Operating High-Occupancy Vehicle Lanes: Issues for Consideration

Author(s):  
Jon Obenberger ◽  
Bob Rupert

A commitment to proactively manage, operate, and provide the necessary services for support of a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) system is needed so that all HOV facilities can meet intended objectives and performance expectations. This operational focus should be integrated into all phases of an HOV system, from the strategic system planning through the ongoing performance monitoring and evaluation of specific facilities. The ongoing performance monitoring and evaluation of HOV facilities should be the basis for making continuous incremental changes in the way the system is managed, the way facilities are operated, and the way that support programs and services are utilized. HOV facilities are not appropriate in every location, and conditions change over time. Changes may warrant continuous adjustments or significant revisions in HOV facility operation. Before proposal of any significant changes in operation, all relevant factors, interests, alternatives, and associated impacts should be considered and analyzed in detail. These operational alternatives should include incremental revisions to improve the performance of the HOV system or specific facilities. Significant operational changes should be considered only after all possible incremental adjustments have been made to improve the performance of the existing HOV lane. In accepting federal aid, agencies have agreed to manage, operate, and maintain HOV facilities as they were originally planned, designed, constructed, and approved. Situations in which a federal review of operational changes to HOV facilities is required, the information needed to support such a review, and the existing federal requirements against which this review will be completed are identified. A review of the important issues and possible impacts resulting from any significant operational change is needed so as to determine whether federal approval is required and to assure consistency with the federal aid program provisions of 23 U.S.C. and 49 U.S.C.

2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 1189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Eberhard ◽  
Catherine J. Robinson ◽  
Jane Waterhouse ◽  
John Parslow ◽  
Barry Hart ◽  
...  

Adaptive management has been promoted as a structured approach to learning in response to the uncertainty associated with managing complex systems. We developed and tested a protocol to guide an adaptive approach to water quality management in north-eastern Australia. The protocol articulates a framework for documenting uncertainties and performance expectations, negotiating feedback and anticipating iterative and transformative responses to future scenarios. A Water Quality Improvement Plan developed for the Tully–Murray catchment in the Great Barrier Reef region was used to test the protocol and three benefits of its use were identified. First, developing rigorous and timely monitoring and evaluation ensures that opportunities for iterative planning are realised. Second, anticipating future endogenous or exogenous changes to the plan enables the early initiation of actions to inform transformative planning responses. Finally, the protocol exposed the need to coordinate multi-scalar responses to tackle environmental knowledge and management uncertainties and assumptions. The protocol seeks to provide a practical translation of adaptive planning theory that will enable the benefits of adaptive management to be realised on the ground.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 730-744
Author(s):  
V.I. Loktionov

Subject. The article reviews the way strategic threats to energy security influence the quality of people's life. Objectives. The study unfolds the theory of analyzing strategic threats to energy security by covering the matter of quality of people's life. Methods. To analyze the way strategic threats to energy security spread across cross-sectoral commodity and production chains and influences quality of people's living, I applied the factor analysis and general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis. Results. I suggest interpreting strategic threats to energy security as risks of people's quality of life due to a reduction in the volume of energy supply. I identified mechanisms reflecting how the fuel and energy complex and its development influence the quality of people's life. The article sets out the method to assess such quality-of-life risks arising from strategic threats to energy security. Conclusions and Relevance. In the current geopolitical situation, strategic threats to energy security cause long-standing adverse consequences for the quality of people's life. If strategic threats to energy security are further construed as risk of quality of people's life, this will facilitate the preparation and performance of a more effective governmental policy on energy, which will subsequently raise the economic well-being of people.


