Evaluation of the implementation process of urban road pricing schemes in the United Kingdom and Italy

This paper is based upon detailed research that has taken place in the UK and Italy, on the implementation strategies for urban road pricing schemes. In the UK, both in London and Durham, the Road User Charging schemes required new legislation, and were implemented rapidly. The time from announcement to implementation took three years and the schemes were introduced after short periods of intensive planning, consultations and stakeholder networking. In Italy, the situation has been very different. The road pricing schemes in Rome and Genoa were not introduced under specific legislation but rather evolved from access control zones originally implemented in historic urban centres. The incremental introduction of the Italian road pricing experiments has taken approximately ten years. The paper undertakes a comparison of these different strategies to introduce urban road pricing and the lessons they contain for the development of similar measures elsewhere. The comparison of the different implementing experiences is undertaken using Strategic Policy Niche Management, a method designed to explore, among other factors, the dynamics of the stakeholder networks involved in planning, introducing, marketing and managing radical urban Travel Demand Management policies

Monolayers of 3He on the Surface of Bulk Superfluid 4He

We have used quantum evaporation to investigate the two-dimensional fermion system that forms at the free surface of (initially isotopically pure) 4He when small quantities of 3He are added to it. By measuring the first-arrival times of the evaporated atoms, we have determined that the 3He-3He potential in this system is V_3S/k_B=(0.23+/-0.02) K nm^2 (repulsive) and estimated a value of m_3S=(1.53+/-0.02)m_3 for the zero-coverage effective mass. We have also observed the predicted second layer-state which becomes occupied once the first layer-state density exceeds about 0.6 monolayers.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Proc. LT-22 (1999) to appear in Physica

Implications of HGV charging for the UK

Road transport taxation in Europe is undergoing a major and radical shift away from fixed charges and fuel duties towards pricing according to distance travelled and externalities produced. Implementation is underway in some states, change being led by national schemes for the freight sector only. The UK is considering such a system for implementation by 2008, to use global positioning system technology. The paper reviews the current developments and considers charging scenarios, including a scenario for covering the full external costs of the UK freight industry. Implications for taxation policy are considered, including whether the doctrine of revenue neutrality is consistent with 'sustainable mobility'. Consideration is given to a transition strategy which could bridge between the current level and structure of prices and a future, more economically efficient approach

Relative Evaporation Probabilities of 3He and 4He from the Surface of Superfluid 4He

We report a preliminary experiment which demonstrates that 3He atoms in Andreev states are evaporated by high-energy (E/k_B ~ 10.2 K) phonons in a quantum evaporation process similar to that which occurs in pure 4He. Under conditions of low 3He coverage, high-energy phonons appear to evaporate 3He and 4He atoms with equal probability. However, we have not managed to detect any 3He atoms that have been evaporated by rotons, and conclude that the probability of a roton evaporating a 3He atom is less than 2% of the probability that it evaporates a 4He atom.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Proc. LT-22 (1999) Physica

Continuum feedback control of a Rayleigh- Taylor type instability

Continuum feedback control of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilit

Workshop on Moon in Transition: Apollo 14, KREEP, and Evolved Lunar Rocks

Lunar rocks provide material for analyzing lunar history and now new evaluation procedures are available for discovering new information from the Fra Mauro highlands rocks, which are different from any other lunar samples. These and other topics were discussed at this workshop, including a new evaluation of the nature and history of KREEP, granite, and other evolved lunar rock types, and ultimately a fresh evaluation of the transition of the moon from its early anorthosite-forming period to its later stages of KREEPy, granitic, and mare magmatism. The summary of presentations and discussion is based on notes taken by the respective summarizers during the workshop

Spectroscopy of the optical Einstein ring 0047-2808

We present optical and near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the optical Einstein ring 0047-2808. We detect both [OIII] lines 4959, 5007 near 2.3 micron, confirming the redshift of the lensed source as z=3.595. The Ly-a line is redshifted relative to the [OIII] line by 140+-20 km/s. Similar velocity shifts have been seen in nearby starburst galaxies. The [OIII] line is very narrow, 130 km/s FWHM. If the ring is the image of the centre of a galaxy the one-dimensional stellar velocity dispersion sigma=55 km/s is considerably smaller than the value predicted by Baugh et al. (1998) for the somewhat brighter Lyman-break galaxies. The Ly-a line is significantly broader than the [OIII] line, probably due to resonant scattering. The stellar central velocity dispersion of the early-type deflector galaxy at z=0.485 is 250+-30 km/s. This value is in good agreement both with the value predicted from the radius of the Einstein ring (and a singular isothermal sphere model for the deflector), and the value estimated from the D_n-sigma relation.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA