Bolzano Traffic: An Example of Open ITS Deployment for Advanced Traveller Information Services

This paper aims to present the experience gathered in the Italian alpine city of Bolzano within the project“Bolzano Traffic”whose goal is the introduction of an experimental open ITS platform for local service providers,fostering the diffusion of advanced traveller information services and the future deployment of cooperative mobility systems in the region.Several end-users applications targeted to the needs of different user groups have been developed in collaboration with local companies and research centers;a partnership with the EU Co-Cities project has been activated as well.The implemented services rely on real-time travel and traffic information collected by urban traffic monitoring systems or published by local stakeholders(e.g.public transportation operators).An active involvement of end-users,who have recently started testing these demo applications for free,is actually on-going.

A mixed stochastic user equilibrium model considering influence of advanced traveller information systems in degradable transport network

Advanced traveler information systems （ATIS） can not only improve drivers＇ accessibility to the more accurate route travel time information, but also can improve drivers＇ adaptability to the stochastic network capacity degradations. In this paper, a mixed stochastic user equilibrium model was proposed to describe the interactive route choice behaviors between ATIS equipped and unequipped drivers on a degradable transport network. In the proposed model the information accessibility of equipped drivers was reflected by lower degree of uncertainty in their stochastic equilibrium flow distributions, and their behavioral adaptability was captured by multiple equilibrium behaviors over the stochastic network state set. The mixed equilibrium model was formulated as a fixed point problem defined in the mixed route flows, and its solution was achieved by executing an iterative algorithm. Numerical experiments were provided to verify the properties of the mixed network equilibrium model and the efficiency of the iterative algorithm.

Developing architecture of a traveler information system for dynamic equilibrium in traffic networks

Having criticized the current architecture of Advanced Traveler Information Systems （ATISs）, this work discusses a new base of requirements to develop a new paradigm for traffic information systems. It mainly integrates three dimensions within a traffic system： drivers＇ pattern of behavior and preferences, urban traffic desires, and capabilities of traffic information service providers. Based on the above, functional segments from several related backgrounds are brought together to structure a new architecture, called Interactive Traveler Information System （ITIS）. The main interactive feature of this new architecture is a two-way communication track between drivers and the traffic information system provider-in fact, a decision on choosing a road at a particular time for an individual will be made based on the utility of both sides. This new configuration consists of driver-side smartphone application, centric traffic prediction, and decision-maker units, which will shape a new approach of decision-making processes. These all work together to satisfy the designated goal of ITIS, which is preserving the Wardrop equilibrium condition in the traffic network level. Finally, we concentrate on a comparison study, which shows a differentiation between performance of the proposed ITIS and the current ATIS model in a real situation. This has been done with simulations of analogical scenarios. The most noticeable advantage of the proposed architecture is not being limited to a saturation limit, and the positive effect of increasing system penetration in the performance of the newly introduced information system. In conclusion, new research subjects are suggested to be carried out.

Day-to-day traffic user equilibrium model considering influence of intelligent highways and advanced traveler information systems

To explore the influence of intelligent highways and advanced traveler information systems(ATIS)on path choice behavior,a day-to-day(DTD)traffic flow evolution model with information from intelligent highways and ATIS is proposed,whereby the network reliability and experiential learning theory are introduced into the decision process for the travelers’route choice.The intelligent highway serves all the travelers who drive on it,whereas ATIS serves vehicles equipped with information systems.Travelers who drive on intelligent highways or vehicles equipped with ATIS determine their trip routes based on real-time traffic information,whereas other travelers use both the road network conditions from the previous day and historical travel experience to choose a route.Both roadway capacity degradation and travel demand fluctuations are considered to demonstrate the uncertainties in the network.The theory of traffic network flow is developed to build a DTD model considering information from intelligent highway and ATIS.The fixed point theorem is adopted to investigate the equivalence,existence and stability of the proposed DTD model.Numerical examples illustrate that using a high confidence level and weight parameter for the traffic flow reduces the stability of the proposed model.The traffic flow reaches a steady state as travelers’routes shift with repetitive learning of road conditions.The proposed model can be used to formulate scientific traffic organization and diversion schemes during road expansion or reconstruction.

Current Situation and Prospects of Tourism Information Development

Tourism is an important industry in the economic and social development of our country, the development of tourism in the new economy and a higher requirement. Deal with the new economic challenges and opportunities, accelerate information construction of the tourism industry, and enhance capacity for sustainable development of tourism. The tourism is our only way to power. Combining tourism information of construction status and trends, problems encountered in the process of tourism information to analyze and propose solutions strategy.

