Transportation Hub Research Articles

Стратегирование коммерциализации инноваций в условиях отечественной экономики данных

Professor A.G. Aganbegyan defines a new transport and logistics infrastructure as a key factor of economic growth, welfare, and transformation of Russia’s socio-economic system. This new infrastructure should include two-way highways, high-speed railways, regional airports, and major logistics centers in key transport hubs. Unfortunately, such projects have a very long payback cycle that may last up to 20–25 years. Moreover, the investments may be as high as 3 trillion rubles annually. As a result, transport and logistics suppliers alone cannot support such a large-scale initiative. Domestic logistics is currently going through all the stages from 1PL to 5PL, which places very high requirements on the multimodality of transport and logistics in physical infrastructure, software, and hardware. These processes encourage research cooperation between industries aimed at developing novel interoperable R&D solutions. Russian transport and logistics infrastructure depends heavily on the railway industry: its main operational task is to maintain passenger and cargo traffic, as well as to provide safety. Under the current sanctions, Russian railroads face the challenge of developing and scaling advanced scientific and technical reserves. Technological independence relies on end-to-end production technologies, e.g., artificial intelligence algorithms, digital twins, etc., which impose requirements on data interoperability. This article describes the potential that domestic railway enterprises have for improving commercialization of innovations and technology transfer. The authors used the theory of strategy and the methodology of strategizing developed by Professor V.L. Kvint to design several recommendations on how railroad companies may increase their economic motivation to overcome various barriers.

Biological Self-Assembled Transmembrane Electron Conduits for High-Efficiency Ammonia Production in Microbial Electrosynthesis.

Usually, CymA is irreplaceable as the electron transport hub in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 bidirectional electron transfer. In this work, biologically self-assembled FeS nanoparticles construct an artificial electron transfer route and implement electron transfer from extracellular into periplasmic space without CymA involvement, which present similar properties to type IV pili. Bacteria are wired up into a network, and more electron transfer conduits are activated by self-assembled transmembrane FeS nanoparticles (electron conduits), thereby substantially enhancing the ammonia production. In this study, we achieved an average NH4+-N production rate of 391.8 μg·h-1·L reactor-1 with the selectivity of 98.0% and cathode efficiency of 65.4%. Additionally, the amide group in the protein-like substances located in the outer membrane was first found to be able to transfer electrons from extracellular into intracellular with c-type cytochromes. Our work provides a new viewpoint that contributes to a better understanding of the interconnections between semiconductor materials and bacteria and inspires the exploration of new electron transfer chain components.

Assessment of the Impact of Intercity Bus Station Relocation on Passenger Flows in Urban Public Transport

Problem. The analysis of existing studies on transport hub operation in a city as well as on the methods for modelling the transport demand they generate showed that there are no specific recommendations for assessing the impact of the intercity bus station location on the trip patterns in urban transport system. This caused the need to search for a tool suitable to assess the influence of intercity bus station relocation on passenger service and passenger flows in the urban transport system. This paper shows the results of addressing this issue respective to urban public transport operation. Goal. The goal of the paper is to model the passenger flows to and from intercity bus stations considered transport anchors in urban public transport system as well as estimate the impact of station relocation on passenger flows and quality of service. Methodology. To achieve the stated goal, a survey of intercity passengers at the bus stations in the city of Rivne was made. This allowed for collecting the distances of the trips to and from existing bus stations and fitting the theoretical distribution to describe them. This distribution was used as the deterrence function during trip matrix calculation, which was required for the development of the public transport model. The model made it possible to quantify the potential impact of the Bus Station “Rivne” relocation on the urban transport system. Results. The considered bus station relocation can cause a decrease in the quality of service for passengers travelling to and from the station by public transport due to a probable significant increase in the average travel time and distance, the number of transfers, the passenger hours spent on travelling, and the passenger-kilometres covered to ensure the trips under study. Originality For the first time, the quantitative estimation of the impact of bus station relocation based on the regularities in the lengths of the trips to and from the stations was obtained. Practical value. The obtained trip length distribution can be used to calculate the origin-destination matrix, develop the public transport model, and quantify the probable consequences of the transport hub relocation.

