Effects of Reading Text While Driving: A Driving Simulator Study

Although 47 US states make the use of a mobile phone while driving illegal, many people use their phone for texting and other tasks while driving. This research project summarized the large literature on distracted driving and compared major outcomes with those of our study. We focused on distraction due to reading text because this activity is most common. For this research project, we collected simulator observations of 203 professional taxi drivers (175 male, and 28 female) working at the same Honolulu taxi company, using the mid-range driving simulator VS500M by Virage. After a familiarization period, drivers were asked to read realistic text content relating to passenger pick up displayed on a 7-inch tablet affixed to the dashboard. The experimental scenario was simulated on a two-lane rural highway having a speed limit of 60 mph and medium traffic. Drivers needed to follow the lead vehicle under regular and text-reading conditions. The large sample size of this study provided a strong statistical base for driving distraction investigation on a driving simulator. The comparison between regular and text-reading conditions revealed that the drivers significantly increased their headway (20.7%), lane deviations (354%), total time of driving blind (352%), maximum duration of driving blind (87.6% per glance), driving blind incidents (170%), driving blind distance (337%) and significantly decreased lane change frequency (35.1%). There was no significant effect on braking aggressiveness while reading text. The outcomes indicate that driving performance degrades significantly by reading text while driving. Additional analysis revealed that important predictors for maximum driving blind time changes are sociodemographic characteristics, such as age and race, and past behavior attributes

Sustainability Framework for Assessing Urban Freight Transportation Measures

"jats:p"The salient scope of this paper is to enable the knowledge and understanding of urban freight transportation and provide guidance for implementing sustainable policies and measures in a city. To achieve this goal, an evaluation framework for city logistics policies and measures is developed, which demonstrates the complexity of urban freight transportation systems, through selected performance indicators, taking into account divergent stakeholders’ interests, conflicting business models and operations. Evaluation follows a hierarchical process; sustainability disciplines (economy and energy, environment, transportation and mobility, society), applicability enablers (policy and measure maturity, social acceptance and users’ uptake), multiple criteria and indicators, capturing the lifecycle impact of policies and measures and multiple stakeholders. Apart from the multicriteria context, the framework embeds methodologies, including, Impact Assessment, Social Cost Benefit Analysis, Transferability and Adaptability, and Risk Analysis. To demonstrate its applicability a case study is set for the City of Graz assessing the establishment of an Urban Consolidation Center. Results show that there is an overall improvement of 2.2% in the Logistics Sustainability Index when comparing before and after implementation cases of the Urban Consolidation Center. Document type: Articl

Assessing knowledge level of stakeholders on transport interchange design and operation

The paper advances the results of the on-going work conducted within the frame of the European Twinning project ALLIANCE. In the effort to assess educational needs of different stakeholder groups involved in the domain, this paper’s main interest is to study knowledge and importance of governance issues and smart solutions, which enable smooth and seamless interconnectivity of alternative transportation modes, and techniques for facilitating decision-making and evaluation of these solutions. Data were collected through a questionnaire web-based survey addressed to different stakeholder groups in Latvia: policy makers, industry, academia/research and students. From the statistical analysis conducted it was concluded that there are differences in the average rating of different thematic areas (i.e. governance, smart solutions, decision-making) by the respondents. Especially stakeholders belonging to policy makers, industry and students valuated their knowledge on Governance and Smart Solutions below average and at the same time these areas as important for carrier development. Recommendations on the adaptation of an education/training program for Latvia were drawn from the above analysis

Building on European scientific excellence to develop an educational program on intermodal connections for Latvia and the region

Economic and social factors, including existing trends in urban population and employment growth combined with urbanization, have led to enhanced consumption and thus, increasing freight flows in the cities. Mitigation of transport impacts has led to plans towards a more sustainable urban environment. However, managerial and regulatory barriers restrict the incorporation of technological instruments and solutions to the sustainable dimension of decision-making and planning. This paper has sought to bridge this gap by organizing an educational and training program, which involves the participation of todays and tomorrow’s researchers, decision-makers and practitioners. Towards this direction, a methodology is developed that identifies existing gaps between the transport industry and the existing research, education and training programs and converts identified requirements and gaps into training courses. The paper addresses the context of intermodal interconnections for the case of Latvia and the region for stimulating and strengthening its scientific and technological capacity by providing knowledge in the field of smart interconnecting sustainable transport networks. The 2-level gap analysis that was developed and implemented with respect to the thematic areas of (1) ‘Governance and policy development’, (2) ‘Smart solutions’, and (3) ‘Decision-making’, and the validation process that followed, has revealed several requirements that exist currently for passenger and freight interchanges and educational programs for Latvia and the region. Based on the identified educational requirements for Latvia and the region, 20 educational areas were created that resulted in 12 courses for passenger and freight transport interchanges that are going to be used for training and education in Latvia

