A study on parking supply optimization in central business districts considering the two way interaction between car traveling and parking

This paper proposes a bilevel programming model to optimize the parking supply in a central business district (CBD) considering the interaction between car traveling and car parking. The upper model (UM) determines the number and locations of parking lots in a CBD with the objective of minimizing the average impedance of all car trips. The lower model (LM) is a modal split and assignment combination model for calculating the traffic flow under various parking supply schemes. In addition to the bilevel model, a gravity model (GM) is proposed to calculate the car trips that are induced by the added parking lots. The interaction between car traveling and parking can be simulated by the feedbacks between the UM and LM. A case study is performed with real data from Dalian City. The results show that there is a negative correlation between parking supply increments and the average traveling impedance when the number of parking spaces is lower than the optimal value; however, the average traveling impedance will start to increase with the increase in parking supply when the number of parking spaces is higher than the optimal value

The Adjustment Method of Bus Lines along New Subway after Operation

In order to adapt to the passenger demand after urban subway new line operation, and improve the operational efficiency of the bus lines along subway, the adjustment method of bus lines is studied. Taking the HuangHe Rd. segment with Dalian Metro Line 2 as the research object, the passenger volumes of every main traffic mode before and after subway operation were investigated respectively. By mathematical statistics method, the characteristics of passenger volume transferring among the bus, car and subway before and after operation were compared and analyzed. Based on the theory of random utility, not only the Logit model of traffic mode selection before and after subway operation was constructed, but also the calibration method of model parameter was proposed. The adjustment method of bus lines along subway was proposed. The calculation and analysis of application in the case was also conducted. The research indicates that, after subway operation, the passengers undertaken by car and bus along the subway will be attracted by subway to some extent. To adjust the bus lines according to the characteristic of passenger transferring can improve the operational efficiency of the bus lines along subway

Successive Ring Expansion (SuRE) in the synthesis of medium sized ring and macrocycle libraries

This thesis describes the development of new methodologies to synthesize different medium sized rings and macrocycles, either using Successive Ring Expansion (SuRE) reactions or SuRE-like reactions. In Chapter 2, new N-acylation conditions had been developed for lactams that cannot easily ring expand using previously reported Nacylation conditions. In Chapter 3, SuRE reactions were utilised to synthesize the 15-membered macrocyclic core of natural products Solomonamides and a series of analogues. Chapter 4 describes the development of a conjugate addition/ring expansion (CARE) cascade reaction, which allows the synthesis of diverse functionalized medium sized rings and macrocycles. In Chapter 5, two new ring expansion protocols (nitro reduction method and conjugate addition method) to access medium sized and macrocyclic sulfonamides are described. Chapter 6 describes the ring expansion study of P=O containing molecules, which showed quite different reactivity comparing to normal SuRE reaction. Chapter 7 describes a SuRE strategy to synthesize medium sized and macrocyclic aza sugars

Optimization of Coastal Cruise Lines in China

The paper analyzes the current state of the Chinese cruise market and presents the idea of building a business model of coastal cruising. The cruise demand of middle-income families, which includes the desired travel days, ports of call, is surveyed. The data of the previous non-cruise travels and the data of future cruises of middle-income families are used to develop a model designed to identify the maximum passenger volume with minimum operating costs while taking cruise itineraries and schedules into account. A matrix coding genetic algorithm was designed to solve the model. The case study found that a voyage of 4.79 days results in equilibrium, that the annual demand is 200,840 passengers, and that the daily voyage cost is 0.843 million Yuan

The Analysis Method of Capacity and Delay on Entrance Lane with Road-side Bus Lane

In order to reveal the traffic characteristics at signalized intersections with road-side bus lane, the analysis methods of capacity and delay at entrance lane were studied. Selecting a signalized intersection with road-side bus lane as investigation location, several traffic parameters were surveyed. Considering the traffic conflict between right-turn vehicles and through buses in this kind of entrance lane and based on the Gap Acceptance Theory, the calculation model of saturation flow rate, which is a key parameter both in the formulas of capacity and delay at signalized intersection mentioned in HCM2000, was improved. Using the investigation data, the calculation results of the traditional model and improved model were compared and analyzed. The research indicated that, comparing with common entrance lane, the capacity of right-turn lane at the entrance lane with bus lane should be reduced, and the travelling delay of bus lane and its inside adjacent lane should be increased. The degree of these effects is related to bus volume, right-turn volume and headway between buses

Scheme of Overloaded Truck Control on a Rural Highway

A new working mode of overloaded traffic control for rural highways is presented, and a location-routing model is built to optimize the check base distribution and the control vehicles’ routing schemes. Then, for the location-routing model with a large set of location alternatives and an unknown settable number of check bases, a multiple ant colony optimization algorithm is designed to solve the model. Furthermore, actual data from Guiyang rural highways are used to perform a numerical analysis. The results indicate that the model can be used to obtain the optimal base location-vehicle routing scheme to verify the feasibility of the model and the algorithm. The model and algorithm can help managers to make decisions on locating the check bases and routing the control vehicles

Optimization of Trip-end Networks and Ride Price for Express Coach Systems in the High-speed Rail Era

Express coach (EC) lost a considerable share of passengers after high-speed rail (HSR) was implemented. This paper proposes a door-to-door operation mode for the EC system and builds a model to design an EC trip-end network in the origin city with the aim of maximizing the EC’s daily operating profit. A case study is undertaken, and the results show that the operating profit of the EC system first increases and then decreases with the growth of the trip-end routes. In the HSR era, door-to-door operation can effectively guarantee the market share and operating profits of the EC.</p

Collision risk assessment for ships’ routeing waters: An information entropy approach with Automatic Identification System (AIS) data

The ship's routing was adopted to organise marine traffic flow and reduce the risk of collision between ships in crowded waters. With the expansion of the world's fleet, ship traffic in shipping bottleneck and chokepoint areas became more and more busy and complex creating serious challenges for navigational safety. Therefore, quantitative collision risk assessment is significantly important for the ships' routeing waters. In this paper, the information entropy method which integrates the K-means clustering based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) data is introduced to quantitatively evaluate the collision risks in the ships' routeing waters. As a case study, the information entropy of Courses Over Ground (COG) for Ningbo-Zhoushan Port (the largest port in the world since 2009) is calculated by using historical AIS data. Then the K-means clustering is used to group the bytes of information entropy of the different legs in the shipping route. We find that in Ningbo-Zhoushan port Precautionary Area (PA) 2, 4 and 7 are the highest risk legs; PA 1, 5 and 6, Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) 16, and 17 are medium-high risk areas. Therefore, ship collision risk prevention measures should be prioritised in those legs. Our contributions provide a novel approach to quantitatively assess ship collision risks in busy waters.Postprint (author's final draft

A method integrating simulation and reinforcement learning for operation scheduling in container terminals

The objective of operation scheduling in container terminals is to determine a schedule that minimizes time for loading or unloading a given set of containers. This paper presents a method integrating reinforcement learning and simulation to optimize operation scheduling in container terminals. The introduced method uses a simulation model to construct the system environment while the Q-learning algorithm (reinforcement learning algorithm) is applied to learn optimal dispatching rules for different equipment (e.g. yard cranes, yard trailers). The optimal scheduling scheme is obtained by the interaction of the Q-learning algorithm and simulation environment. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a lower bound is calculated considering the characteristics of the scheduling problem in container terminals. Finally, numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the validity of the proposed method