A Preliminary Study of the Outer Ring Road Planning in Nanjing

In this article. the programme of Nanjing’s Outer ring road planning. and the investiga-tion. analysis and forecast of the volume of this section’s traffic are discussed; the corre-sponding construction and technical indices put forward; and the economic analysis ofthe implementation of the mentioned programme carried out.

Biologically Inspired Node Generation Algorithm for Path Planning of Hyper-redundant Manipulators Using Probabilistic Roadmap

This article describes a biologically inspired node generator for the path planning of serially connected hyper-redundant manipulators using probabilistic roadmap planners. The generator searches the configuration space surrounding existing nodes in the roadmap and uses a combination of random and deterministic search methods that emulate the behaviour of octopus limbs. The strategy consists of randomly mutating the states of the links near the end-effector, and mutating the states of the links near the base of the robot toward the states of the goal configuration. When combined with the small tree probabilistic roadmap planner, the method was successfully used to solve the narrow passage motion planning problem of a 17 degree-of-freedom manipulator.

Estimating traffic volume on Wyoming low volume roads using linear and logistic regression methods

Traffic volume is an important parameter in most transportation planning applications. Low volume roads make up about 69% of road miles in the United States. Estimating traffic on the low volume roads is a cost-effective alternative to taking traffic counts. This is because traditional traffic counts are expensive and impractical for low priority roads. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of two alternative means of cost- effectively estimating traffic volumes for low volume roads in Wyoming and to make recommendations for their implementation. The study methodology involves reviewing existing studies, identifying data sources, and carrying out the model development. The utility of the models developed were then verified by comparing actual traffic volumes to those predicted by the model. The study resulted in two regression models that are inexpensive and easy to implement. The first regression model was a linear regression model that utilized pavement type, access to highways, predominant land use types, and population to estimate traffic volume. In verifying the model, an R^2 value of 0.64 and a root mean square error of 73.4% were obtained. The second model was a logistic regression model that identified the level of traffic on roads using five thresholds or levels. The logistic regression model was verified by estimating traffic volume thresholds and determining the percentage of roads that were accurately classified as belonging to the given thresholds. For the five thresholds, the percentage of roads classified correctly ranged from 79% to 88%. In conclusion, the verification of the models indicated both model types to be useful for accurate and cost-effective estimation of traffic volumes for low volume Wyoming roads. The models developed were recommended for use in traffic volume estimations for low volume roads in pavement management and environmental impact assessment studies.

Remolding Plan of the North Outer Ring Road in Harbin

Being the largest comprehensive urban development project in the city of Harbin, theremolding of the north outer ring road not only improved the city’s road condition, but al-so brought along the initiatives to redevelop the large number of dilapidated sheds alongthe road, transform industrial technoloqy and advance environment quality.

Applied Study of Price Discrimination Implemented on a Two-Path Route Expressway

This study aims at implementing price discrimination to get maximum revenue on a two-path route expressway, focusing on the problems which occur in traffic forecasting when applying a ＂profit-maximizing＂ toll designed to maximize revenue for a certain toll road in Japan. A break-even discussion is inevitable in the process of planning a certain toll road. According to the theory of transportation economics, market segmentation price discrimination is supposed to be efficient in the transportation market to increase the revenue of fixed facilities. In the model, a bypass and an adjacent expressway form a two-path route section. Two different toll levels are implemented for the bypass： one is for through traffic, and the other is for insideinside and inside-outside traffics. This two-path route plus two-toll-level system thus causes difficulty in traffic assignment that is based on the minimum route searching method. In the study, a rational approach of adjusting the through traffic is implemented to predict the traffic flow as well as revenue on two parallel routes with different toll levels. The approximate calculation method that fixes the split rate of the passing through traffic flow is applied to solve the two-path route plus two-toll-level problem since passing through traffic is price elastic. Market segmentation pricing, which gives two toll levels in a toll road, is proved to be practical for increasing revenue. The results are also verified to be rational by using the survey data of Meishin Expressway.