Investigating the Influence of Dockless Electric Bike-share on Travel Behavior, Attitudes, Health, and Equity

Cities throughout the world have implemented bike-share systems as a strategy for expanding mobility options. While these have attracted substantial ridership, little is known about their influence on travel behavior more broadly. The aim of this study was to examine how shared electric bikes (e-bikes) and e-scooters influence individual travel attitudes and behavior, and related outcomes of physical activity and transportation equity. The study involved a survey in the greater Sacramento area of 1959 households before (Spring 2016) and 988 after (Spring 2019) the Summer 2018 implementation of the e-bike and e-scooterservice operated by Jump, Inc., as well as a direct survey of 703 e-bike users (in Fall 2018 & Spring 2019). Among householdrespondents, 3–13% reported having used the service. Of e-bike share trips, 35% substituted for car travel, 30% substituted for walking, and 5% were used to connect to transit. Before- and after-household surveys indicated a slight decrease in self-reported (not objectively measured) median vehicle miles traveled and slight positive shifts in attitudes towards bicycling. Service implementation was associated with minimal changes in health in terms of physical activity and numbers of collisions. The percentages of users by self-reported student status, race, and income suggest a fairly equitable service distribution by these parameters, but each survey under-represents racial minorities and people with low incomes. Therefore, the study is inconclusive about how this service impacts those most in need. Furthermore, aggregated socio-demographics of areas where trips started or ended did not correlate with, and therefore are not reliable indicators of, the socio-demographics of e-bike-share users. Thus, targeted surveying of racial minorities and people with low-incomes is needed to understand bike-share equity

Study on Biofortification of Rice by Targeted Genetic Engineering

Micronutrient malnutrition is a major health problem in Bangladesh and also in many other developing countries, where a diversified diet is not affordable for the majority. In the present world- one, out of seven people suffers from hunger. Yet, there is a stealthier form of hunger than lack of food: micronutrient malnutrition or hidden hunger. While often providing enough calories, monotonous diets (of rural poor) frequently fail to deliver sufficient quantities of essential minerals and vitamins. Due to micronutrient deficiencies different characteristic features have been observed to the victims. Various estimates indicate that over two-thirds of the world population, for the most part women and children specially, pre-school children are deficient in at least one micronutrient. This can have devastating consequences for the life, health and well being of the individuals concerned (like premature death, blindness, weakened immune systems etc). Genetic engineering approach is the upcoming strategy to solve this problem. Genetically engineered biofortified staple crops specially, rice that are high in essential micronutrients (Fe, Zn, vitamin A) and adapted to local growing environments have the potential to significantly reduce the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies specially to the rural poor. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijarit.v2i2.14011 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 2 (2): 25-35, December, 201

Evaluation of Pedestrian Level of Service of Selected Footpath Segments of Dhaka City Using Multi-criteria Decision Making Approach

Walking is considered to be the most important mode of travel across the world particularly for a shortdistance trip Since 19 6 of the trips are made by the foot in Dhaka it is necessary to ensure a friendly walking environment in the footpath for the welfare of pedestrians of Dhaka This study aims to make a comparative analysis of Pedestrian Level of Service PLOS of selected footpath segments along Segun Bagicha road Toynbee Circular Road Mirpur Road and Baily road Pedestrian Level of Service has been determined based on ten factors path width pedestrian volume crossing facilities availability of buffer distance from vehicular traffic surface quality comfort walking environment the existence of street light The weight of each factor has been determined through the Multi-criteria analysis approach Analytical Hierarchy Process Path width Pedestrian volume and the existence of buffer are the first second and third most important factors PLOS has been determined based on the indexed value of factors and weight of factors All the sections were found to have poor PLOS The findings of the study will be helpful for transport policymakers to improve the condition of these factors to ensure a better walking condition for pedestrians of selected footpath section

Pavement maintenance procedures with and without milling materials

AbstractThis study evaluates maintenance treatment followed by different Districts of New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT). In addition, two case studies on the use of old pavement materials, called the “millings”, in maintenance projects are reported. Based on this study, it is observed that none of the Districts have a written procedure for maintenance work. Rather Districts rely on the experience of the maintenance crew for conducting maintenance projects. All Districts prefer to use chip seal for maintenance irrespective of distress conditions of the pavements. Patching and crack sealing are usually done before chip sealing to extend the life of the chip seals. Sand seal, scrub seal, and slurry seal projects are not done by District maintenance crews but by outside contractors. It is also observed that all Districts are interested in using millings in maintenance projects and most have already used millings in at least one maintenance project with some success and failure. Most of the Districts have used coarse fraction of millings in chip seal projects successfully. However, they failed to find a proper way to process the fine fractions of millings. Case Study I shows that fine millings can be used to construct thin overlay when mixed with emulsion in pug mill or hot drums. Case Study II concludes that fine millings can be used as fine/sand seal successfully following the same procedure and using the same equipment as chip seal