Developing an Integrated Logistics Terminal Network in the CADSES

The present paper presents an analytical qualitative procedure which has been developed and implemented for the assessment of the intermodal freight transport and logistics terminals in the Central European, Adriatic, Danubian, South-Eastern European space (CADSES). The assessment of the transport and logistics terminals (TLTs) which compose the freight nodal network of the region has been based on an evaluation framework which applies three main criteria, quantifiable in 26 indicators. This framework has initially been used for the uniform collection of data throughout the region, using common terminology and structure. In order to provide a tool for prioritizing the TLTs, a weighting and grading system has been embedded in the evaluation framework. Specifically, a weight has been attributed to each of the criteria and indicators, and a grade has been given to each of the TLT's indicators, based on their values or status. Finally, a performance index has been estimated for each TLT, against each criterion, as well as overall. In this way, prioritization of the TLTs has been made feasible, at a regional or country level, or within the category to which a TLT belongs. © Springer-Verlag/Wien 2007

Measuring the quality of service for passengers on the hellenic railways

The objective of this paper is to present a framework developed for assisting railway operators into monitoring and controlling the quality of services provided to their passengers. This framework is based on the estimation of 22 indicators, grouped under six criteria, i.e. itinerary accuracy, system safety, cleanness, passenger comfort, servicing, and passenger information. The valuation of the indicators is achieved through the analysis of quantitative, as well as qualitative parameters obtained either from statistical sources maintained by the railway operator, or data gathered from a questionnaire survey addressed to passengers. A grading system has been defined for the appreciation of the indicators. Also, a multicriteria evaluation has been developed for the estimation of an overall performance index for the quality of services provided by the operator, during a given period of analysis, which enables the decision makers to compare amongst different time horizons, and pre-defined objectives for a desired performance for a target year. The framework has been implemented in the Hellenic Railways and has provided quality control indices for the individual indicators, as well as for the overall performance of the network. Itinerary accuracy and system safety have been attributed the highest grades, as compared to the rest of the criteria established by the framework, indicating a small increase as compared to those grades of the previous time horizon analyzed. The rest of the criteria, relying on qualitative indicators, were valuated with a moderate grade, similar to the one attributed during the last time horizon of the analysis, indicating that no improvement has been observed in the services related to those indicators. The service quality valuation based on the above framework constitutes a useful tool, for the support of the decision process for the improvement of the railway operator.

Assessing the Impacts of Crowdshipping Using Public Transport: A Case Study in a Middle-Sized Greek City

Crowdsourced deliveries or crowdshipping is identified in recent literature as an emerging urban freight transport solution, aiming at reducing delivery costs, congestion, and environmental impacts. By leveraging the pervasive use of mobile technology, crowdshipping is an emerging solution of the sharing economy in the transport domain, as parcels are delivered by commuters rather than corporations. The objective of this research is to evaluate the impacts of crowdshipping through alternative scenarios that consider various levels of demand and adoption by public transport users who act as crowdshippers, based on a case study example in the city of Volos, Greece. This is achieved through the establishment of a tailored evaluation framework and a city-scale urban freight traffic microsimulation model. Results show that crowdshipping has the potential to mitigate last-mile delivery impacts and effectively contribute to improving the system’s performance

Social influence and impact of social media on users’ mobility decisions

Social media are deemed influential in making decisions and seeking advice. Due to their explosive growth as critical channels for information, their content can trigger a place visit, a change of transport mode or destination, or plans’ cancellation. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of social media on users’ activity and mobility planning. Responses of 738 participants in a digital survey were used to formulate ordinal regression models. The developed models determine the contribution of users’ demographic characteristics, travel characteristics and social media usage to mobility decisions after using social media as a source of information. These decisions were expressed in two dependent variables; (i) the impact of social media use in activity and mobility planning; (ii) the impact of the proposed transport mode by social media information, on mode choice. Analysis of the results indicated that the models, which considered all the characteristics together, could better predict the two variables

Facilitating the Selection of City Logistics Measures through a Concrete Measures Package: A Generic Approach

AbstractUrban areas represent great challenges for freight transport in terms of level of service, and economic and environmental impacts. Public authorities do not have good track record in selecting the proper measures to address city logistics issues. The paper aims at shaping a city logistics measures’ package through the identification of the most common impact areas of widely implemented measures and the correlation of impact areas with sets of measures. This research activity will contribute in better understanding of city logistics, providing an insight of the policies that are mostly used in order to achieve the goals set