other words, that it will only be adequate if it is dynamic. It is thus impossible to apply here classical (plane) matrices accommodating only two dimensions of the system - in this case zones of departure (origins) and arrival (destinations). For modelling urban passenger movements we have therefore to move to spatial (three-dimensional) matrices, and the article describes such a model which has been built. A method is proposed for processing the spatial matters by carrying out partitions of them. A new operation of the superposition (short multiplication) of plane and spatial matrices is introduced, which makes it possible to solve the problem of mathematical modelling of complex systems. A method is described whereby the dynamic model of urban passenger journeys has been used to optimise design solutions of urban transport networks and to improve the operation of urban passenger transport. Other possibilities for the use of spatial matrices in the modelling of complex urban systems are also indicated. (a) (TRRL)

Performance and heating curves for motors on short-run duties

The paper shows how curves may be prepared that facilitate the design or selection of motors for services with short runs such as the operation of cranes or urban transport. From these curves, with little calculation, the values of such quantities as mean speed, power consumption and temperature rise of motor when operating on a statistically specified schedule, may be estimated for various combinations of motor windings, gear ratios, accelerating currents and the other quantities open to choice. The procedure is based on the recognition of the conditions under which the characteristic curves of the motor and the speed/time curves in operation are of similar shape. One condition for this is that the magnetization curves of the motors should be of the same shape. For classes of motor and operation satisfying these conditions for similarity, various `required' quantities may be given by single curves with scale factors. It is shown that the curves as drawn (i.e. with scale factors of unity) are the characteristics of a hypothetical sample or `model' of the class of drives. Such models are not necessarily realizable physically. The principles are illustrated by the development of curves giving run times, current consumption, motor-heating coefficients and other quantities that result from the operation of series-wound motors having magnetization curves of the shape found to be characteristic for modern mill-type motors. The application of these curves is briefly illustrated by consideration of the choice of a motor for a long-travel motion on a crane. The data presented are intended to be illustrative rather than complete and to suggest means by which users and designers may prepare data adapted to their particular needs and to the particular classes of motor in question.