Transportation Research Group Research Articles

The regional cycle network of Sardinia: upgrading the accessibility of rural areas through a comprehensive island-wide cycle network

ContextCycling is a climate-friendly means of transport that enables people to reduce their use of motorized transport and makes human settlements more inclusive and resilient. In Italy, the development of cycling has recently been boosted by the approval of Law no. 2/2018, which makes it compulsory for all Italian regions to draw up a regional cycling mobility plan.ObjectiveTo meet this regulatory provision, the Region of Sardinia approved the Regional Plan for Cycling Mobility in December 2018. Drawn up by the Sardinian Regional Transport Agency and the transportation research group of the University of Cagliari, the plan aims to lay out a regional cycle network to promote the use of the bicycle as a means of transport for both every day and tourist–recreational needs. One of the main objectives of the plan is to make the inland areas of the island more accessible, as the development of such areas tends to have been neglected compared to the coastal areas linked to seaside tourism. Hence, the plan intends to contribute to the increase of tourist flows into rural areas, which can be a strategic segment of local development.ResultsBy analysing the methodology adopted to lay out Sardinia’s regional cycle network, the aim of the current paper is to show how the planning of an integrated cycle network in an island context can improve sustainable mobility and accessibility in the rural areas through which it passes. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that many rural settlements along the routes of the planned cycle network are sufficiently near each other for people to travel between them by bicycle.ConclusionsTherefore, the cycling infrastructure could prompt a sustainable increase in the accessibility and connectivity of inland areas and stimulate the formation of clusters of small, interconnected towns and villages.

Human factors and ergonomics and the response to COVID‐19

Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service IndustriesVolume 31, Issue 4 p. 329-332 EDITORIAL Human factors and ergonomics and the response to COVID-19 Katherine L. Plant, Katherine L. Plant Transportation Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UKSearch for more papers by this authorMary E. Fendley, Corresponding Author Mary E. Fendley [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0001-5493-1845 Industrial Engineering, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, USA Correspondence Mary E. Fendley, Industrial Engineering, Louisiana Tech University, 226 Bogard Hall, Dan Reneau Dr, Ruston, LA 71212, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author Katherine L. Plant, Katherine L. Plant Transportation Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UKSearch for more papers by this authorMary E. Fendley, Corresponding Author Mary E. Fendley [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0001-5493-1845 Industrial Engineering, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, USA Correspondence Mary E. Fendley, Industrial Engineering, Louisiana Tech University, 226 Bogard Hall, Dan Reneau Dr, Ruston, LA 71212, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author First published: 11 June 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20923Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume31, Issue4Special Issue: Human factors and ergonomics and the response to COVID‐19July 2021Pages 329-332 RelatedInformation

Preface

ISCEE2020, our 3rd International Symposium on Civil and Environmental Engineering was successfully organized on 1 and 2 December 2020. This is the first symposium in the history of ISCEE which is completely conducted on a digital platform in line with the social distancing norms due to Covid-19 pandemic over the world. The theme of this symposium is “Shaping the Future Through Sustainable Engineering and Technology” which is in line with global sustainable development goals. We prepare the world for the future generation. Hand-to-hand in making the world a better place to live.This biannual event was organized by Faculty of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia as a platform for scientists, researchers and engineers to share their knowledge, expertise and experiences as well as current research outcome in creating sustainable and environmental friendly world. Cooperation with Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Universitas Airlangga from Indonesia and Pavement and Transportation Research Group from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) further strengthen the close relationship between universities not only at the national level but also internationally.ISCEE2020 reaches the major area in Civil Engineering including sustainable environment and water research, sustainable structures and construction, as well as sustainable infrastructure engineering. This proceeding contains 100 papers presented at the symposium using Zoom platform. All papers have been peer reviewed and passed several stages of edition procedures. We are highly appreciated the contribution from researchers, reviewers and committees in order to ensure the successful of this symposium.List of CONFERENCE COMMITTEE are available in the pdf.

Queensland University of Technology Transport Research Group [ITS Research Lab

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Transport Research Group (Figure 1) focuses on advancing knowledge, engineering, and science in traffic management and control; travel behavior; performance evaluation; traffic safety; data analytics; and public and active transportation. Our work is underpinned by a strong intelligent transportation systems foundation. We have a long-standing, productive relationship with the Queensland Department of Transport and the Main Roads and Motor Accident Insurance Commission through our Transport Academic Partnership agreement, and we recently established a partnership with the Brisbane City Council. Through these networks, we undertake strategic transport research and development and build mutual transport capability within the university sector, government agencies, and industry to address existing and emerging transportation challenges.