The Features of Creation of an Urban Building Environment with Completion of Underground Infrastructure Areas of the City of Yerevan

Underground areas are those parts of the city that can become the best way to overcome the expansion of the surrounding areas of the city, thanks to which new ideas can be created and developed, achieving eco-economic success, creating new opportunities to ensure people's livelihood and security. Underground areas can include transportation structures, passageways, industrial buildings, and public service infrastructure. Basically, the underground areas, developing vertically on several levels, extend under the crowded zones of the city center, in the areas adjacent to the transport hubs. The unloading of above-ground urban areas can lead to the positive process that freed areas will be used to create green zones, improving the sanitary and hygienic condition of the city. It will allow maintaining the existing urban environment, creating favorable conditions for improving people's living activities.

Blurring the boundaries: everyday urbanism in Accra Airport City

ABSTRACT Airports have outgrown their dominant roles as transport hubs. The landside of airports is developed into airport cities which are used to brand, create identity and promote economic development for cities. While planned as a high modernist architecture, airport cities do not necessarily cater for the daily needs of the low-income working class in the enclave. Thus, they are compelled to cater for their everyday needs from neighbouring spaces which end up blurring the peripheries of the formally planned spaces. Using qualitative methods, this research shows how everyday urbanism is produced in the Accra Airport City enclave in Ghana. The findings reveal that the experiences of the low-income workers in the enclave show a tension between the formal hegemonic planning of the enclave and the informal strategies deployed by them to meet their everyday needs. They are constantly improvising and showing agility to survive in the restrictive environment.

Influencing factors of spatial vitality in underground space around railway stations: A case study in Shanghai

Developing urban underground space for transportation and commercial purposes has become a vital strategy for sustainable urban growth, especially in dense urban contexts. The vitality of underground space has received wide attention as a key indicator of its efficiency and performance. The spatial vitality of underground space is affected by many factors, including function, spatial configuration, transport environment, and pedestrian-oriented design features. This study takes the underground space of Shanghai Hongqiao Business District (Phase I), one of the most successful integrated railway station-city development projects, as a case to explore the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of spatial vitality and its influencing factors. Multilevel linear models were used to analyze the relationship between pedestrian flow and its influencing factors. Random forest models were used to investigate the relative importance of influencing factors on spatial vitality. This study verified that the distance to the transportation hub and spatial configurations calculated by space syntax are the two most essential factors for vitality. The number of retail stores and walkway width impact the vitality on weekends. The results shed light on our understanding of the urban vitality in the underground space and provide some tentative suggestions for the planning and design of underground space in high-density cities.

Microscopic modeling of attention-based movement behaviors

For transportation hubs, leveraging pedestrian flows for commercial activities presents an effective strategy for funding maintenance and infrastructure improvements. However, this introduces new challenges, as consumer behaviors can disrupt pedestrian flow and efficiency. To optimize both retail potential and pedestrian efficiency, careful strategic planning in store layout and facility dimensions was done by expert judgement due to the complexity in pedestrian dynamics in the retail areas of transportation hubs. This paper introduces an attention-based movement model to simulate these dynamics. By simulating retail potential of an area through the duration of visual attention it receives, and pedestrian efficiency via speed loss in pedestrian walking behaviors, the study further explores how design features can influence the retail potential and pedestrian efficiency in a bi-directional corridor inside a transportation hub.

Развитие подходов к оценке эффективности функционирования пассажирских транспортно-пересадочных узлов

