Progression of e-ticketing implementation for state transportation agencies for asphalt materials

E-ticketing,which has been promoted by the Federal Highway Administration(FHWA)“every day counts”(EDC)initiative,utilizes software applications to digitally track and store information regarding highway construction materials paid by state transportation agencies(STAs)by weight in unit bid contract structures.STAs often face implementation barriers such as institutional inertia,or the resistance by stakeholders to adopt changes from the status quo,including new technologies.The purpose of this paper is to determine the progression of STA e-ticketing policy adoption,specifically with a focus on asphalt paving operations,due to the COVID-19 pandemic.To accomplish this research effort,previous FHWA data,National Cooperative Highway Research Program(NCHRP)data,and other literatures are reviewed to determine an implementation baseline.Additional data is collected from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Committee on Con-struction to gain current feedback from STAs and their highway contractor partners after the COVID-19 pandemic.Additionally,a case study featuring the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet(KYTC),the Kentucky Association of Highway Contractors(KAHC),and the Plantmix Asphalt Industry of Kentucky(PAIKY)is performed to provide more in-depth analysis.The major finding includes a statistically significant result indicating increased imple-mentation of e-ticketing for asphalt operations within the last two years,along with noting benefits including employee safety,task loading,and project documentation along with concerns regarding cellular connectivity and procurement responsibilities.These findings indicate the importance of STAs investing in partnership with con-tractors to improve stakeholder buy-in before proceeding towards e-ticketing adoption.

Analysis of Model Indicators in Assessment Impact of the Teleworking on Carbon Emissions Reduction Transportation Activities

This paper analyzes the key indicators of the impact assessment the teleworking as practice of performing regular work from home or from a location close to home,on reducing the number of travel and reduced carbon emissions transportation activities.Models and methodologies described in the literature are a good basis for a better and more comprehensive and understanding of the positives and negative effects teleworking and real opportunities of its wider application,however there is a lack of systemic analysis.Development of a set of indicators for assessing emission reduction induced by the measures to promote sustainable transport.Due to the complexity of the transport sector,a change in any indicator models have side effects on other indicators(unwanted and multiplier effects)and what is the theme of our research work.

Carbon emissions reduction potentiality for railroad transportation based on life cycle assessment

This study addresses the comparative carbon emissions of different transportation modes within a unified evaluation framework,focusing on their carbon footprints from inception to disposal.Specifically,the entire life cycle carbon emissions of High-Speed Rail(HSR),battery electric vehicles,conventional internal combustion engine vehicles,battery electric buses,and conventional internal combustion engine buses are analyzed.The life cycle is segmented into vehicle manufacturing,fuel or electricity production,operational,and dismantlingrecycling stages.This analysis is applied to the Beijing-Tianjin intercity transportation system to explore emission reduction strategies.Results indicate that HSR demonstrates significant carbon emission reduction,with an intensity of only 24%-32% compared to private vehicles and 47%-89% compared to buses.Notably,HSR travel for Beijing-Tianjin intercity emits only 24% of private vehicle emissions,demonstrating the emission reduction benefits of transportation structure optimization.Additionally,predictive modeling reveals the potential for carbon emission reduction through energy structure optimization,providing a guideline for the development of effective transportation management systems.

End-to-End Joint Multi-Object Detection and Tracking for Intelligent Transportation Systems

Environment perception is one of the most critical technology of intelligent transportation systems(ITS).Motion interaction between multiple vehicles in ITS makes it important to perform multi-object tracking(MOT).However,most existing MOT algorithms follow the tracking-by-detection framework,which separates detection and tracking into two independent segments and limit the global efciency.Recently,a few algorithms have combined feature extraction into one network;however,the tracking portion continues to rely on data association,and requires com‑plex post-processing for life cycle management.Those methods do not combine detection and tracking efciently.This paper presents a novel network to realize joint multi-object detection and tracking in an end-to-end manner for ITS,named as global correlation network(GCNet).Unlike most object detection methods,GCNet introduces a global correlation layer for regression of absolute size and coordinates of bounding boxes,instead of ofsetting predictions.The pipeline of detection and tracking in GCNet is conceptually simple,and does not require compli‑cated tracking strategies such as non-maximum suppression and data association.GCNet was evaluated on a multivehicle tracking dataset,UA-DETRAC,demonstrating promising performance compared to state-of-the-art detectors and trackers.

A Nationwide Evaluation of the State of Practice of Performance Measurements for Intelligent Transportation Systems

State departments of transportation’s (DOTs) decisions to invest resources to expand or implement intelligent transportation systems (ITS) programs or even retire existing infrastructure need to be based on performance evaluations. Nonetheless, an apparent gap exists between the need for ITS performance measurements and the actual implementation. The evidence available points to challenges in the ITS performance measurement processes. This paper evaluated the state of practice of performance measurement for ITS across the US and provided insights. A comprehensive literature review assessed the use of performance measures by DOTs for monitoring implemented ITS programs. Based on the gaps identified through the literature review, a nationwide qualitative survey was used to gather insights from key stakeholders on the subject matter and presented in this paper. From the data gathered, performance measurement of ITS is fairly integrated into ITS programs by DOTs, with most agencies considering the process beneficial. There, however, exist reasons that prevent agencies from measuring ITS performance to greater detail and quality. These include lack of data, fragmented or incomparable data formats, the complexity of the endeavor, lack of data scientists, and difficulty assigning responsibilities when inter-agency collaboration is required. Additionally, DOTs do not benchmark or compare their ITS performance with others for reasons that include lack of data, lack of guidance or best practices, and incomparable data formats. This paper is relevant as it provides insights expected to guide DOTs and other agencies in developing or reevaluating their ITS performance measurement processes.

Convolutional Neural Network for Overcrowded Public Transportation Pickup Truck Detection

Thailand has been on the World Health Organization(WHO)’s notorious deadliest road list for several years,currently ranking eighth on the list.Among all types of road fatalities,pickup trucks converted into vehicles for public transportation are found to be the most problematic due to their high occupancy and minimal passenger safety measures,such as safety belts.Passenger overloading is illegal,but it is often overlooked.The country often uses police checkpoints to enforce traffic laws.However,there are few or no highway patrols to apprehend offending drivers.Therefore,in this study,we propose the use of existing closed-circuit television(CCTV)traffic cameras with deep learning techniques to classify overloaded public transport pickup trucks(PTPT)to help reduce accidents.As the said type of vehicle and its passenger occupancy characteristics are unique,a new model is deemed necessary.The contributions of this study are as follows:First,we used various state-of-the-art object detection YOLOv5(You Only Look Once)models to obtain the optimum overcrowded model pretrained on our manually labeled dataset.Second,we made our custom dataset available.Upon investigation,we compared all the latestYOLOv5 models and discovered that theYOLOv5L yielded the optimal performance with a mean average precision(mAP)of 95.1%and an inference time of 33 frames per second(FPS)on a graphic processing unit(GPU).We aim to deploy the selected model on traffic control computers to alert the police of such passenger-overloading violations.The use of a chosen algorithm is feasible and is expected to help reduce trafficrelated fatalities.

Making Data-Driven Transportation Decisions for Freight Operations

Using Louisiana’s Interstate system, this paper aims to demonstrate how data can be used to evaluate freight movement reliability, economy, and safety of truck freight operations to improve decision-making. Data mainly from the National Performance Management Research Data Set (NPMRDS) and the Louisiana Crash Database were used to analyze Truck Travel Time Reliability Index, commercial vehicle User Delay Costs, and commercial vehicle safety. The results indicate that while Louisiana’s Interstate system remained reliable over the years, some segments were found to be unreliable, which were annually less than 12% of the state’s Interstate system mileage. The User Delay Costs by commercial vehicles on these unreliable segments were, on average, 65.45% of the User Delay Cost by all vehicles on the Interstate highway system between 2016 and 2019, 53.10% between 2020 and 2021, and 70.36% in 2022, which are considerably high. These disproportionate ratios indicate the economic impact of the unreliability of the Interstate system on commercial vehicle operations. Additionally, though the annual crash frequencies remained relatively constant, an increasing proportion of commercial vehicles are involved in crashes, with segments (mileposts) that have high crash frequencies seeming to correspond with locations with recurring congestion on the Interstate highway system. The study highlights the potential of using data to identify areas that need improvement in transportation systems to support better decision-making.

Bus frequency optimization in a large-scale multi-modal transportation system:integrating 3D-MFD and dynamic traffic assignment

A properly designed public transport system is expected to improve traffic efficiency.A high-frequency bus service would decrease the waiting time for passengers,but the interaction between buses and cars might result in more serious congestion.On the other hand,a low-frequency bus service would increase the waiting time for passengers and would not reduce the use of private cars.It is important to strike a balance between high and low frequencies in order to minimize the total delays for all road users.It is critical to formulate the impacts of bus frequency on congestion dynamics and mode choices.However,as far as the authors know,most proposed bus frequency optimization formulations are based on static demand and the Bureau of Public Roads function,and do not properly consider the congestion dynamics and their impacts on mode choices.To fill this gap,this paper proposes a bi-level optimization model.A three-dimensional Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram based modeling approach is developed to capture the bi-modal congestion dynamics.A variational inequality model for the user equilibrium in mode choices is presented and solved using a double projection algorithm.A surrogate model-based algorithm is used to solve the bi-level programming problem.

Social Media Based Transportation Research: the State of the Work and the Networking

Recently, there has been an increased interest in the use of social media data as important traffic information sources.In this paper, we review social media based transportation research with social network analysis methods. We summarize main research topics in this field, and report collaboration patterns at levels of researchers, institutions, and countries, respectively.Finally, some future research directions are identified.

An experimental analysis on the turnover time of railway freight transportation based on the impact strength of factors

Based on the factors impact strength model(FISM), we studied on calculation formulas of influence strength and key elements of FISM, and analyzed the turnover time of railway freight transportation of China. The results show that wagon transfer time is the most critical factor among the three subjective factors of wagons turnover time. The FISM based analysis of wagon transfer time show that the wagon turnover time is significantly correlated with transit time with resorting. Among the seven factors of detention time of transit time with resorting, the time of waiting to departing, converging, and waiting to break-up are key factors, while the time of make-up, break-up, arrival and departure are general factors. We carried out one empirical research based on the data of Baoji East Railway Station in 2015. The results of empirical research and FISM are consistent completely.

Key vacuum technology issues to be solved in evacuated tube transportation

Evacuated tube transportation （ETT） will be one of the ultra-large-scale vacuum application areas. This paper lists some key vacuum technology issues in ETT： （1） how to construct ultra-large-scale vacuum chamber with lower cost and high reliability, （2） how to evacuate gas out of the ETT tube in short time, （3） how to release heat or reduce temperature in the vacuum tube, （4） how to avoid vacuum discharge, （5） how to make vehicles with airproof shells and life support system, and （6） how to detect leaks and find leak positions efficiently. At the same time, some solutions are proposed.

Numerical simulation and analysis of aerodynamic drag on a subsonic train in evacuated tube transportation

The aerodynamic drag on a train running in an evacuated tube varies with tube air pressure, train speed and shape, as well as blockage ratio. This paper uses numerical simulations to study the effects of different factors on the aerodynamic drag of a train running at subsonic speed in an evacuated tube. Firstly, we present the assumption of a steady state, two dimensional, incompressible viscous flow with lubricity wall conditions. Subsequently, based on the Navier-Stokes equation and the k-c turbulent models, we calculate the aerodynamic drag imposed on the column train with a 3-meter diameter running under different pressure and blockage ratio conditions in an evacuated tube transporta- tion （ETT） system. The simulation is performed with FLUENT 6.3 software package. An analyses of the simulation re- sults suggest that the blockage ratio for ETT should be in the range of 0.25-0.7, and the tube internal diameter in the range of 2-4 m, with the feasible vacuum pressure in the range of 1-10 000 Pa for the future subsonic ETT trains.

Analysis of transportation carbon emissions and its potential for reduction in China

The transportation industry is an essential sector for carbon emissions mitigation.This paper firstly used the LMDI(Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index)decomposition method to establish factors decomposition model on China's transportation carbon emission.Then,a quantitative analysis was performed to study the factors influencing China's transportation carbon emissions from 1991 to 2008,which are identified as transportation energy efficiency,transportation structure and transportation development.The results showed that:(1)The impact of transportation development on transportation carbon emissions showed pulling function.Its contribution value to carbon emissions remained at high growth since 1991 and showed an exponential growth trend.(2)The impact of transportation structure on transportation carbon emissions showed promoting function in general,but its role in promoting carbon emissions decreased year by year.And with the continuous optimization of transportation structure,the promoting effect decreased gradually and showed the inversed"U"trend.(3)The impact of transportation energy efficiency on transportation carbon emissions showed a function of inhibition before pulling.In order to predict the potential of carbon emission reduction,three scenarios were set.Analysis of the scenarios showed that if greater intensity emission reduction measures are taken,the carbon emissions will reduce by 31.01 million tons by 2015 and by 48.81 million tons by 2020.

Laplacian energy maximizationfor multi-layer air transportation networks

To increase airspace capacity, alleviate flight delay,and improve network robustness, an optimization method ofmulti-layer air transportation networks is put forward based onLaplacian energy maximization. The effectiveness of takingLaplacian energy as a measure of network robustness isvalidated through numerical experiments. The flight routesaddificm optimization model is proposed with the principle ofmaximizing Laplacian energy. Three methods including thedepth-first search （DFS） algorithm, greedy algorithm andMonte-Carlo tree search （MCTS） algorithm are applied tosolve the proposed problem. The trade-off between systemperformance and computational efficiency is compared throughsimulation experiments. Finally, a case study on Chineseairport network （CAN） is conducted using the proposedmodel. Through encapsulating it into multi-layer infrastructurevia k-core decomposition algorithm, Laplacian energymaximization for the sub-networks is discussed which canprovide a useful tool for the decision-makers to optimize therobustness of the air transoortation network on different scales.

