RESEARCH EFFORTS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM IN NIGERIA: DEVELOPMENT OF TRIP PLANNING MODELS

The critical situation of unwelcome frustration experienced by urban trip makers and roadside dwellers alike, calls for a very strong push by all stakeholders in the transportation sector to enhance the service performance of transportation facilities using Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Needed strategies for successful ITS implementation in both developed and developing nations, include but not limited to policy formulation and planning, funding of ITS projects, development and deployment of research products, system performance measurement, optimization of the performance of existing infrastructure, capacity building, etc. which could be much promoted with research efforts. Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS) and Advanced Traveller Information System (ATIS) categories as products of research on ITS were developed with data derived from urban trip makers on captive corridors, both in Ilorin, Kwara State and Minna, Niger State, Nigeria. The fundamental basis and status of the research activities targeted at developing and deploying the ITS in Nigeria are highlighted in the paper. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v35i3.

Changes in Transit Use and Service and Associated Changes in Driving Near a New Light Rail Transit Line, MTI Report 12-44

Los Angeles is pursuing possibly the most ambitious rail transit investment program in the nation with plans to open six new rail transit lines between now and 2019. The report provides policy makes and planners a better understanding of the potential impacts of Los Angeles Metro’s rail transit investment program by assessing the changes in transit use of nearby residents and nearby bus service associated with the Expo Line, the first of the six new lines. Our findings indicate that changes in bus service that are coincident with the introduction of new light rail transit can negatively affect the overall transit ridership in the corridor. In addition, we find that households living near new Expo Line light rail stations reduced their vehicle miles traveled (VMT), but those households living near bus stops that were eliminated as part of the service change increased their VMT

High-speed civil transport flight- and propulsion-control technological issues

Technology advances required in the flight and propulsion control system disciplines to develop a high speed civil transport (HSCT) are identified. The mission and requirements of the transport and major flight and propulsion control technology issues are discussed. Each issue is ranked and, for each issue, a plan for technology readiness is given. Certain features are unique and dominate control system design. These features include the high temperature environment, large flexible aircraft, control-configured empennage, minimizing control margins, and high availability and excellent maintainability. The failure to resolve most high-priority issues can prevent the transport from achieving its goals. The flow-time for hardware may require stimulus, since market forces may be insufficient to ensure timely production. Flight and propulsion control technology will contribute to takeoff gross weight reduction. Similar technology advances are necessary also to ensure flight safety for the transport. The certification basis of the HSCT must be negotiated between airplane manufacturers and government regulators. Efficient, quality design of the transport will require an integrated set of design tools that support the entire engineering design team

The development of improvements to drivers' direct and indirect vision from vehicles - phase 1

This research project concerning "The development of improvements to drivers' direct and indirect vision from vehicles" has been designed to be conducted in two phases: . Phase 1 whose aim is to scope the existing knowledge base in order to prioritise and direct activities within Phase 2; . Phase 2 whose aim is to investigate specific driver vision problems prioritised in Phase 1 and determine solutions to them. This report details the activities, findings and conclusions resulting from the Phase 1 tasks undertaken

Microsimulation models incorporating both demand and supply dynamics

There has been rapid growth in interest in real-time transport strategies over the last decade, ranging from automated highway systems and responsive traffic signal control to incident management and driver information systems. The complexity of these strategies, in terms of the spatial and temporal interactions within the transport system, has led to a parallel growth in the application of traffic microsimulation models for the evaluation and design of such measures, as a remedy to the limitations faced by conventional static, macroscopic approaches. However, while this naturally addresses the immediate impacts of the measure, a difficulty that remains is the question of how the secondary impacts, specifically the effect on route and departure time choice of subsequent trips, may be handled in a consistent manner within a microsimulation framework. The paper describes a modelling approach to road network traffic, in which the emphasis is on the integrated microsimulation of individual trip-makers’ decisions and individual vehicle movements across the network. To achieve this it represents directly individual drivers’ choices and experiences as they evolve from day-to-day, combined with a detailed within-day traffic simulation model of the space–time trajectories of individual vehicles according to car-following and lane-changing rules and intersection regulations. It therefore models both day-to-day and within-day variability in both demand and supply conditions, and so, we believe, is particularly suited for the realistic modelling of real-time strategies such as those listed above. The full model specification is given, along with details of its algorithmic implementation. A number of representative numerical applications are presented, including: sensitivity studies of the impact of day-to-day variability; an application to the evaluation of alternative signal control policies; and the evaluation of the introduction of bus-only lanes in a sub-network of Leeds. Our experience demonstrates that this modelling framework is computationally feasible as a method for providing a fully internally consistent, microscopic, dynamic assignment, incorporating both within- and between-day demand and supply dynamic