Objective: the article proposes a method for assessing the efficiency of passenger transport hubs, based on the key principles of operation management. Methods: to achieve the goal of the study, methods of calculating coefficients evaluating compliance with the basic principles of operations management, methods of statistical analysis and data processing, and the method of simulation are used. To carry out the research, materials from scientific papers on the chosen topic, periodicals, as well as Internet resources, including open data from the St. Petersburg Transport Committee, were used. Results: the main scientific result is a method developed by the author to evaluate the efficiency of passenger transport hubs, based on the key principles of operations management. The proposed method takes into account the specifics and characteristics of passenger transport hubs and can be used at any stage of their life cycle, including at the design stage. Unlike the available methods, the proposed methodology allows timely detection and elimination of “bottlenecks” in the planning solutions of a passenger transport hub. Practical significance: as a result of testing the methodology on the example of the Volkovskaya transport interchange hub project, practical recommendations were formed to eliminate bottlenecks and increase the capacity of the facility. The author’s developments can be used in the executive bodies of state power responsible for the development of urban transport infrastructure, and in design organizations in the planning processes for the construction and modernization of passenger transport hubs, as well as in evaluating the effectiveness of their work.

From the Bamiyan Grottoes to the Yungang Grottoes in China:An Exploration of historical traces and reasons of cultural blending

The Bamiyan Grottoes in Afghanistan are the epitome of cultural integration , integrating Greek , Persian , Indian , White Huns and other cultures . The Yungang Grottoes in China , which were influenced by the Bamiyan Grottoes , not only have many characteristics of the combination of Chinese and foreign cultures , There is also the imprint of the cultural integration of the Chinese nation . There are three reasons for cultural integration : first , the grottoes have a superior geographical location ; second, the superior geographical location makes the area where the grottoes are located not only a transportation hub , but also a place full of political and cultural disputes and friction, thus cultural exchanges are extremely frequent ; Third , local rulers implemented proper cultural decisions and treated different cultures with an inclusive attitude .

Characterising travel behaviour patterns of transport hub station area users using mobile phone data

Understanding the travel behaviour of transport hub users is vital for improving transport services. Although previous research has explored passenger behaviour in and around transport hubs, there is a lack of comprehensive studies on travel patterns within hub station areas. To this end, this study harnessed mobile phone data to analyse the travel behaviour within a hub station area, using Beijing South Railway Station as a representative case. A series of recognition criteria was set up based on spatio-temporal information to categorize users within the station area. We categorised station area users into transport hub users (THU) and non-transport-hub users (NTHU) and examined their distinct travel patterns. The results reveal distinct travel patterns for THU and NTHU. NTHU are predominantly concentrated in and around the station area. THU, however, display longer trip distances and more widely distributed endpoints. In terms of travel time distribution, NTHU show evident morning and evening peak phenomena, while the travel time distribution of THU fluctuates throughout the day. The study also employed association rule analysis to illustrate strong connections between the station area, Beijing's core, central areas, and even urban fringe areas. The results reveal that the station area is most closely connected to the core and central areas of Beijing, from where many users are attracted to the station area. In addition, some urban fringe areas also have strong connections with the station area. These findings inform urban transport planning and personalised travel services.

Deformation characteristics and instability mechanism of transportation hub under downward traversal conditions of the double-track super-large diameter shield tunnel

To investigate the deformation characteristics and instability mechanism of the transportation hub under downward traversal conditions of the double-track super-large diameter shield tunnel, take the example of Beijing East Sixth Ring Road into the ground reconstruction project. Using the field experimental monitoring method and numerical simulation method, after verifying the accuracy of the model, this manuscript begins to unfold the analysis. The results show that, without any deformation prevention and control measures, The basement raft of the underground structure of the transportation hub will produce a deformation difference of 18 ​mm, and the tensile stress is more than 1.43 ​MPa, the inhomogeneous deformation and structural cracking will lead to structural instability and groundwater surges, which seriously affects the safe operation of the transportation hub station. When control measures are taken, the deformation and stress of the base raft slab of the underground structure of the transportation hub are within the prescribed limits, which can ensure the safe operation of the station. The displacement of the base slab of the underground structure in the horizontal direction of the cross-section is all pointing to the east, and the overall trend is to shift from the first tunnel to the backward tunnel. The horizontal displacement of the base slab in the direction of the tunnel axis all points to the beginning of the crossing, and the displacement of the slab in the vertical direction is distributed as "rising in the middle and sinking in the surroundings". For a two-lane super-large diameter shield tunnel penetrating an underground structure, there are two mechanical effects: unloading rebound and perimeter rock pressure. The above deformation characteristics are the superposition effect produced by the two, and this fine assessment of the deformation of the raft foundation provides a scientific basis for formulating the deformation control countermeasures of the crossing project. At the same time, it makes up for the blank of the double-track super-large diameter shield tunnel down through the transportation hub project.

