Posts in category Presentations
Operations of zero-emission buses: impacts of charging methods and mechanisms on costs and the level of service
To limit global warming and strive for more liveable and sustainable cities, innovative zero-emission buses are on the rise all around the world. For now, only trolley, battery and fuel-cell electric vehicles can be classified as (on the pipe) zero-emission vehicles. Different charging methods, including different charging systems and power, are available to charge battery electric vehicles. However, scientific literature focused on the operation and charging scheduling of electric vehicles is scarce.
In this study, a comparison of different applied charging methods for electric buses is obtained. A new ZE-bus station simulation method is developed to assess charging methods and charging regulations with regard to their impacts on costs and level of service.
The shift to zero emission bus transport is meant for achieving more sustainable and liveable cities. However, this research concludes that this is involved with higher costs and passenger disturbances. The investment costs increase substantially. Benefits of electric operations, including vehicle propulsion cost savings up to 70 percent, are not able to compensate these high investments. (Slow) depot charging offers opportunities for operations on short distance lines. The depot location should be close to a bus station and additional fleet is required. In order to prevent fleet overcapacity, vehicles should be recharged with high charging power along the line, preferably at combined bus stations and terminals in order to prevent charging related delays. Dynamic/In-motion charging – still in its infancy stage yet – offers opportunities to prevent these delays due to combined charging and operation time.
Robust Control for Regulating Frequent Bus Services: Supporting the Implementation of Headway-based Holding Strategies
Reliability is a key determinant of the quality of a transit service. Control is needed in order to deal with the stochastic nature of high-frequency bus services and to improve service reliability. In this study, we focus on holding control, both schedule- and headway-based strategies. An assessment framework is developed to systematically assess the effect of different strategies on passengers, the operator and transport authority. This framework can be applied by operators and authorities in order to determine what holding strategy is most beneficial to regulate headways, and thus solve related problems. In this research knowledge is gained about what service characteristics affect the performance of holding strategies and the robustness of these strategies in disrupted situations, by using scenarios. The framework is applied to a case study of a high-frequency regional bus line in the Netherlands. Based on the simulation results, we identified the line characteristics that are important for the performance of schedule- and headway-based strategies and determined how robust different strategies are in case of disruptions. Headway-based control strategies better mitigate irregularity along the line, especially when there are disruptions. However, schedule-based control strategies are currently easier to implement, because it does not require large changes in practice, and the performance of both strategies is generally equal in regular, undisrupted situations. In this paper, insights into what the concerns are for operators with respect to technical adaptations, logistical changes and behavioral aspects when using a headway-based strategy are given.
Find the TRB paper and presentation of Ellen van der Werff HERE and HERE
UITP INDIA SEMINAR ON URBAN RAIL NETWORK – BUILDING SUSTAINABLE CITIES
Transport infrastructure is one of the most important factors for a country’s progress. To keep this faster pace, for moving people, urban rail projects are playing a crucial role not only as a transportation solution but as a means to transform cities. 52.8% of India’s population would be living in cities and towns by mid-century compared to 32.8% in 2015, i.e. more than 750 million inhabitants.
Urban rail networks are expanding in Indian cities, as these are becoming key lifeline for the cities. Currently, 490 km of metro lines are operational in 10 different cities in the country. More than 600 km of metro rail projects are under construction in various cities. Further, It is expected that more than 350 km of new construction will be started in the next few years as more and more cities are planning for expansion or new constructions of metro rail. The average budget outlay of Govt. of India is likely to increase to about INR 250 billion annually, apart from the investments envisaged by the state governments, private partners and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Government of India has sanctioned at least INR 306.53 billion to Metro projects across the country between the periods of 2012-16.
Find my contributions here: Transit data and Transit system choice and lightrail
Duurzame ontwikkeling van steden: Lessen uit 61 light rail projecten
Stedelijke openbaar vervoer, zoals light rail, draait om veel meer dan alleen ‘vervoer’, ‘vervoerswaarde’, of ‘snelheid’. In deze paper wordt gepoogd light rail (en ook hoogwaardige bus) in een omvattend, maatschappelijk perspectief te plaatsen, teneinde de bredere baten voor steden te kunnen achterhalen.
Lees meer in het CVS paper met Rob van der Bijl: paper en presentatie
E-bussen laden zorgt voor nieuw spanningsveld op busstations
Om de bijdrage van transport aan de opwarming van de aarde te minimaliseren en de leefbaarheid in onze woonomgeving te verbeteren groeit de wereldwijde vloot zero-emissiebussen snel. Zero emissiebussen dragen bij aan een duurzame en leefbare woonomgeving. Uit dit onderzoek blijkt echter dat inzet van zero emissiebussen ook gepaard gaat met hogere kosten en meer onbetrouwbaarheid van de dienstregeling voor de reiziger. De investeringskosten zijn hoger dan bij ‘oude vertrouwde dieselbussen’. Exploitatie met elektrische bussen is tot 70% goedkoper dan dieselbussen, maar deze winst is niet genoeg om de toename in investeringskosten te neutraliseren. Tot op heden is de capaciteit van batterijen onvoldoende om bussen van begin tot einde dienst zonder tussentijds laden in te zetten. Tussentijds laden in de garage kost echter tijd en extra voertuigbewegingen en is daarom onwenselijk. Om die reden is het aan te raden batterijen te laden op busstations.