Evaluation of Freeway Travel Time Variability and Reliability under Adverse Weather with TRANSMIT Data

Traffic congestion has caused many detrimental effects including higher fuel consumption, more vehicle emissions, increased accidents, as well as greater tension due to uncertain travel time. In addition to delay, the variability and reliability of travel time has been of concern to motorists on their daily travel, especially during peak periods. The objective of this study is to examine freeway travel time variability and reliability under different traffic and weather conditions with the use of TRANSMIT data collected by roadside readers deployed on a 40-mile segment of the Interstate Highway 1-287 in New Jersey. Travel time variability and reliability measures including mean travel time, the 95th percentile travel time, travel time index, buffer index, and planning time index under recurring and non-recurring congestion （adverse weather） are investigated. It was found that the standard deviation of travel time increased, due to the weather condition varying from dry to rain and to snow, while the buffer index increased from 29% to 45% and to 94%.

Reliability-based congestion pricing model under endogenous equilibrated market penetration and compliance rate of ATIS

A reliability-based stochastic system optimum congestion pricing(SSOCP) model with endogenous market penetration and compliance rate in an advanced traveler information systems(ATIS) environment was proposed. All travelers were divided into two classes. The first guided travelers were referred to as the equipped travelers who follow ATIS advice, while the second unguided travelers were referred to as the unequipped travelers and the equipped travelers who do not follow the ATIS advice(also referred to as non-complied travelers). Travelers were assumed to take travel time, congestion pricing, and travel time reliability into account when making travel route choice decisions. In order to arrive at on time, travelers needed to allow for a safety margin to their trip.The market penetration of ATIS was determined by a continuous increasing function of the information benefit, and the ATIS compliance rate of equipped travelers was given as the probability of the actually experienced travel costs of guided travelers less than or equal to those of unguided travelers. The analysis results could enhance our understanding of the effect of travel demand level and travel time reliability confidence level on the ATIS market penetration and compliance rate; and the effect of travel time perception variation of guided and unguided travelers on the mean travel cost savings(MTCS) of the equipped travelers, the ATIS market penetration, compliance rate, and the total network effective travel time(TNETT).

TRAVEL INFORMATION

Mauritius Travel From August 31 to September 6, a high- level government delegation from Mauritius visited China. The delegation was headed by the President of Mauritius, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, and included the Minister of Tourism,

User preference-based intelligent road route recommendation using SARSA and dynamic programming

Traffic congestion is one of the main challenges in transportation engineering. It directly impactsthe economy by increasing travel time and affecting the environment by excessive fuel consumptionand emission. Road route recommendation to overcome the congestion by alternativeroute suggestions has gained high importance. The existing route recommendation systems areproposed using the reinforcement learning algorithm (Q-learning). The techniques suggestedin this paper are state-action-reward-state-action (SARSA) algorithm and dynamic programming(DP) to guide the commuters to reach the destination with an optimal solution. The algorithmconsiders travel time, cost, flexibility, and traffic intensity as the user preference attributes torecommend an optimal route. The recommended system is implemented by building a roadnetwork graph. We assign values to each user preference attribute along the edges, which cantake high(1) or low(0) values. By considering these values, the system recommends the route.The proposed system performance is evaluated based on computation time, cumulative reward,and accuracy. The results show that DP outperforms the SARSA algorithm.

Opportunities and challenges of smart mobile applications in transportation

Smart mobile applications are software applications that are designed to run on smart phones, tablets, and other mobile electronic devices. In this era of rapid technological advances, these applications have become one of the primary tools we use daily both in our personal and professional lives. The applications play key roles in facilitating many applications that are pivotal in our today＇s society including communication, education, business, entertainment, medical, finance, travel, utilities, social, and transportation. This paper reviewed the opportunities and challenges of the applications related to transportation. The opportunities revealed include route planning, ridesharing/carpooling, traffic safety, parking information, transportation data collection, fuel emissions and consumption, and travel information. The potential users of these applications in the field of transportation include （I） transportation agencies for travel data collection, travel information, ridesharing/carpooling, and traffic safety, （2） engineering students for field data collection such as travel speed, travel time, and vehicle count, and （3） general traveling public for route planning, ridesharing/carpooling, parking, traffic safety, and travel information. Significant usage of smart mobile applications can be potentially very beneficial, particularly in automobile travel mode to reduce travel time, cost, and vehicle emissions. In the end this would make travel safer and living environments greener and healthier. However, road users＇ interactions with these applications could manually, visually, and cognitively divert their attention from the primary task of driving or walking. Distracted road users expose themselves and others to unsafe behavior than undistracted. Road safety education and awareness programs are vital to discourage the use of applications that stimulate unsafe driving/walking behaviors. Educating the traveling public about the dangers of unsafe driving/walking behavior could have significant safety benefits to all road users. Future research needs to compare accuracies of the applications and provide guidelines for selecting them for certain transportation related applications.