Factors affecting the formation of the architectural and planning structure of service facilities located at public transport interchange

In the article, the author conducted an analysis of scientific researches on the organization of the structure of service facilities within transport interchanges. It was found that there are a number of works devoted specifically to transport and interchange nodes without a service structure. Such researches has been done for airports, railway stations and bus stations. There are several works devoted to the organization of service facilities within the transport hubs of urban public transport and airports in the structure of aerotropolises. There are several researches devoted to general proposals for the organization of ancillary service facilities in locations of public activity. No researches have been found regarding the determination of factors influencing the organization of service facilities within transport interchanges. Therefore, the author formulated three main groups of factors based on the identified trends and the analyzed project experience. These are socio-technological, natural climatic and technogenic factors. As a conclusion, it can be noted that the first group of factors has an influence on the formation of the list of related services through feedback from the environment and also determines the request for their level of comfort, which, among other things, is put forward to the list of services, the general appearance of buildings and the use of technological equipment. The second group determines the volume-spatial and structural solutions of transport interchanges and service facilities located within them. The third group defines urban planning placement, the use of the latest technologies, including for energy saving, noise and vibration protection, and environmental protection.

Design and analysis of ride-sourcing services with auxiliary autonomous vehicles for transportation hubs in multi-modal transportation systems

Autonomous vehicles (AVs), which can be fully controlled by remote/online operators, could be an extension of ride-sourcing services provided by transportation network companies (TNCs). Meanwhile, substitutive and complementary relationships between ride-sourcing and public transit could also help TNCs increase their profit under certain strategies. Unlike previous studies that generally ignored either AVs or interactions between public transit and ride-sourcing, we introduce AV-involved operational strategies into a multi-modal system. In this paper, we focus on transportation hubs in an urban area and let the TNC assign AVs to these hubs for serving only within that particular hub at a differentiated fare; meanwhile, passengers could choose among AVs, human-driven vehicles (HVs), combined modes with public transit and AVs or HVs, or other travel modes to fulfill their travel needs. We develop a mathematical model to investigate the impacts of such an operational strategy, and formulate an optimisation problem to maximise the TNC's profit and minimise total waiting time simultaneously by adjusting AV fare and fleet size. We further propose a comprehensive modeling framework with the analytical model, optimisation problem, calibration method, and heuristic algorithm, making it a general approach for different real-world scenarios. Following the framework, we conduct a case study based on real-world datasets of public transit and ride-sourcing services in Hangzhou, China. Different market schemes are analyzed and compared with the currently existing situation. The results demonstrate that by adopting this auxiliary-AV-oriented operational strategy, the TNC's profit and public transit ridership can both be increased, and passengers could enjoy a shorter waiting time for HV ride-sourcing trips. Moreover, the TNC is more inclined to allocate more AVs to hubs with large commute needs and uncongested traffic, leading to a high profit for the TNC and a short waiting time for passengers. Societal preferences towards AV trips are also analyzed. The results provide in-depth references for real-world AV-related ride-sourcing operational problems.

Passenger spatiotemporal distribution prediction in airport terminals based on physics-guided spatio-temporal graph convolutional network and its effect on indoor environment prediction

