Regular Bus Service Research Articles

Scheduling of Feeder Vehicles for Intermodal Services for Special Events

During special events, shuttle services provided by a feeder bus system can be very useful for providing passengers access to the mass rapid transit system, especially passengers in suburban areas where regular transit service is not usually available. During Expo 2010 Shanghai in China, such shuttle services connected the major terminals and the expected locations of passenger generation. Because of constrained vehicle resources and the staggered characteristics of peak hours, the free time spans of regular vehicles were used to complete the fixed feeder timetables. An integer-linear programming model was developed to obtain the optimal schedules of the feeder vehicles, and an associated coordination mechanism was proposed to adjust the model-developed schedules to obtain feasible solutions. This model was applied to the feeder system in Jiading district during Expo 2010 Shanghai. The results showed that the temporary feeder system could serve Expo passengers with a relatively high level of service without causing evident degradation in the regular bus service.

The Quantitative Evaluation for Pick-Up Transportation Services Considering Spatio-Temporal Activity Diagram

In Japan, an aging society has come. The inhabitants of middle mountainous areas use cars as a daily transportation mode. On the other hand, most elders who cannot drive by themselves tend to depend on services by their household members. However, the pick -up service constrains both driver's and passenger's activities. In addition, household members will face more frequent needs from elders in the future, because some of pick -up service providers would be a consumer of service, by their aging. In order to tackle this problem, this study quantitatively demonstrates the hybrid transportation service such as pick-up for feeding to which combines the transportation with feeding to the regular bus services, by all the drivers in the community. The purpose of this study is to e valuate the above service according to the waiting time of and achievement rate of elder's activities.

Travel time to radiotherapy and uptake of breast-conserving surgery for early stage cancer in Northern England

Patients with early stage breast cancer can opt for either mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery (BCS), but BCS requires daily radiotherapy for some weeks. The hypothesis that ease of access to radiotherapy might affect choice of surgery was investigated using records of 6014 breast cancer patients in Northern England. Adjusting for the effects of age, deprivation and hospital type, the choice of BCS was not associated with the estimated car journey time to radiotherapy for most women but there was an association for patients living in places without a regular bus service, so transport problems might influence surgery choice for a minority of women.

The evaluation of demand responsive transport services in Europe

Over the last decade Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services have grown in popularity for several reasons including: the shortcomings of conventional regular bus and taxi services; shortcomings of special transport services; and new developments in community transport. Traditional dial-a-ride services have often been criticised because of their relatively high cost of provision, their lack of flexibility in route planning and their inability to manage high demand. The potential for overcoming these limitations may be realised through the introduction of telematics-based DRT and this has been widely demonstrated, for example, in recent research funded by the European Commission (e.g. the DGXIII-funded SAMPO and SAMPLUS projects). This paper provides an introduction to the concept of telematics-based DRT services and presents the results of the evaluation of a set of DRT technologies and operations at urban and rural sites across Europe. The paper offers discussion in terms of the key issues that influence the introduction of DRT services.

On-board real life emission measurements on a 3 way catalyst gasoline car in motor way-, rural- and city traffic and on two Euro-1 diesel city buses

On-board emission measurements were performed on a Ford Escort 1.3 l gasoline car and on two Van Hool A300D turbo diesel buses. When compared to the limit values of the 91/441/EEC directive, the TWC car yields lower emissions in motor way traffic and values are about equal in rural traffic. However, in the city with a hot start the CO- and HC + NOx-emissions amount to 5.7 and 2.3 g/km, that is double the limit values. Respectively, 16 and 4.2 g/km are measured with a cold start which is five and four times the limit values. The Euro-1 diesel city buses, that are tested during the regular bus service, have on-the-road emission intervals for CO, HC and NOx of respectively 7–8, 0.9–1.1 and 18–23 g/km. These transient emissions, transformed to g/kWh, are about 1, 0.5 and 1 to 1.5 times the Euro-1 limit values, respectively. The car to bus comparison of hot start city emissions in g/km shows that CO and HC are about equal, whereas NOx is 30 times higher for the bus. However, in g/passenger km, CO and HC-emissions are respectively 30 and 50 times lower for the bus, while NOx-emission is equal.