Comparison of SUMO and SiMTraM for Indian Traffic Scenario Representation

A simulation model enables abstraction of a real system and permits one to focus on interesting phenomena. At the same time, the results obtained using simulation study are eloquent and useful only if the simulation model closely represents the real world scenario. Many traffic simulators are available in literature (e.g. SUMO, VISSIM, VanetMobiSim, PARAMICS, etc. to name a few) that permit microscopic traffic simulation. However, most of them model lane based traffic movement and homogeneous vehicles. SUMO supports customized vehicle types like two wheelers, three wheelers, cars, etc. However, it enforces lane discipline on all the vehicles, including smaller vehicles (like two wheelers) which is very unrealistic. On Indian roads, large fraction of vehicles are two wheeler and traffic is less lane disciplined. To overcome the limitations of SUMO, and for better modeling of Indian traffic scenario, SiMTraM was developed by the transportation research group at IIT Bombay. SiMTraM divides lane width into multiple strips and assigns road space to vehicles in terms of number of strips, thereby permitting multiple small vehicles to share the lane width. However, SiMTraM was developed by adapting older version of SUMO (version 0.12) and after its development, was not adapted for later versions of SUMO which had many better features for more realistic traffic scenario representation. In our study we redeveloped SiMTraM by adapting SUMO 0.17 version and made it available as open source to the user community. We carried out detailed performance analysis of SUMO 0.17 and the adapted SiMTraM (now onwards called upgraded SiMTraM) with respect to the edge level vehicle flow, speed and flow-speed relationship for various traffic scenarios. The simulation results show that upgraded SiMTraM permits more realistic representation of Indian traffic scenario.

A Comprehensive Analysis of the Association of Highway Traffic with Winter Weather Conditions

This paper is based on the past several years of research carried out by transportation research group at the University of Regina, Canada to understand the impact of cold and snow on traffic volume during winter months in Canada. A detailed investigation of highway traffic variations i.e. total traffic, passenger car and truck traffic with severity of cold, the amount of snow, and various combinations of cold and snow intensities is presented here. These investigations were conducted using hourly traffic data from 350 permanent traffic counter sites, 6 Weigh in Motion sites and weather data from 598 weather stations located in the province of Alberta, Canada, from 1995 to 2010. Multiple regression analysis is used in the modeling process. The model parameters include three sets of variables: the amount of snowfall as a quantitative variable, categorized cold as a dummy variable, and an interaction variable formed by the product of these two variables. The study results indicate that the association of highway traffic flow with cold and snow varies with day of week, hour of day, and severity of weather conditions. A reduction of 1% to 2% in total traffic volume for each centimeter of snowfall is observed when the mean temperature is above 0°C. For the days with zero precipitation, reductions in total traffic volume due to mild and severe cold are 1% and 31%, respectively. An additional reduction of 0.5% to 3% per centimeter of snowfall results when snowfall occurs during severe cold conditions. Traffic volumes decreased with increase in the severity of cold temperatures. During extremely cold weather (below -25°C), the average winter daily traffic volume was reduced by about 30%. Weekend traffic volumes were more susceptible to cold than weekday numbers for all types of highways. Commuter and regional commuter roads experienced the lowest variations with cold. The impact of cold was very high for recreational roads and moderate for rural, long distance roads. This study also shows a clear indication in the reduction in daily traffic volumes due to snow (reductions between 7% and 17% for each centimeter of snowfall were observed). When individual vehicle classes were analyzed, it is found that passenger cars are more vulnerable to adverse weather conditions than trucks. Trucks are not as greatly affected as passenger cars by adverse weather conditions. Interestingly, the modeling results for one of the study sites reveal that higher truck traffic volumes can result during heavy snowfall (or other adverse weather conditions) in winter months due to shifting of trucks from secondary highways with poor winter maintenance to primary highways. This is contradictory to observations from other similar studies in the literature. The traffic-weather models developed from the past studies have two majorapplications in transportation engineering. These models have been tested for: (1) imputation of missing traffic data during winter months and (2) estimation of annual average daily traffic (AADT) from short-term traffic counts undertaken during winter months. The imputation efficiency of the traffic-weather models was compared with the most efficient imputation methods used by highway agencies. A new factor approach, incorporating weather conditions, was proposed in this paper to estimate AADT from short duration counts taken during winter months. Therefore, the developed traffic-weather models can be recommended to highway agencies to impute missing traffic data and to estimate AADT from short duration counts taken during winter months.

Simulation of flow in an idealised city using various CFD codes

In the framework of the COST 732 action, several teams run models to verify the proposed Best Practice Guideline (Franke et al., 2007). The data set concerns the Mock Urban Setting Test (MUST) experiment, where wind field and dispersion measurements were conducted for an array of obstacles as a full-scale experiment, as well as in a wind tunnel. The pollutant transport research group at the Department of Fluid Mechanics of the BME started simulations of flow within this idealised city using two commercial CFD codes, FLUENT and MISKAM. The paper presents results of the flow simulations in the 0 degree MUST case through velocity profiles, contour plots and validation metrics.