The airport as an important transportation hub plays a leading role in promoting sustainable cities and new-type urbanization. To boost safe, environmental-friendly and technologically advanced airports, the passenger travel behavior as a core that decides the resource allocation, system tuning and capacity dispatching, must be grasped. Previous research in passenger distribution prediction focused on physics-based methods or only mining temporal dynamics. In this work, a refined passenger distribution prediction was modeled based on a learning-based method embedding physical prior knowledge, and then its effects on indoor environment prediction were analyzed. Among them, based on insect intelligent building architecture, a virtual spatial graph was defined in Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport Terminal 2, then a Wi-Fi positioning system was constructed; Next, a physics-guided spatio-temporal graph convolutional network, considering both the spatial dependencies and the passenger arrival pattern extracted from cost-free flight schedules, was developed for domestic and international passenger distribution predictions with R2 over 0.87 and 0.76 respectively; Lastly, the contributions of predicted occupant densities to the indoor environment prediction were evaluated with results showing that the average R2 for indoor temperature, relative humidity and CO2 concentration prediction was enhanced by 0.4 %∼91.5 %, 0.2 %∼29.7 % and 0.4 %∼45.4 % respectively as the prediction horizon broadening.

Numerical investigation and dynamics of pollutant dispersion in underground restroom ventilation

Urbanization is expanding in both surface and underground space, where the air quality in underground space restrooms in public transportation hubs is a huge challenge due to variations in passenger’ flow and specific features. The pollution in the underground restrooms mainly comes from the microorganisms and odors of human waste. This paper proposes a back-side air exhaust method for the restroom compartment to enhance pollutants removal efficiency, and an optimal design study is performed to determine the best device position, evacuation pressure, and air exchange rate. In response to research gaps, we introduced the influence of unsteady human breathing behavior and human obstacles coupled with the flow field and the pollutants diffusion in the CFD model. After model verification, we numerically investigated the effect of different ventilation modes. The results show that the top evacuation mode may accelerate the diffusion of pollutants. In contrast, the pollutant concentration around the mouth and the spillage outward from the door cracks are significantly reduced under the new ventilation mode. The standardized and actual concentrations of the pollutant and the normalized exposure index were used to assess the indoor air quality. Finally, we put forward a series of dynamical models to describe the variation of indoor pollutant concentrations over time. The study's results will provide reliable theoretical and numerical support to improve the air quality of public restrooms in urban underground spaces.

Research on charging demands of commercial electric vehicles based on Voronoi diagram and spatial econometrics model: An empirical study in Chongqing China

In order to address the mismatch between the current charging demand of electric vehicles and the layout of charging stations, this paper collects multi-source heterogeneous data that may affect charging demand, and explores their spatiotemporal distributions in depth. Then, this paper proposes a Voronoi polygon spatial partitioning method based on charging demand clustering and two spatial econometric models, spatial lag model (SLM) and spatial error model (SEM), to quantitatively analyze the influences of various elements on charging demands. Empirical research in Chongqing, China reveals that the spatiotemporal distribution of charging demand is uneven, with peak areas and periods for charging, and the division of Voronoi polygon can better reflect the spatial heterogeneity of charging demands than regular grid division. The positive factors include the low SOC, parking lot density, population density, and road network density, especially the low SOC and parking lot density, and the negative items contain consumption related Point Of Interest (POI), tourism related POI, and transportation hub related POI. Among them, population density and road network density, as static data, have similar influences on charging demands at different intervals, while the impact of other factors on charging demand varies with periods, with obvious peak-valley characteristics. There is spatial dependence and lag effect between charging demands within polygons, causing SLM outperforms SEM. The research results are beneficial for the rational siting and optimization of charging stations.

Spatiotemporal analysis of urban development patterns and COVID-19 in Mashhad, Iran

This study evaluates the impact of city spatial development patterns on the spread of airborne pandemics, focusing on Mashhad, Iran. Using ArcGIS spatial statistics, 91 spatial indices were examined between March 5, 2020, and October 2, 2021, during five distinct waves of the virus, revealing that private vehicle ownership and limited use of public transportation did not significantly reduce COVID-19 infection rates in Mashhad. Instead, factors such as proximity to transportation hubs, healthcare facility polarization, and retail shop distribution had a significant impact. Surprisingly, demographic vulnerability and conventional population-related factors had relatively minor effects. The study also highlights the influence of building concentration with high floor area ratios (FAR) and the impact of local authorities' optimism in reducing social distancing measures, especially in travel and traffic control, on the increased spread of the virus during recent waves.