Lees meer in het CVS paper met Max Wiercx en Raymond Huisman: Paper en Presentatie
Masterclass Toekomst van het OV Ministerie I en W
In de Masterclass van het Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat buigen Henk Meurs (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen) en Niels van Oort (Technische Universiteit Delft) zich over ontwikkelingen in het openbaar vervoer. ‘Het is aan ons, wetenschappers, om de ontwikkelingen, effecten en kansen in het OV in kaart te brengen. IenW kan met pilots een aantal lessen leren om MaaS te stimuleren. IenW-ers moeten niet onderschatten welke voorbeeldrol ze vervullen.’
Bekijk het interview en de presentatie
Improving railway passengers experience: two perspectives
This paper describes two perspectives to improve the passenger experience. The passenger satisfaction pyramid is introduced, consisting of the base of the pyramid (dissatisfiers) focusing on time well saved and the top of the pyramid (satisfiers) aiming at time well spent. The challenge in planning and design of public transport services is to find the most efficient (set of) design choices. Depending on the context this might either mean focusing on the top or on the bottom of the pyramid. We found that influencing and enhancing the qualities of the satisfiers is far more important than traditional studies showed us. For stations, regression analyses show that dissatisfiers are responsible for explaining almost half of the total score of the station and satisfiers are responsible for the other half of the scores passengers give for the station. We still have to put a lot of energy in getting the basics right, starting in the planning phase, but then we are not allowed to lean back. We have to keep investing in qualities like ambience, comfort and experience which makes the customers truly happy at the end of the day.
Supervised learning: Predicting passenger load in public transport
For many Public Transport (PT) users, overcrowding in PT vehicles has a major decreasing effect on the comfort experience. However, most online routing applications still not take comfort regarding to crowdedness into account, but provide recommendations based on shortest distance, shortest travel-time, or number of interchanges.
Being able to include certain information on crowdedness, requires knowledge about the current and future level of passenger load. Increasing amount and complexity of data describing public transport services allows us to better explore the detection methods and analysis of different phenomena of PT operations. Some countries or operators provide the possibility to use Smart Card (SC) data for occupancy prediction. However, SC data is not available in real time, which makes it hard to incorporate it into real time recommendation models. In this work, we show that it is possible to predict the passenger load via supervised learning, eliminating the need for fare collection data beyond the set needed for training.
Find the CASPT presentation by Léonie Heydenrijk-Ottens HERE
Passenger Route Choice and Assignment Model for Combined Fixed and Flexible Public Transport Systems
The recent technological innovations have given rise to innovative mobility solutions. Public transport systems combining such services need novel models for the design of services. We develop a multimodal route choice and assignment model for combined use of line/schedule based public transport systems (fixed public transport) and demand responsive services (flexible public transport). The model takes into account the dynamic demand-supply interaction using an iterative learning model framework. Flexible public transport can be used to perform any part of the trip, ranging from a first/last mile service to an exclusive direct door-to-door connection. The developed model is implemented in an agent based simulation framework. The model is applied to the test network of Sioux Falls. Results, in terms of modal split, fleet utilization, and passenger waiting times are analysed for scenarios in which fixed and flexible public transport are offered as competing modes as well as potential complementing modes.
Find the CASPT presentation HERE
Insights into factors affecting the combined bicycle-transit mode
The combination of bicycle and transit is an upcoming, sustainable multimodality. The flexibility of the bicycle combined with the speed and comfort of good transit can be a highly competitive alternative to the car. This study shows that many factors influence the uptake and attractiveness of the bicycle-transit combination. An in-depth literature review resulted in over thirty unique factors: six transit related factors, twenty first-last mile factors and fifteen context related factors. All these factors might influence the demand for this ‘new’ mode positively or negatively. An exploratory choice modelling study showed that Dutch bicycle-train users in our sample are willing to pay €0.11 for a minute less bicycle time, €0.08 for a minute less train time, €0.11 for a minute of less time to park and €0.60 per avoided transfer. These kinds of insights give the bicycle and transit sector valuable information to be used in modelling multimodality and cost-benefit analyses, thereby supporting improved decision making and integrated design of bicycle and transit networks.
Read the full CASPT paper HERE and find the presentation HERE