Collection and use of environmental data for transport management: a view from local authorities

Research undertaken by the Transportation Research Group at the University of Southampton is discussed, which studies the views, needs and requirements of local authorities as users of sensor grids for environmental monitoring. The study was undertaken through a combination of literature review and workshop activity. Representatives from local authorities were invited to participate in a workshop discussion. It was agreed that more detailed and comprehensive environmental data will be useful for transport planning, network management and traveller information provision. The detailed data can be used to provide a sound understanding of local environmental situations and to identify specific problem areas and times. For local authorities, monitoring noise level and air pollutants which have direct impact on human health such as PM10, PM2.5 and NOx is more important than monitoring green house emission. Historic data on air pollution will be essential for local transport plans focusing on reduction of road-transport-related pollution. Real time environmental data will be needed to be integrated with existing traffic control and traveller information systems. Information on areas surrounding schools and hospitals are most desirable. However, there was a concern regarding negative information disseminated to the public.

The way ahead for London's bus priority at traffic signals

London has a long history of successful schemes for bus priority at traffic signals. Recently, Transport for London (TfL) has procured a modern automatic vehicle location (AVL) system for bus fleet management, passenger information and bus priority. The new system is known as iBUS and is based on global positioning system (GPS) and supporting technologies for bus location. The system eliminates the need for on-street hardware for detecting buses and provides more flexibility and opportunity for using bus detectors. However, bus location based on this system is less accurate than location based on fixed infrastructure (e.g. beacons) and could result in reduced benefits from bus priority. This paper first summarises how bus priority at traffic signals works within iBUS, and then explores the effects of GPS locational errors on bus priority benefits. This is followed by a discussion of opportunities available in the context of iBUS to build an even more efficient and beneficial bus priority system by taking advantage of its cost-effective multiple detection capabilities. The paper is based on various studies carried out by the Transportation Research Group (TRG) at the University of Southampton for TfL.

Achieving personal security in future domestic travel: technology and user needs

Research undertaken by the Transportation Research Group at the University of Southampton, which examined the relationship between technological developments and user needs in relation to personal security in future domestic travel, is discussed. The project engaged recognised experts in these fields in workshop discussion and scenario planning. It was agreed that low-level, sub-criminal or anti-social behaviour was the key barrier to secure travel, whereas terrorism was a marginal issue. However, there was disagreement regarding solution development. The ITS community believed technology would deliver solutions (accepting there were secondary effects to be addressed). The user needs community had little faith in technology, seeing it as an inferior substitute for staff presence. Dialogue will be essential for technological solutions to be sufficiently focused so as to gain public support. Hearts and minds are not yet won, and for solutions to be robust, they must better address user needs.

Evaluation of Effects of Ramp Metering on Merging Operations

Merging on motorways represents one of the most difficult and dynamic maneuvers of all driving subtasks. Merging operations at uncontrolled ramp junctions have been extensively investigated. With the rapid implementation of ramp metering techniques, many junctions are now operated under ramp metering control. Little research has been done to investigate the possible effects of ramp metering on the merging operation. The research described in this paper focuses on the comparisons of merging operations under both metered and unmetered scenarios. Time series data of the merging process were collected with the Transportation Research Group instrumented vehicle and video cameras at a tapered motorway merge site. The data included accurate vehicle speed measured by laser speedometer, leading and following headway measured by radar, and driver's eye movement derived from an in-car camera. Following a comprehensive analysis of the data, it was found that merging operations under ramp control could be significantly different from free merging. Merging maneuvers may become more difficult as a result of ramp control. The equity implications of such effects are discussed. It is believed that the understanding gained from this research will be useful for the design and operation of ramp metering.

Modulation of intracellular calcium by depolarization and G-coupled agonists in isolated cultured rat liver endothelial cells: [formula omitted]2, André-Viallet Clinical Research Center 1, Hôpital St-Luc and Membrane Transport Research Group 2, U. de Montréal, Montréal, Québec

Modulation of intracellular calcium by depolarization and G-coupled agonists in isolated cultured rat liver endothelial cells: [formula omitted]2, André-Viallet Clinical Research Center 1, Hôpital St-Luc and Membrane Transport Research Group 2, U. de Montréal, Montréal, Québec

Interactive Graphics Use in Traffic Noise Modeling

Highway noise predictive modeling has evolved dramatically in recent years. Current state‐of‐the‐art models require the extensive use of three dimensional (X,Y,Z) coordinate data to represent roadways, barriers, and receivers. Introduction of incorrect data is all too common when using such models, because of the need to transfer information from maps to coding forms to computer files. To overcome these problems, the Vanderbilt University Transportation Research Group has developed an interactive computer graphics program, VUPLOT designed to plot coordinate data in plan (X,Y) or profile (X,Z) view. One subroutine of VUPLOT permits the plotting of STAMINA (Standard Method in Noise Reduction computer program)‐type input files or selective plotting of roadways, barrier, or receiver files. Another subroutine overwrites roadway segment noise level contributions to the overall Leq value at a particular receiver, upon a plan view plot of the prediction scenario. This paper examines in detail the interactive use ...