Study of Fuzzy Controller to control vertical position of an air-cushion tracked vehicle

This paper presents the fuzzy logic control system of an air-cushion tracked vehicle (ACTV) operating on swamp peat terrain. Vehicle vertical position is maintained by using an inflated air-cushion system attached with the vehicle. It is desired that the vehicle vertical position be maintained at a desired position so that vehicle obtains sufficient traction control and to propel the driving system. To accomplish this task, it is required that the error between the actual position and the desired position equal to zero, and the differential position rate also be equal to zero. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to develop an appropriate control strategy for an air-cushion system by using fuzzy logic expert system. Air-cushion system is controlled by the electronic proportional control valve and fuzzy logic controller (FLC) with associating the output signal of the distance (height) measuring sensor attached with the vehicle. In this control scheme the fundamental goal is to employ the fuzzy logic expert system to set the fuzzy rules and to actuate the electronic proportional valve in order to obtain appropriate valve control actions. Experimental values are taken in the laboratory for control system testing to investigate the relationship between vehicle vertical position and air-cushion system

Hybrid electrical air-cushion tracked vehicle for swamp peat in Malaysia

The aim of this paper is to present a hybrid electrical air-cushion tracked vehicle (HETAV) for the operation on swamp peat. Mathematical models are incorporated with accounting kinematics and dynamics behaviors of the vehicle. Sinkage of the HETAV is sensed by an ultrasonic displacement (UD) sensor, in order to operate the air-cushion system. The air-cushion of HETAV is protected with a novel-design auto-adjusting supporting (AAS) system. A propeller is equipped with the vehicle to develop additional thrust for overcoming the dragging motion resistance of the air-cushion system . The performance of the HETAV is defined by traction and motion resistance. The mean value of traction for the swamp terrain with propeller over without propeller increases 10.21% and 6.47% for the vehicle weight of 1.02 kN and 2.04 kN, respectively. Similarly, it was found that the mean values of vehicle’s motion resistance decrease 12.63% and 25.81% for the vehicle weight of 2.45 kN and 3.43 kN, respectively

Intelligent air-cushion tracked vehicle performance investigation: neural-networks

The Intelligent Air-Cushion Tracked Vehicle (IACTV) is given focus as an alternative to conventional off-road vehicles, which are driven by track and air-cushion systems. To make the IACTV as effi cient as possible, proper investigation of the vehicle’s performance is essential. The most relevant factors that affect the competitive effi ciency of the (ACTV) are the Tractive Effort (TE), Motion Resistance (MR) and Power Consumption (PC). Therefore, an Artifi cial Neural-Network (ANN) model is proposed to investigate the vehicle’s performance. Cushion Clearance Height (CH), and Air-Cushion Pressure (CP)are used at the input layers, while PC, TE and MR are used at the output layers. Experiments are carried out in the fi eld to investigate the vehicle’s performance, and the fi ndings are compared with the results obtained from ANN

Study on the development of a fuzzy logic control electromagnetic actuated CVT system

This paper conducts the preliminary research of an Electromagnetic Actuated Continuously Variable Transmission (EMA-CVT) system of quarter scale. An EMA-CVT system is consisted of two pairs of electromagnetic actuators (solenoid)attached with primary and secondary pulley in order to develop the attraction and repulsive forces. The relationships between the speed ratio and electromagnetic actuation and clamping force and output torque of the CVT are established based on the kinematics of the EMA-CVT system. This study also focused on fuzzy logic based controller (FLC) to precise control for pushing and pulling the sheaves based on the feedback of the RPM sensor and slope sensor. The EMA-CVT performance with controller is 28% more than that of the EMA-CVT without controller. The solenoids of the EMA were activated by varying the current supply with the Fuzzy-Proportional-Derivative-Integrator (FPID)to maintain the non-linearity of the CVT in response of the vehicle traction torque demand. Result shows that the solenoid able to pull the plunger in the desired distance with supply current of 12.5 amp while push the plunger to the desired distance with 14.00 amp current supply to the windings when the vehicle is considered in 10% grad. The acceleration time of the ¼ scale car has been recorded as 5.5 s with the response of drive wheels torque

Study on the development of a fuzzy logic control electromagnetic actuated CVT system

Electromagnetic actuated continuously variable transmission (EMA-CVT) system consists of two pairs of electromagnetic actuators (solenoid) attached with primary and secondary pulley in order to develop the attraction and repulsive forces. Kinematics of EMA is established for electromagnetic actuation and clamping force. This study also focused on fuzzy logic based controller (FLC) to precisely control for pushing and pulling the sheaves. The EMA-CVT performance with controller is 28% more than that of without controller. The solenoids of the EMA were activated by varying the current supply with the (FPID) to maintain the non-linearity of the EMA in response of the vehicle traction torque demand. Result shows that 12.5 amp and 14.00 amp current supply is needed for pulling and pushing respectively. The acceleration time of the 1/4 scale car has been recorded as 5.5 s with the response of drive wheels torque