Evaluation and Design of Transport Network Capacity Under Demand Uncertainty

A flexible evaluation and design model for transport network capacity under demand variability is proposed. The future stochastic demand is assumed to follow a normal distribution. Traveler path choice behavior is assumed to follow the probit stochastic user equilibrium. The network reserve capacity is used to evaluate the performance of the network. Since the future demand is stochastic, the reserve capacity is measured by possible increases in both mean and standard deviation (SD) of the base demand distribution. The proposed model therefore represents the flexibility of the network in its robustness to origin-destination demand variation (i.e., high SD). The proposed model can also determine an optimal network design to maximize the reserve capacity of the network for both the mean and the SD of the increased demand distribution. The implicit programming approach is applied to solve the optimization problem. Sensitivity analysis is adopted to provide all necessary derivatives. The model and algorithm are tested with a hypothetical network to illustrate the merits of the proposed model

Sobriety checkpoints in Thailand: A review of effectiveness and developments over time

This review describes the legal basis for and implementation of sobriety checkpoints in Thailand and identifies factors that influenced their historical development and effectiveness. The first alcohol and traffic injury control law in Thailand was implemented in 1934. The 0.05 g/100 mL blood alcohol concentration limit was set in 1994. Currently, 3 types of sobriety checkpoints are used: general police checkpoints, selective breath testing, and special event sobriety checkpoints. The authors found few reports on the strategies, frequencies, and outcomes for any of these types of checkpoints, despite Thailand having devoted many resources to their implementation. In Thailand and other low-middle income countries, it is necessary to address the country-specific barriers to successful enforcement (including political and logistical issues, lack of equipment, and absence of other supportive alcohol harm reduction measures) before sobriety checkpoints can be expected to be as effective as reported in high-income countries

Network Improvement for Equilibrium Routing

In routing games, agents pick routes through a network to minimize their own delay. A primary concern for the network designer in routing games is the average agent delay at equilibrium. A number of methods to control this average delay have received substantial attention, including network tolls, Stackelberg routing, and edge removal. A related approach with arguably greater practical relevance is that of making investments in improvements to the edges of the network, so that, for a given investment budget, the average delay at equilibrium in the improved network is minimized. This problem has received considerable attention in the literature on transportation research. We study a model for this problem introduced in transportation research literature, and present both hardness results and algorithms that obtain tight performance guarantees. – In general graphs, we show that a simple algorithm obtains a 4/3-approximation for affine delay functions and an O(p/ log p)- approximation for polynomial delay functions of degree p. For affine delays, we show that it is NP-hard to improve upon the 4/3 approximation. – Motivated by the practical relevance of the problem, we consider restricted topologies to obtain better bounds. In series-parallel graphs, we show that the problem is still NP-hard. However, we show that there is an FPTAS in this case. – Finally, for graphs consisting of parallel paths, we show that an optimal allocation can be obtained in polynomial time