VANET-enabled eco-friendly road characteristics-aware routing for vehicular traffic

There is growing awareness of the dangers of climate change caused by greenhouse gases. In the coming decades this could result in numerous disasters such as heat-waves, flooding and crop failures. A major contributor to the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions is the transport sector, particularly private vehicles. Traffic congestion involving private vehicles also causes a lot of wasted time and stress to commuters. At the same time new wireless technologies such as Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) are being developed which could allow vehicles to communicate with each other. These could enable a number of innovative schemes to reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. 1) EcoTrec is a VANET-based system which allows vehicles to exchange messages regarding traffic congestion and road conditions, such as roughness and gradient. Each vehicle uses the messages it has received to build a model of nearby roads and the traffic on them. The EcoTrec Algorithm then recommends the most fuel efficient route for the vehicles to follow. 2) Time-Ants is a swarm based algorithm that considers not only the amount of cars in the spatial domain but also the amoumt in the time domain. This allows the system to build a model of the traffic congestion throughout the day. As traffic patterns are broadly similar for weekdays this gives us a good idea of what traffic will be like allowing us to route the vehicles more efficiently using the Time-Ants Algorithm. 3) Electric Vehicle enhanced Dedicated Bus Lanes (E-DBL) proposes allowing electric vehicles onto the bus lanes. Such an approach could allow a reduction in traffic congestion on the regular lanes without greatly impeding the buses. It would also encourage uptake of electric vehicles. 4) A comprehensive survey of issues associated with communication centred traffic management systems was carried out

Development of context-sensitive accessibility indicators: a GIS-based modelling approach for Cape Town

Adequate public transport infrastructure and services are essential to facilitate access to basic opportunities, such as jobs, healthcare, education, recreation or shopping, especially in low-income cities where the majority of the low-income population have no access to the car. In the context of transport exclusion and urban poverty, access and accessibility metrics can serve as good indicators for the identification of transport-disadvantaged zones or population groups in a city. In Cape Town, accessibility-based planning is being embraced by the authority as a means of addressing the planning defects of the past apartheid regime, which created a city that is spatially fragmented by race and income levels. Among the agenda outlined in its 5-year Integrated Transport Plan of 2013-2018, is the need to develop a highly integrated public transport network in which all households would have equitable access to the public transport system, especially for the majority of the urban poor who reside in the city outskirts far from major economic centres. Although planning efforts are being made to redeem the defects of the past, there is still the need for tools and indicators to understand the current situation, as well as to further aid planning and decision making about land-use and transport. The objective of this research, therefore, is to develop suitable indicators of accessibility, identify possible spatial and socioeconomic drivers of accessibility and evaluate equity in the distribution of accessibility benefits for various population groups in Cape Town. In the study, transport network data of Cape Town are utilised to develop GIS-based indicators of network access and origin accessibility to various opportunities like jobs, healthcare and education, across various modes of travel. An Access Index measures public transport service presence within a zone, based on route and stops availability. The index is used to compare the coverage levels provided by each mode of public transport in the city. Also, an Accessibility Index is proposed, that measures the number of opportunities 'potentially reachable' within a specified 'reasonable’ travel time. A key consideration in measuring accessibility by public transport is the monetary cost of overcoming distance, based on the pricing structure that exists in Cape Town. Equity in accessibility is further evaluated both vertically and horizontally. Vertical equity is evaluated using a proposed Accessibility Loss Index, which analyses the potential implication of affordability and budget restrictions on accessibility, based on the income level of the poor households. GINI type of measures is also proposed to evaluate horizontal equity across the various population groups for various travel modes. To further understand the likely drivers of accessibility, an exploratory OLS regression technique is employed to investigate the relationship between accessibility and a combination of socioeconomic and built environment features of the study area. The study reveals among other things that potential accessibility achievable by car is far higher than that achievable by public transport. The paratransit mode provides the most extensive access coverage, and the highest level of accessibility among all the public transport modes investigated. However, this mode shows to be one of the most expensive options of travel, especially for low-income households who are likely to be restricted by travel monetary budgets. The train turns out to be the most affordable travel option, although the level of accessibility achievable with the train is much lower compared to the paratransit or regular bus. From a vertical equity perspective, the consideration of transport affordability drastically reduces the opportunity space and potential accessibility for the poorest population group compared to the higher income groups. The study further interrogates the distance-based tariff model of public transport services in Cape Town, which it considered to be detrimental to the welfare of poor households, regarding the potential to access essential opportunities. The contribution of this study to the body of research on accessibility is twofold: methodological and contextual. On the methodological dimension, it presents a GIS based approach of modelling accessibility both for the car and for a multimodal public transport system that combines four modes; bus, train, BRT and a minibus taxi (paratransit). It also builds on existing gravity-based potential accessibility measure by incorporating an affordability dimension. The consideration of affordability adds a further layer that enables vertical equity evaluation by judging the potential for destination reachability by the monetary out-of-pocket cost of travel. This approach is considered to be more sensitive to the context of low-income cities like Cape Town, where low-income household’s daily travel decisions are likely to be more guided by monetary cost

Sustaining critical transport infrastructure space in megacities: multimodal assessment of railway and road systems in Kano & Lagos — Nigeria

