Search results for "Transportation"
showing 10 items of 860 documents
Life cycle assessment of large scale timber bridges: A case study from the world’s longest timber bridge design in Norway
2018
Abstract This paper seeks to use life cycle assessment to investigate the comparative environmental impacts of two proposed bridge designs for the new Mjosa Bridge over Lake Mjosa in Norway. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has designed one timber and one concrete alternative for the 1650 m 4-lane highway bridge. If the timber bridge design is chosen, it will be the longest timber bridge in the world once constructed. The main motivation for building the timber bridge is to utilize local industry and to reduce environmental impacts in road infrastructure. This study aims to determine the expected emissions from both construction designs by using life cycle assessment. Life cycle as…
Annual heating energy requirements of office buildings in a European climate
2016
Abstract The concept of implementing energy savings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has become a key element of energy policies of any industrialized country. In the civil sector and specifically, energy savings for office buildings, there are still opportunities for further enhancements related to correctly determining the air conditioning thermal requirements. However, there is a lack of simple correlations that allow a preliminary assessment for a single building or correlations that can be quickly applied at the district level. This paper proposes several simple correlations that determine the heating loads of a typical office building by only knowing the Degree-Days of a specific Eu…
Hybrid Procedure for Automated Detection of Cracking with 3D Pavement Data
2016
Pavement cracks are considered a major indicator of pavement performance. Because traditional manual crack surveys are dangerous, time consuming, and expensive, technologies have been developed to collect high-speed pavement images, and numerous algorithms have been proposed to detect cracks on pavement surface. The latest PaveVision3D Ultra system (3D Ultra) has been implemented to achieve 30-kHz three-dimensional (3D) scanning rate for 1-mm resolution pavement surface data at highway speed up to 100 km/h (60 mi/h). This paper presents the application of a hybrid procedure for automated crack detection on 3D pavement data collected using 3D Ultra. The procedure combines three different me…
Co2 emissions of French shippers: The roles of delivery frequency and weight, mode choice, and distance
2014
In this article, the authors describe the effects of delivery frequency, mode choice, distance, and shipment weight on the CO₂ emissions of French shippers, taking advantage of a 2004 survey of French shippers (ECHO) which describes the characteristics of 3000 shippers, 10,000 shipments, and 20,000 transport chain legs. Once the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of every shipment have been computed, they are divided by the corresponding number of ton-kilometers in order to find their carbon intensity (in grams of CO₂ per ton-kilometer). The authors then analyze the latter with respect to a number of selected shipment characteristics: shipment frequency and mode choice (planning choices),…
Speed Stochastic Processes and Freeway Reliability Estimation: Evidence from the A22 Freeway, Italy
2013
In this paper, a criterion for predicting the reliability of freeway traffic flow is presented. The idea is based on an analysis of spot speed time series divided into sequences of events of random and homogeneous traffic processes. For each process, the flow rate and density were calculated; then the relationships between parameters of spot speed processes and vehicular density were obtained. Using these relationships and a simulation procedure for the spot speed process, a formulation for predicting the reliability of traffic flow moving along the offside lane on the freeway roadway was derived. Through this formulation and the measurements of flow rate and speed, the probability of insta…
Upgrading cultural infrastructures: Notes on the strategy concerning variable message signs on the European scene
2011
This paper presents the general strategy concerning Variable Message Sign harmonization in Europe represented by the work of the Expert and Study Group 4-Mare Nostrum (ESG4) within the EasyWay program. Co-funded by the European Commission and participated by 22 European Member States, EasyWay focuses on ITS implementation integrating stakeholders from the public and private sector. The paper shows some empirical data to illustrate the slow but careful, integral approach followed by ESG4 in order to issue specific recommendations concerning Variable Message Signs design and use in Europe.
Carbon Intensity of French Shippers
2014
International audience; To estimate CO2 emitted by a French shipper for the transportation of its shipments, we use the French shipper survey. In this survey, we only have three shipments per shipper and carbon intensity per shipment is highly variable. So the CO2 per shipper was estimated indirectly, with two different approaches: First we set up a typology of the shippers, in 10 types of ‘homogenous’ establishments and estimated in each type an average level of emissions per shipper. In a second approach, carbon intensity per tonne shipped has been modelled, using only the shipper characteristics as explaining variables. Then for each shipper, multiplying this average CO2 emission per ton…
The Effect of Advanced Traveller Information Systems (ATIS) on public transport demand and its uncertainty
2009
Advanced Traveller Information Systems (ATISs) include a broad range of advanced computer and communication technologies. These systems are designed to provide transit riders pre-trip and real-time information, to make better informed decisions regarding their mode of travel, planned routes and travel times. ATISs include in-vehicle displays, terminal or wayside based information centres, information by phone or mobile and internet. In this article, a Stated Preference survey has been carried out in order to know the preferences of public transport’s customers related to different ATISs and their willingness to pay in Palermo. An ordered probit demand model has been calibrated to determine …
Consensus-based Distributed Intrusion Detection for Multi-Robot Systems
2008
This paper addresses a security problem in robotic multi-agent systems, where agents are supposed to cooperate according to a shared protocol. A distributed Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is proposed here, that detects possible non-cooperative agents. Previous work by the authors showed how single monitors embedded on-board the agents can detect non- cooperative behavior, using only locally available information. In this paper, we allow such monitors to share the collected information in order to overcome their sensing limitation. In this perspective, we show how an agreement on the type of behavior of a target-robot may be reached by the monitors, through execution of a suitable consensu…
Environmentally appraising different pavement and construction scenarios: A comparative analysis for a typical local road
2015
Abstract The aim of this work is to carry out a comparative analysis of environmental impacts for different scenarios of a typical local road. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the modeling tool used to quantify and characterize comparative environmental impacts. In carrying out this specific application of the LCA, different road construction techniques were considered with regards to the whole structure and compared in order to identify the best alternative in terms of environmental sustainability. So far, in fact, typical LCA frameworks of roads have focused on recycled materials for pavement layers only, thus neglecting study of the materials used in the embankment or in the subgrade. In t…