Simulating the Impact of Traffic Calming Strategies

This study assessed the impact of traffic calming measures to the speed, travel times and capacity of residential roadways. The study focused on two types of speed tables, speed humps and a raised crosswalk. A moving test vehicle equipped with GPS receivers that allowed calculation of speeds and determination of speed profiles at 1s intervals were used. Multi-regime model was used to provide the best fit using steady state equations; hence the corresponding speed-flow relationships were established for different calming scenarios. It was found that capacities of residential roadway segments due to presence of calming features ranged from 640 to 730 vph. However, the capacity varied with the spacing of the calming features in which spacing speed tables at 1050 ft apart caused a 23% reduction in capacity while 350-ft spacing reduced capacity by 32%. Analysis showed a linear decrease of capacity of approximately 20 vphpl, 37 vphpl and 34 vphpl when 17 ft wide speed tables were spaced at 350 ft, 700 ft, and 1050 ft apart respectively. For speed hump calming features, spacing humps at 350 ft reduced capacity by about 33% while a 700 ft spacing reduced capacity by 30%. The study concludes that speed tables are slightly better than speed humps in terms of preserving the roadway capacity. Also, traffic calming measures significantly reduce the speeds of vehicles, and it is best to keep spacing of 630 ft or less to achieve desirable crossing speeds of less or equal to 15 mph especially in a street with schools nearby. A microscopic simulation model was developed to replicate the driving behavior of traffic on urban road diets roads to analyze the influence of bus stops on traffic flow and safety. The impacts of safety were assessed using surrogate measures of safety (SSAM). The study found that presence of a bus stops for 10, 20 and 30 s dwell times have almost 9.5%, 12%, and 20% effect on traffic speed reductions when 300 veh/hr flow is considered. A comparison of reduction in speed of traffic on an 11 ft wide road lane of a road diet due to curbside stops and bus bays for a mean of 30s with a standard deviation of 5s dwell time case was conducted. Results showed that a bus stop bay with the stated bus dwell time causes an approximate 8% speed reduction to traffic at a flow level of about 1400 vph. Analysis of the trajectories from bust stop locations showed that at 0, 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, and 175 feet from the intersection the number of conflicts is affected by the presence and location of a curbside stop on a segment with a road diet

Examining the impact a bus driver attendance incentive program had on bus driver attendance in a rural Mississippi school district

This study examines the impact of a bus driver attendance incentive program implemented in a rural Mississippi school district with the aim of improving bus driver attendance rates. There is a shortage of bus drivers across Mississippi which has made bus driver attendance paramount. Bus driver absenteeism causes disruptions in student transportation services and affects overall school operations. To address this problem, a rural Mississippi school district introduced a bus driver attendance incentive program that provided financial incentives for bus drivers who maintained perfect attendance rates each month. The research methodology involved collecting and analyzing attendance data for bus drivers over a period of 2 academic years: 1 year prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic and before the implementation of the incentive program and the other 1 year after the introduction of the incentive plan. Although the findings did not reveal a significant positive impact on bus driver attendance between the 2 years in the study, the data did show a number of drivers benefited from the incentive program

Modelling Safety-Related Driving Behaviour - the Impact of Parameter Values

Traffic simulation models make assumptions about the safety-related behaviour of drivers. These assumptions may or may not replicate the real behaviour of those drivers who adopt seemingly unsafe behaviour, for example running red lights at signalised intersections or too closely following the vehicles in front. Such behaviour results in the performance of the system that we observe but will often result in conflicts and very occasionally in accidents. The question is whether these models should reflect safe behav- iour or actual behaviour. Good design should seek to enhance safety, but is the safety of a design neces- sarily enhanced by making unrealistically optimistic assumptions about the safety of drivers behaviour? This paper explores the questions associated with the choice of values for safety-related parameters in simulation models. The paper identifies the key parameters of traffic simulation models and notes that sev- eral of them have been derived from theory or informed guesswork rather than observation of real behav- iour and that, even where they are based on observations, these may have been conducted in circumstances quite different to those which now apply. Tests with the micro-simulation model DRACULA demonstrate the sensitivity of model predictions—and perhaps policy decisions—to the value of some of the key param- eters. It is concluded that, in general, it is better to use values that are realistic-but-unsafe than values that are safe-but-unrealistic. Although the use of realistic-but-unsafe parameter values could result in the adop- tion of unsafe designs, this problem can be overcome by paying attention to the safety aspects of designs. The possibility of using traffic simulation models to culties involved in doing so are discussed