Globalisation has the most tremendous negative effects on the changing landscapes of many cities because of the roles of cities as the de facto economy and haven of liveable socioeconomic advantages. As the urban population grows, particularly in developing countries' mega-cities where transport development faces the most complex challenges, a more sophisticated framework of assessment of critical transportation infrastructure and transportation planning is required. This research aims to investigate transport effects of the complex web of interactions of urban chain processes to bring about a more sustainable (and resilient) transport infrastructure development of mega-cities. The interdisciplinary research concepts which incorporate the development of scenario-based applications and prediction techniques involving qualitative and quantitative frameworks were applied to the two Nigerians most populous cities (Lagos and Kano). The framework includes the analysis of spatial-temporal relationship of transport space and urban land use change, congestion and accessibility, sustainability paradigm and themes and ordering of priorities of the intervention policies based on transportation demand management objectives. Data sources include Landsat images, traffic and demographic data, transportation infrastructure inventories, and collaborative engagement with stakeholders and policymakers via questionnaires, interviews, and checklists. First, spatial-temporal analysis was carried out using remote sensing GIS software for land use classification and CA-Markov model implemented in IDRISI SELVA for temporal prediction and its suitability quality. Next is the assessment of accessibility and congestion pattern of the two cities using a surrogate multi-layer feed-forward and back-propagation model involving input-output and curve fitting (NFTOOL) implemented in artificial neural network wizard of MATLAB. Also, the sustainable paradigm and themes were carried using questionnaire and interview instruments and analysed respectively using SPSS and NVivo softwares. Finally, the priorities of intervention policy decision and quality of infrastructure and services were analysed using hybrid SERVQUAL-AHP models. The spatial-temporal analysis of the two cities produced patterns of rising trends for transport and built-up areas while the other land use classes are receding. For example, Kano transport space had grown from 137km$^2$ in 1984 to 290km$^2$ in 2019 while that Lagos grew from 337km$^2$ to 535km$^2$ in the same period. The dynamics model predicts spatial land requirement of Kano city for transport to reach 410km$^2$ in 2050 while Lagos will be needing 692km$^2$ in the same period. Future prediction of the two cities will be highly unsustainable for transport infrastructure. The congestion profile results put the two cities within congestion indices ranging from 7.5 to 10 on a maximum scale of 10, indicating extreme traffic congestion regimes and inaccessibility in the two cities. The sustainability paradigm comprising literacy, sustainable choices and indicators of sustainable transport are below average exposing poor development in the area. Also, the thematic analysis revealed the preponderance of more negative sentiments from the interview over statements of optimism and progress and it corroborates the findings of sustainability paradigm. Finally, satisfaction quality assessment produced low quality scores of 48% and 49% for Kano and Lagos cities respectively. AHP equally allocated more weight to tangibility which defines infrastructure and service qualities. These values are suggestive of the necessity to infrastructure, public transit systems and management of transport demand in the decision policy making. To deal with rising urbanization trends in Nigerian cities and maintain liveable and accessible urban environments, aggressive push—and—pull policies that improve and increase transport infrastructure quality and drive sustainable transport, promote modal split, reduced motorization, and access control is recommended

Security and Privacy for Modern Wireless Communication Systems

The aim of this reprint focuses on the latest protocol research, software/hardware development and implementation, and system architecture design in addressing emerging security and privacy issues for modern wireless communication networks. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the following: deep-learning-based security and privacy design; covert communications; information-theoretical foundations for advanced security and privacy techniques; lightweight cryptography for power constrained networks; physical layer key generation; prototypes and testbeds for security and privacy solutions; encryption and decryption algorithm for low-latency constrained networks; security protocols for modern wireless communication networks; network intrusion detection; physical layer design with security consideration; anonymity in data transmission; vulnerabilities in security and privacy in modern wireless communication networks; challenges of security and privacy in node–edge–cloud computation; security and privacy design for low-power wide-area IoT networks; security and privacy design for vehicle networks; security and privacy design for underwater communications networks

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Models and Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems 2013

Challenges arising from an increasing traffic demand, limited resource availability and growing quality expectations of the customers can only be met successfully, if each transport mode is regarded as an intelligent transportation system itself, but also as part of one intelligent transportation system with “intelligent” intramodal and intermodal interfaces. This topic is well reflected in the Third International Conference on “Models and Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems” which took place in Dresden 2013 (previous editions: Rome 2009, Leuven 2011). With its variety of traffic management problems that can be solved using similar methods and technologies, but with application specific models, objective functions and constraints the conference stands for an intensive exchange between theory and practice and the presentation of case studies for all transport modes and gives a discussion forum for control engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and other researchers and practitioners. The present book comprises fifty short papers accepted for presentation at the Third Edition of the conference. All submissions have undergone intensive reviews by the organisers of the special sessions, the members of the scientific and technical advisory committees and further external experts in the field. Like the conference itself the proceedings are structured in twelve streams: the more model-oriented streams of Road-Bound Public Transport Management, Modelling and Control of Urban Traffic Flow, Railway Traffic Management in four different sessions, Air Traffic Management, Water Traffic and Traffic and Transit Assignment, as well as the technology-oriented streams of Floating Car Data, Localisation Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Image Processing in Transportation. With this broad range of topics this book will be of interest to a number of groups: ITS experts in research and industry, students of transport and control engineering, operations research and computer science. The case studies will also be of interest for transport operators and members of traffic administration