1,720,991 research outputs found
Event-oriented traffic management: policies from Stuttgart and Genoa experiences
No full textMore and more frequently, special events generate spatial and time convergence traffic flows that result in transportation problems.
Mega events generate unusual problems regarding forecasts of attended traffic flows that have to be added to transport demand present in normal circumstances. Often city authorities deal with these situations by means of new infrastructures (if possible) and specific transport measures for the event to ensure efficient management of traffic flows.
The goal of this paper is to outline the network design philosofy and offer some intuitions that have been gained from transport authoritie3s of two cities during big events: Stuttgart and Genoa. Moreover, the paper has the purpose of offering transport strategies transferable to other cities involved in planning mega events
Managing uncertainty in airport parking facility development
No full textParking facilities represent a fundamental element in the airport’s operative process and at the same time they are among the greater source of revenues for airport operators. Commercial revenues are approximately the 50% of the airport total revenues (Ashford et al., 1995; Humphreys and Francis, 2002) and the revenues due to parking facilities range between the 18% and the 30% of the total (ACI International and Graham, 2008). The 2007 yearly report of the British Aviation Authority (BAA 2007) highlights that, in the year of analysis, the revenues from parking facility, in the UK, in average have reached the 33% of the total commercial revenues, with a growth of around the 5,5% respect the previous year. Similar data have been registered in the Paris airports in the 2006 where the revenues attributable to parking facilities represented the 21% of the total non aeronautic revenues, with a growth rate of the 5,1% respect the previous year (Aèroports de Paris, 2006).
Different studies have proved that private vehicle is the predominant transport mode used by passengers for accessing airports. In detail, an analysis conducted in North America has shown that the average percentage of passengers using private cars for traveling to an airport is between the 67% and the 87% (Pels at al., 2002). The European situation does not differ much from the North American one, a study carried out by the airport of Athens have quantified as the 50% the quota of passengers which travel to the airport using private vehicles (Psaraki et al., 2002). A report on the accessibility of German Airports (Wilken et al., 2005) has shown that the 56% of passengers reach airports with private vehicles, among them only the 18% uses the private car, while the 34% is taken to the airport and the last 4% reaches the airport with rental cars. These data confirm the importance of planning airport parking infrastructures, both for accommodating the growing demand both for the importance of the revenues deriving from airport parking spaces in the economy of an airport. Moreover, the construction of airport parking spaces require the expenditure of significant economic resources: in fact on the one hand, the potential revenues stemming from these infrastructures tends to attract private companies along with airport companies which have to guarantee a minimum number of parking, but on the other it is characterised by an high level of risk.
The profitability of an investment in airport parking facilities is strongly influenced by the air transport demand, which is difficult to forecast and affected by different exogenous variables, among them the socio economic conditions of the area where the airport is located and the global economic conditions.
This paper is aimed at providing at methodology for evaluating the risk associated to the financial efficiency of airport parking space investments by examining the different sources of uncertainty and simulating the incidence of each of them
ECONOMICAL FEASIBILITY STUDY OF A PERSONAL AUTOMATED TRANSPORT FOR LEISURE, HOLIDAYS AND SPECIAL EVENTS
No full textNon systematic travel demand for leisure, holidays and special events is usually non regular, after official hours and has dispersed origins and destinations. These characteristics do clearly favour the private car over conventional, collective public transport.
A more sustainable mode of transport which could match these specific characteristics is called Personal Automated Transport (PAT). This fully automated transport system is based on small-size, electric vehicles that trasport individuals directly and non-stop from origin to a preselected destination on a dedicated network of slender, overhead or underground guide-ways. PAT offers a 24h on-demand service and allows passengers to travel without waiting times at stations or during transfers. In contrast with line-oriented services, PAT pursues a network approach, with the benefits that stations are placed closer to the user and traffic flows can be distributed over various links. The major questions are whether a PAT network has sufficient capacity and whether it is economically attractive for a particular implementation. For this reason a preliminary feasibility analyses has been performed for the city of Rimini, a popular Italian seaside resort, which is currently suffering from the traffic that is predominantly generated by leisure demand.
During summer season, there is a high travel demand due to tourists who spend their holidays at the Adriatic sea. During shorter time intervals a considerable traffic is generated by the numerous conferences held in Rimini. To date, transport demand in the urban area of Rimini is mostly absorbed by road transport. The resulting congestion, noise, pollution and accidents produced clearly jeopardises the attractiveness of Rimini. The need for a sustainable transport network, which can adequately serve fluctuating demand, seems to offer good conditions for the implementation of a Personal Automated Transport (PAT) system.
The present study aims at significantly reducing public parking-space in a zone along the beach. A bidirectional PAT service is investigated that begins at a Park&Ride (P&R) infrastructure near the motorway exit south-west of Rimini, passes by the conference center and the railway station and finally distributes clients to the numerous hotels along the beach. The relevant travel demand is made up of the following components. First, tourists who arrive by car at the P&R and use PAT to reach one of the 2000 hotels located in Rimini. Second, one-day tourists from nearby cities, who do not reserve a hotel room but would use the PAT network to travel from the P&R to their favorite beach. Third, tourists from abroad and Italy, who arrive at the train station and travel to their hotel (current taxi is approximately 7€). Finally, conference attendees, who arrive and commute between hotel and conference site.
In this study, the capacities are studied by means of micro-simulations. Moreover, the preliminary economic analysis provides also encouraging results, indicating that PAT may indeed provide the visitors of Rimini with a high-quality service, despite the unusual pattern of transport demand
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Optimization of the FURBOT urban freight transport scheme
Full text linkThe paper refers to an innovative urban freight distribution scheme, aimed at reducing the externalities connected with the freight delivery process. Both packages destined to commercial activities and to end consumers (e-commerce) are taken into account. Each package is characterized by an address and dimensions. In the proposed transport system, freight is firstly delivered to the urban distribution centre on the border of urban areas through trucks or trains which perform the long distance transport. After, freight is reorganized and consolidated into special load units (FURBOT boxes), according to packages dimensions and to the addresses of receivers. Each box is addressed to a temporary unloading bay and it is delivered there by a smalllelectrically powered vehicle (FURBOT vehicle). The paper concerns a methodology for optimizing this freight transport system's performances. The input data are the actual freight demand, the road network and the public policies. The methodology determines the best number of FURBOT boxes which minimizes the system cost. The overall cost is a sum of the users cost, which depends on the distance they have to walk for collecting their packages in the FURBOT box, and of the operator cost, which depends on the number of boxes, and the total distance travelled by the FURBOT vehicles. The minimization problem has been approached by a Simulated Annealing procedure. The methodology recalls two sub-problems: a first sub-problem to determine the optimum clustering of packages in the FURBOT boxes, and a second sub problem to determine the best routing of FURBOT vehicles. The methodology has been applied to the case study of Genoa city centre, Italy
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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