Autonomous Braking System: for Automobile Use

Road fatality and injury are a worldwide issue in the transportation industry. Road traffic accidents are becoming increasingly significant due to higher mortality, injury, and disability across the world, particularly in developing and transitional economies. Eighty-five percent of the total road traffic fatalities occur in developing nations, with Asia-Pacific accounting for roughly half of them. A variety of factors influence road safety, including technological, physical, social, and cultural factors. The purpose of this research was to design an autonomous braking system (AuBS). Using the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Intelligent System (ANFIS), a DC motor, sensors, and SAuBS have been developed to customize the traditional hydraulic braking system. The genetic algorithm has been developed to simulate the fundamental characteristics of the automotive braking system. The AuBS system goal is to slow the car without the driver's help infrequent braking when the vehicle is moving at slower speeds. When the ANFIS performance is compared to that of the AuBS model, it is discovered that the ANFIS performs roughly 15% better.

El paseo imposible por la ciudad inabarcable. Una relectura de las ecologías urbanas de Reyner Banham

The city of Los Angeles, CA, is, for sure, the first city to authentically emerge as a result of the widespread popularisation of automobile use, and it should, therefore, come as no surprise that the analytical and synthetic understanding of its profound nature is associated with this means of transportation and the infrastructures that make it possible. This is how the critic and historian Peter Reyner Banham understood it, when he proposed that only from behind the wheel of a vehicle could it be possible to reveal the true idiosyncrasies of this unusual city that the most orthodox European critics rejected, who were unable to extract a synthesis that could explain it. What was happening was that the city appeared as the pioneer of a new urban form which, relying on the widespread use of the car and the single-family dwelling, which is typical of the suburban garden city, proposed an absolute decentralisation as an alternative to the compact industrial city. In 1971, Banham published a now canonical text -Los Angeles, The Architecture of Four Ecologies- which aimed at revealing a clear and synthetic image of the city. This article highlights the main points of Reyner Banham's proposal, looking to expand its theoretical approach -which handles the structural and morphological scales- to a third scale: that of the sensory perception of the physical experience of space, based on some academic works of reference, but also on literary references by writers linked to the city in an attempt to transfer the poetic and sensitive vision to the field of urban studies. This vision makes it possible to show a change of paradigm regarding the relationship that the inhabitant of a contemporary city like Los Angeles -and, by extension, so many others- establishes with the scenario of collective life, represented by public space.

Inhabitable Bridge Infrastructure: A Reappropriation of the Street from Vehicular to Pedestrian Scale

For the past century urban infrastructures have been designed primarily with automobile use in mind. The built environment consequently reflects a neglect of the human scale, that is, pedestrians. This thesis looks at existing contemporary bridges and explores ways of bringing pedestrian-scaled activity and vitality back onto the bridge, thereby breaking the confines of vehicular bridges to create a continuum of the urban environment on both ends. This thesis investigates methods of integration and coordination of vehicular and pedestrian traffic as a way to maintain the bridge as a “connector” for transport purposes, resulting in a future where bridges may facilitate a higher quality urban environment. The site for this thesis is the Jacques Cartier Bridge, a vehicular bridge that spans the St. Lawrence River in Montreal. This thesis examines the history of the street versus the road, place versus non-place, mobility versus transport and the influence of the Megastructuralist movement in Montreal as applicable elements for future bridge design. This thesis will also find ways to reacquaint itself with the estranged concept of the inhabitable bridge and demonstrating how it can be reintegrated into current and future infrastructural bridge concepts.