2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-430
Author(s):  
Brett Considine ◽  
John Peter Krahel ◽  
Margarita M. Lenk ◽  
Diane J. Janvrin

ABSTRACT Seven short cases highlight the need for organizational control of the use of social technology. Executives now consider the management of social technology strategies and risks to be their fourth highest priority, investing significant resources to develop effective social technology use policies (Carrick et al. 2013; Deloitte 2012; Feltham and Nichol 2012). Moreover, organizations vary their social technology investment choices depending on their objectives and their target audiences (AICPA 2013; Gallaugher and Ransbotham 2010; Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). A wide variety of case learning objectives involve applying internal control models, and developing and justifying opinions about how social technology uses and abuses affect operational, financial reporting and regulatory compliance objectives, risks, controls, and performance-monitoring activities. Instructors may utilize one or more of these cases at a time, either individually or in student groups, and in undergraduate or graduate financial accounting, accounting information systems, governance, or auditing courses.


Author(s):  
José Capmany ◽  
Daniel Pérez

Programmable Integrated Photonics (PIP) is a new paradigm that aims at designing common integrated optical hardware configurations, which by suitable programming can implement a variety of functionalities that, in turn, can be exploited as basic operations in many application fields. Programmability enables by means of external control signals both chip reconfiguration for multifunction operation as well as chip stabilization against non-ideal operation due to fluctuations in environmental conditions and fabrication errors. Programming also allows activating parts of the chip, which are not essential for the implementation of a given functionality but can be of help in reducing noise levels through the diversion of undesired reflections. After some years where the Application Specific Photonic Integrated Circuit (ASPIC) paradigm has completely dominated the field of integrated optics, there is an increasing interest in PIP justified by the surge of a number of emerging applications that are and will be calling for true flexibility, reconfigurability as well as low-cost, compact and low-power consuming devices. This book aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to this emergent field covering aspects that range from the basic aspects of technologies and building photonic component blocks to the design alternatives and principles of complex programmable photonics circuits, their limiting factors, techniques for characterization and performance monitoring/control and their salient applications both in the classical as well as in the quantum information fields. The book concentrates and focuses mainly on the distinctive features of programmable photonics as compared to more traditional ASPIC approaches.


Author(s):  
Xiaomo Jiang ◽  
Craig Foster

Gas turbine simple or combined cycle plants are built and operated with higher availability, reliability, and performance in order to provide the customer with sufficient operating revenues and reduced fuel costs meanwhile enhancing customer dispatch competitiveness. A tremendous amount of operational data is usually collected from the everyday operation of a power plant. It has become an increasingly important but challenging issue about how to turn this data into knowledge and further solutions via developing advanced state-of-the-art analytics. This paper presents an integrated system and methodology to pursue this purpose by automating multi-level, multi-paradigm, multi-facet performance monitoring and anomaly detection for heavy duty gas turbines. The system provides an intelligent platform to drive site-specific performance improvements, mitigate outage risk, rationalize operational pattern, and enhance maintenance schedule and service offerings via taking appropriate proactive actions. In addition, the paper also presents the components in the system, including data sensing, hardware, and operational anomaly detection, expertise proactive act of company, site specific degradation assessment, and water wash effectiveness monitoring and analytics. As demonstrated in two examples, this remote performance monitoring aims to improve equipment efficiency by converting data into knowledge and solutions in order to drive value for customers including lowering operating fuel cost and increasing customer power sales and life cycle value.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-53
Author(s):  
Reannan Riedy ◽  
Meredith McQuerry

To improve the comfort of agricultural workers, a T-shirt with a printed active cooling finish was evaluated to determine if it would meet the wash life durability and performance expectations of such an arduous application. Six shirts with a printed phase change material (PCM) finish and six shirts without (control) were washed 50 times to replicate a typical consumer wash life. Shirts were evaluated for absorbency, dimensional change, colorfastness, crocking, abrasion resistance, soil release, and smoothness retention according to AATCC and ASTM standard test methods. Testing was conducted before laundering and after 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 consumer laundry (CL) cycles. Absorbency and dimensional change were significantly influenced by the PCM finish. Results demonstrate the appropriateness of adopting such a finish technology for agricultural worker clothing applications.


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