"The Poor Have Much More Money": Changing Socio-Economic Relations in A Greek Village

"The Poor Have Much More Money": Changing Socio-Economic Relations in A Greek Village Diane 0. Bennett "The poor have much more money."1 The speaker is a woman from a farm family on the Pelion peninsula, complaining about economic conditions in the 1980s. Her complaint demonstrates the existence of an identifiable group called "the poor—i floht," who continue to be thought of as poor even though economic changes have brought them more money. Lehonia, the community in which the speaker lives, is differentiated into landowners and laborers; until recently the laborers were poor. Economic and political changes originating at national and international levels have catalyzed changes in the relationship between landowners and laborers in the village. In contrast to the improved situation of the poor, she continues, it has become impossible for landowners to get ahead these days. The problems of the landowners are not unrelated to the improved conditions of the poor. The poor have gone to work in factories and the price of agricultural labor has risen. In the decades since the end of World War II, Greece has experienced rapid economic and demographic change. Although it remains in the semi-periphery of the capitalist world system— dependent on foreign capital, commerce, and tourism, and with a weak industrial sector—Greece's economic growth has been impressive . From 1950 to 1971, for example, the gross national product grew at an average of 6.7% per year, as compared to 3.0% for the U.S. and 5.6% for Spain (Hagen 1975: 27). From 1974 through 1979 the gross domestic product continued to grow at over 5% per year (OECD 1983b: 10). In 1960 49% of the work force was employed in agriculture; by 1981 agriculture employed only 31% of the total (OECD 1962, 1983a). Economic growth has effected profound changes throughout rural Greece, but communities have been afJournal of Modern Greek Studies, Volume 6, 1988. 217 218 Diane O. Bennett fected in different ways. Some villages have become virtually depopulated ; some have profited by the introduction of new agricultural technology; others, including Lehonia, have remained viable communities but have experienced complex changes in social and economic structure. Lehonia lies on a small plain on the Pelion peninsula which extends into the Aegean to the southeast of Thessaly and the city of Volos. Expanded urban employment opportunities, improved roads, and regular bus service have made it possible for residents of the Lehonia plain to work in Volos while continuing to live in the village. A labor shortage in agriculture has developed even though the population size has remained stable.2 This situation presents an opportunity to observe the changing social and political relations that occur as the local class system based on control of agricultural land is increasingly absorbed into the class structures of the nation. Changes in the relative values of land and labor have been central to this process, and different groups within the rural population are differentially affected by the new circumstances. The earthquakes that destroyed much of Volos and the neighboring Pelion in 1954— 1955 were the first in a series of external events that increased the demand for labor. These events include the rebuilding program after the earthquakes, the industrial development in Volos, and the opening of the labor market in Northern Europe. The augmented demand for labor reshaped local social and economic structures: decreased dependency of laborers on landowners has initiated social change, and the reduced profitability of agricultural has altered the local economy and the meaning of class relations in the community. Class Structures in Rural Greece In this paper, I consider three conditions necessary and sufficient to constitute a system structured by class relations:3 systematic and permanent differences in control of critical resources among groups in the population, social barriers between these groups, and an awareness by the participants of common interests within each group and different interests among them. AU three conditions exist in the socio-economic system of Lehonia. Before discussing changes in Lehonia's class structure, it is useful to compare this socioeconomic system to those in other communities studied by ethnographers and students of Greek class formation. Lehonia's internal class structure4 sets...

The Functional Analysis of Local Towns; with Special References to Motomiya and Nihonmatsu in Fukushima Prefecture

Local-towns are susceptible to the influence of their surrounding areas, especially in recent days the influence of large cities became stronger. It is an interesting problem to analyse the way in which local-towns adapt themselves to their circumstances. In addition to this, their industrial development in recent years also became an important function. I will explain these aspects taking Motomiya and Nihonmatsu in Fukushima Prefecture as examples.The main objects of this study is their function as service-centers, their relationship with their neighbouring cities in retail trades and in commuting, as well as their industrial production.As the indices of a service-center the author used the development of the regular bus service, the sphere of retail trades, the scale of wholesale shops, and the kinds of administrative offices, schools and hospitals. Motomiya is inferior as the service-center. In retail trades, the influence of Koriyama is penetrating strongly into Motomiya's domain. In commuter-traffics, the commuters from Motomiya (out-commuters) go out chiefly to Koriyama, Fukushima, and Nihonmatsu. So I concluded that Motomiya was under the intense influence of these cities. Nihonmatsu is superior as a service-centre. In retail trade, the influence above-mentioned cities is not so vigorous as to Motomiya. In commuting, the destinations of out-commuters are not only Fukushima and Koriyama but also the neighbouring local-towns and villages. So Nihonmatsu seems less dependent on larger cities.The commuters into local towns (in-commuters) come mostly from their neighbouring villages and are chiefly employed in manufacturing factories or transportational and communicational institutions. From these, I consider that there is a nodal-region having a local town as its functional center. Considering the ratio of in-commuters to total population, the figure of Motomiya is higher than that of Nihonmatsu. This suggests that Motomiya has larger economic capacity to accept in-commuters, which also means that Motomiya has larger industrial productivity. After all, Motomiya is stronger in industrial productivity, and Nihonmatsu as a service-center.I examined, next, how these different characteristics of the two towns are reflected on their urban growths. As the indices of urbanization, I adopted the number of the employees in service occupations (for example, Laundries, Barber shops, Restaurants), and the length of main shopping-streets.Judging from these indices the degree of the urbanization of these two towns seems almost the same. These two towns with their different personalities, have attained about similar degree of urbanization.