A Life Cycle Cost Analysis Model of Goods Movement for the Gulf Cooperation Council Region

In this article,a total life cycle cost analysis(LCCA)was developed covering two transportation systems:trucking and railway within the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC)region.GCC region is a regional intergovernmental political and economic union consists of six countries(Saudi Arabia,Kuwait,the United Arab Emirates,Qatar,Bahrain,and Oman).In general and based on statistics,the GCC regional economy is expected to grow due to the increase in aggregate supply and demand.So,there is a need to build a solid foundation of transportation systems that can help in transforming this region into a logistics hub.Therefore,different analysis was discussed in order to be able to select more reliable and appropriate mode of shipping between the GCC.Beside the main cost factors that which includes the capital,operational,maintenance and depreciation costs.Other factors such as,border delays,emissions,noise and safety factors were added to the analysis.The results show that,shipping using trucking system can be cheaper when shipping commodities between the GCC region,but at the same time considering border delays and emission produced,railways and intermodal modal systems prove to be more reliable.Moreover,shipping bulk commodities favor the rail and intermodal systems due to the payload capacity besides the flexibility of finding the most efficient way to move the shipments between origin and destinations.

Critical review of cyclist speed measuring techniques

There is a growing global interest in developing and accommodating sustainable modes of travel.Cycling is an important mode of travel which offers powerful solutions to chronic traffic problems of congestion and emissions.The accuracy of cyclist position is considered as an important parameter for the calculation of cyclist speed.Cyclist speed data is required for precise design of traffic control measures,for safety studies,and for sight distance analysis.Different speed measurement techniques and results are found in the literature.This study critically examines peer-reviewed studies which discuss different techniques for measuring cyclist speed.This review covers the accuracy of the measurement techniques and highlights limitations of the reviewed studies.These identified limitations are classified as:limited range of movement directions,selection of observed cyclists,seasonal variation in measurements,completeness of results reporting,reporting of equipment limitations,and measurement validation.The study summarizes previous findings of cyclist speed statistics.This study also reviews the level of automation in speed measurement.Any technique involving a human input during the field data collection or analysis to estimate cyclist speed is classified as a manual.Further categories for semiautomated and automated measurement techniques are established.Meta-analysis was conducted to test whether reported cyclist speed depends on where they were recorded;intersections or road segments.The result of the unpaired t-test showed that there is no significant difference between the means of the cyclists speed at road sections and signalized intersections at the 95%of confidence level.The study emphasizes the growing importance of the use of automated computer vision techniques for speed measurement.The paper contrasts the advantages of computer vision techniques with other measurement techniques.