Economics and Finance

GPS-Aided Gyroscope-Free Inertial Navigation Systems

Park, Sungsu
Tan, Chin-Woo
2002

A gyroscope-free inertial navigation system uses only accelerometers to compute navigation trajectories. It is a low-cost navigation system, but its output error diverges at a rate that is an order faster than that of a conventional gyroscope-based system. So integration with an external reference system, such as the Global Positioning System, is necessary for long-term navigation applications. In this pa-per, an integrated GPS and gyroscope-free INS system is designed to achieve stable long-term navigation. The linear and nonlinear error models of a gyroscope-free INS are derived and are...

Monitoring The San Francisco Bay Area Freeway Network Using Probe Vehicles And Random Access Radio Channel

Linnartz, Jean-paul M. G.
Westerman, Marcel
Hamerslag, Rudi
1994

In this report, the authors describe a method of collecting real-time traffic data from probe vehicles automatically sending traffic reports to one or m ore base stations, connected to a traffic center by a wired communications network. Analyzing and computing road traffic and message traffic flows in the San Francisco Bay Area, the authors study several multi-disciplinary aspects of this data collection technique. The results presented in this report reveal that random access (ALOHA) transmission of traffic messages is a (spectrum) efficient, inexpensive and flexible method for collecting...

Assessing the Value of TMCs and Methods to Evaluate the Long Term Effects of ITS: Measuring Congestion, Productivity and Benefi t Flow from Implementation

Gillen, David
Cooper, Douglas
2004

The study carries out an evaluation of TMCs (traffic management centers) using three methodologies; case studies, performance based regressions and time series analysis. The study is an extension of previous work that assessed the contribution of different types of intelligent transportation investments and initiatives. However, this research sought to distinguish the separate contributions of the ITS investments from the synergies of integration under a traffic management center. Secondly, the research investigated the time dimension of benefits where we investigated if there was an 'S'...

Smart Cards, Slow Deployment: Findings from Interviews with U.S. Transit Agencies

Iseki, Hiroyuki
Taylor, Brian D.
Yoh, Allison
2008

This report summarizes findings from interviews with transit officials at seven agencies in North America about smart card evaluations, expectations, and implementation. As part of the project, “Designing a Policy Framework for a Statewide Transit Smart Card System,” this report was preceded by a literature review of smart card projects and an online survey of transit agencies’ knowledge of and interest in interoperable smart card systems for fare collection. The literature review found a lot of booster-like enthusiasm for smart cards, but few studies that have rigorously evaluated smart...

The Costs and Benefits of Telecommuting: A Review and Evaluation of Micro-Scale Studies and Promotional Literature

Shafizadeh, Kevan R.
Mokhtarian, Patricia L.
Niemeier, Debbie A.
Salomon, Ilan
2000

This literature review has been prepared to synthesize and assess previous small-scale economic evaluations of telecommuting. These small-scale studies can be categorized as telecommuting pilot projects that take into account telecommuter and employer costs and benefits. (The reader is referred to a 1998 review of macro-scale telecommuting literature by Shafizadeh et al.). In this report, four studies are selected and examined as representing the state of practice regarding methodology and assumptions. The report identifies common inputs, critical assumptions, and limitations of these...

ATIS -- Alternative Revenue Approaches

Yim, Y. B.
2001

As part of a continuing research on Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS), this report presents an institutional analysis of alternative approaches to sustaining publicly supported ATIS. The fifteen largest metropolitan regions in the US and the private sector efforts were investigated through a literature review and in-person and telephone interviews. The study goals were to investigate alternative revenue approaches to achieve a self sustaining ATIS, identify institutional barriers to achieving self-sustainability, and develop a framework of assumptions. Two public sector...

Task B-2: Status of Legislative Settings to Facilitate Public Private Partnerships in the U.S.

Iseki, Hiroyuki, PhD
Eckert, Jeanette
Uchida, Kansai
Dunn, Ryan
Taylor, Brian D.
2009

In the search for new sources of funding, federal, state, and local government officials in the U.S. have recently been exploring public private partnerships (PPPs). While promising, PPPs are neither a panacea nor an unwarranted gamble: both shining successes and troubling failures abound. Given the large variation in the efficiency, effectiveness, equity, and feasibility of public-private highway finance partnerships in past projects, federal and state officials have been enacting legislation and statutes to both promote PPPs and to protect public interests from the potential pitfalls of...

Large-Scale Traffi c Simulation Through Distributed Computing of Paramics

Liu, Henry X.
Ma, Wenteng
Jayakrishnan, R.
Recker, Will
2004

Simulation modeling is an increasingly popular and effective tool for analyzing transportation problems, which are not amendable to study by other means. We examine the need for parallel or distributed simulation approaches from the need for computational speed-ups, availability of options towards that, and then at the need to distribute the effort to develop network simulation contexts and datasets. After an overview of the general techniques for the distributed discrete-event simulation and previous efforts on the distributed traffic simulation, we present the general architecture of the...

The Costs and Benefits of Home-Based Telecommuting

Shafizadeh, Kevan R.
Mokhtarian, Patricia L.
Niemeier, Debbie A.
Salomon, Ilan
2000

This report evaluates the costs and benefits of home-based telecommuting. Combining empirical data from the literature with a Monte Carlo simulation technique, a distribution of cost-benefit ratios is produced from three perspectives: the employer, the telecommuter, and the public sector.... Depending on the underlying assumptions, the results indicate that telecommuter benefit-cost ratios are generally above one if the employer bears the majority of the equipment cost burden. ...Even when parking and office space benefits are included, productivity lies at the heart of the telecommuting...

Costs for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Infrastructure Improvements

Bushell, MA
Poole, BW
Zegeer, CV
Rodriguez, DA
2013

Costs for pedestrian and bicycle safety infrastructure often vary greatly from city to city and state to state. This document (and associated database) is intended to provide meaningful estimates of infrastructure costs by collecting up-to-date cost information for pedestrian and bicycle treatments from states and cities across the country. Using this information, researchers, engineers, planners, and the general public can better understand the cost of pedestrian and bicycle treatments in their communities and make informed decisions about which infrastructure enhancements are best suited...