Flow Characteristics of Crude Oil with High Water Fraction during Non-heating Gathering and Transportation

In order to ensure the safety of the non-heating gathering and transportation processes for high water fraction crude oil,the effect of temperature,water fraction,and flow rate on the flow characteristics of crude oil with high water fraction was studied in a flow experimental system of the X Oilfield.Four distinct flow patterns were identified by the photographic and local sampling techniques.Especially,three new flow patterns were found to occur below the pour point of crude oil,including EW/O&W stratified flow with gel deposition,EW/O&W intermittent flow with gel deposition,and water single-phase flow with gel deposition.Moreover,two characteristic temperatures,at which the change rate of pressure drop had changed obviously,were found during the change of pressure drop.The characteristic temperature of the first congestion of gel deposition in the pipeline was determined to be the safe temperature for the non-heating gathering and transportation of high water cut crude oil,while the pressure drop reached the peak at this temperature.An empirical formula for the safe temperature was established for oil-water flow with high water fraction/low fluid production rate.The results can serve as a guide for the safe operation of the non-heating gathering and transportation of crude oil in high water fraction oilfields.

On the Quadratic Transportation Problem

We present a direct analytical algorithm for solving transportation problems with quadratic function cost coefficients. The algorithm uses the concept of absolute points developed by the authors in earlier works. The versatility of the proposed algorithm is evidenced by the fact that quadratic functions are often used as approximations for other functions, as in, for example, regression analysis. As compared with the earlier international methods for quadratic transportation problem (QTP) which are based on the Lagrangian relaxation approach, the proposed algorithm helps to understand the structure of the QTP better and can guide in managerial decisions. We present a numerical example to illustrate the application of the proposed method.

Autonomous vehicles: challenges, opportunities, and future implications for transportation policies

This study investigates the challenges and opportunities pertaining to transportation policies that may arise as a result of emerging autonomous vehicle （AV） technologies. AV technologies can decrease the transportation cost and increase accessibility to low-income households and persons with mobility issues. This emerging technology also has far-reaching applications and implications beyond all current expectations. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the relevant literature and explores a broad spectrum of issues from safety to machine ethics. An indispensable part of a prospective AV development is communication over cars and infrastructure （connected vehicles）. A major knowledge gap exists in AV technology with respect to routing behaviors. Connected- vehicle technology provides a great opportunity to imple- ment an efficient and intelligent routing system. To this end, we propose a conceptual navigation model based on a fleet of AVs that are centrally dispatched over a network seeking system optimization literature on two fronts： （i） This study contributes to the it attempts to shed light on future opportunities as well as possible hurdles associated with AV technology; and （ii） it conceptualizes a navigation model for the AV which leads to highly efficient traffic circulations.

ANALYSIS OF LAND BRIDGE TRANSPORTATION

Land bridge transportation means transportation from one seaport to another by railway across continents instead of by ocean ship. At present, there are two common routes for using land bridge transportation in the world. One is Asia-America-Europe land bridge, the other is Europe-Asia land bridge.Eurasia land bridge has obvious advantages over Asia-America-Europe land bridge due to its shorter distance, shorter transportation time and special freight rate. China started Eurasia land bridge transportation business in 1980. It mainly used the mode of railway-railway combined transportation. The comparison between using Eurasia land bridge and using shipping transportation from China to Northern and Western Europe shows that Euraria land bridge transportation can save time and get foreign exchange in time, and commodity turnover will be speeded up. According to the port layout and railway network structure, China’s land bridge transportation projects are proposed. They are Suifenhe project, Dalian

Some possible station layouts and characteristics of evacuated tube transportation

Since Maglev vehicles will run in a closed vacuum tube,the layout of the terminal stations of evacuated tube transportation（ETT） will differ from the traditional railway stations.This paper deals with some possible station layouts of ETT,e.g.,a station with an airlock,a station without an airlock,above ground and underground stations,and stations with either level arrayed or rotation platforms.Then different station layouts are compared,and characteristics of each are analyzed.Finally,a more secure mode for ETT station layouts is suggested,which can be the basis for future ETT station layout and designs.

Research on the Development Strategy of Ningbo Transportation Port &Shipping Industry

Firstly, the development background of Ningbo Transportation Port & Shipping Industry is analyzed on a spatial scale. Based on that, the strategic goal of Ningbo transportation port Port & Shipping Industry is put forward, and strategic path analysis of strategic objectives is carried out. Finally, with the dynamic resource view, the strategic integration model of Ningbo Port & Shipping Industry is proposed.