A traffic dynamic operation risk assessment method using driving behaviors and traffic flow Data: An empirical analysis

Presently, traffic safety analysis is mainly based on accident-based indicators, but they are incidental and small probability events, making safety analysis based on accident-related data difficult to achieve a comprehensive application in network size, and to realize risk assessment before accidents occur. To this end, this study innovatively develops a metric named Traffic Dynamic Operation Risk (TDOR) based on aggressive driving behaviors (ADBs) and traffic flow data for traffic safety evaluation. And Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) is adopted to explore the quantitative risk under the coupling of multiple risk factors. The results show that: 1) segments with high TDOR are always concentrated in a certain area and in a spatial distribution of Gaussian, and the peaks of these distributions are almost the assesses of transportation hubs or complex intersections; 2) traffic volume and coefficient of speed variation are the significant risk factors at ordinary sections and branches, while traffic volume and speed difference between upstream are the largest contributions at intersections; 3) roads with more accidents are associated with a higher TDOR, but the relationship between the two is not completely linearly correlated. The experimental results show that it is reasonable and feasible to use ADBs and traffic flow parameters to quantify traffic safety risks. Compared with other matrix factorization methods, the importance of variables based on NMF is more interpretable and more consistent with the change pattern of risk variables. The method proposed in this paper can change the previous traffic risk assessment pattern based on accident-related indicators and provide a basis for pre-accident risk prevention.

Collision avoidance behaviours of luggage-laden pedestrians

Understanding how pedestrians move and avoid collisions is essential for ensuring safety in crowded environments. In this study, we conducted detailed experiments, focusing on variables such as movement type (walking and running), encounter angles (90 and 180 degrees), and pedestrian characteristics. We analyzed a total of 168 trajectories to gain insights into the collision avoidance strategies employed by luggage-laden pedestrians. Our study highlights the significant impact of luggage on the minimum avoidance distance in vertical encounters, while head-on approaches show limited influence. We use the minimum predicted distance to evaluate time avoidance time, with particular focus on the presence of luggage as a pivotal determinant. Furthermore, we conduct a comprehensive categorization on pedestrian behaviors when carrying luggage, taking into account their speed and trajectory. Our findings reveal distinct strategies adopted by luggage-laden pedestrians when avoiding from the left and right sides. Interestingly, pedestrians employ more efficient conflict mitigation tactics when interacting with luggage-laden individuals approaching from the left compared to the right side. These insights are valuable for optimizing crowd management strategies, particularly in transportation hubs with luggage-laden crowds.

A dynamic approach to support outbreak management using reinforcement learning and semi-connected SEIQR models

BackgroundContainment measures slowed the spread of COVID-19 but led to a global economic crisis. We establish a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm that balances disease control and economic activities.MethodsTo train the RL agent, we design an RL environment with 4 semi-connected regions to represent the COVID-19 epidemic in Tokyo, Osaka, Okinawa, and Hokkaido, Japan. Every region is governed by a Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Quarantined-Removed (SEIQR) model and has a transport hub to connect with other regions. The allocation of the synthetic population and inter-regional traveling is determined by population-weighted density. The agent learns the best policy from interacting with the RL environment, which involves obtaining daily observations, performing actions on individual movement and screening, and receiving feedback from the reward function. After training, we implement the agent into RL environments describing the actual epidemic waves of the four regions to observe the agent’s performance.ResultsFor all epidemic waves covered by our study, the trained agent reduces the peak number of infectious cases and shortens the epidemics (from 165 to 35 cases and 148 to 131 days for the 5th wave). The agent is generally strict on screening but easy on movement, except for Okinawa, where the agent is easy on both actions. Action timing analyses indicate that restriction on movement is elevated when the number of exposed or infectious cases remains high or infectious cases increase rapidly, and stringency on screening is eased when the number of exposed or infectious cases drops quickly or to a regional low. For Okinawa, action on screening is tightened when the number of exposed or infectious cases increases rapidly.ConclusionsOur experiments exhibit the potential of the RL in assisting policy-making and how the semi-connected SEIQR models establish an interactive environment for imitating cross-regional human flows.