Inhabitable Bridge Infrastructure: A Reappropriation of the Street from Vehicular to Pedestrian Scale

For the past century urban infrastructures have been designed primarily with automobile use in mind. The built environment consequently reflects a neglect of the human scale, that is, pedestrians. This thesis looks at existing contemporary bridges and explores ways of bringing pedestrian-scaled activity and vitality back onto the bridge, thereby breaking the confines of vehicular bridges to create a continuum of the urban environment on both ends. This thesis investigates methods of integration and coordination of vehicular and pedestrian traffic as a way to maintain the bridge as a “connector” for transport purposes, resulting in a future where bridges may facilitate a higher quality urban environment. The site for this thesis is the Jacques Cartier Bridge, a vehicular bridge that spans the St. Lawrence River in Montreal. This thesis examines the history of the street versus the road, place versus non-place, mobility versus transport and the influence of the Megastructuralist movement in Montreal as applicable elements for future bridge design. This thesis will also find ways to reacquaint itself with the estranged concept of the inhabitable bridge and demonstrating how it can be reintegrated into current and future infrastructural bridge concepts.

6. Nature in the city

Cities are embedded and enmeshed in natural settings and systems. “Nature in the city” focuses on the role of city planning in preserving and regulating the interactions between these natural systems and the community. Parks and green spaces act as the lungs of a city, providing clean air and space; in some communities, access to parks has become a political issue. Ways to make cities more environmentally friendly include solar energy, water conservation, and reduction of automobile use, including ride-hailing services. Some planners may need to go against the long-standing demands of their profession and leave some areas completely undeveloped.

The Response of Urban Travel Mode Choice to Parking Fees considering Travel Time Variability

Increasing automobile use leads to higher costs for traveling associated with emissions, congestion, noise, and other impacts. One option to address this is to introduce high parking charges to reduce the demand for automobile use and encourage the travel mode switch to public transport. To estimate commuters’ mode choice behavior in response to high parking fees, commuters from Nanjing completed an individually customized discrete choice survey in which they chose between driving and taking the bus or metro when choices varied in terms of time and cost attributes. Multinomial logit models were used to estimate commuters’ responses to high parking charges. In the models, the variability of travel times is considered and analyzed in the stated mode choice models. The results suggest that increases in costs of driving will lead to a great reduction in driving demand. The travel time reliability ratio is 0.50 and the value of each minute late is almost 5.0 times more than the average travel time with the restriction of the maximum allowed delays. The methods used in this study could be adopted to estimate the effect of variable pricing strategies on mode choice responses for different trip purposes. The high value given to travel time variability has implications for transport policy in terms of decision making with respect to new pricing strategies. Moreover, the valuation of travel time savings taken into account in this study would be helpful to better understand the effect of high parking fees.

The cultural politics of infrastructure: the case of Louis Botha Avenue in Johannesburg, South Africa

This chapter explores the cultural politics of bicycle infrastructure through an examination of attempts to build cycling lanes in Johannesburg, South Africa in the 1930s. In the 1930s in Johannesburg, with increasing rates of automobile use planners were grappling with road safety, congestion and rules. At the time, bicycles were still an important mode of transport. Vehicle licensing data from Johannesburg shows that up to 1935, more bicycles were registered than automobiles. In an effort to reduce growing conflicts between bicycles and motorists, the Johannesburg city council turned to the concept of separating traffic modes. I draw on data from archives, newspaper material, municipal reports and other published material. By showing how decisions on building of bicycle lanes and the expected conduct of the users and motorists were intrinsically shaped by prevailing social relations, circulation of ideas and practices between the United Kingdom and South Africa, it highlights the extent to which bicycle infrastructures are not neutral objects. They are socio-technical assemblages inextricable from place. As such this historical account foregrounds the importance of the contexts within which transitions occur. This is especially relevant in the contemporary moment of the return to the bicycle characterised by policy borrowing.

Industry Stakeholder Perspectives on the Adoption of Electric Bicycles in British Columbia

Electric-assist bicycles (e-bikes) are an emerging mode of transportation that offers a sustainable alternative to automobile use in urban areas. Past research on e-bike adoption has focused on user perspectives. Understanding other stakeholder perspectives is also essential to implementing effective e-bike policy. The objectives of this research are to identify alignments and misalignments in perspectives on e-bike adoption across industry stakeholders in British Columbia (BC), including e-bike retailers, manufacturers, cycling coalitions, and government agencies, and to provide recommendations for e-bike policy that account for those perspectives. An online survey was distributed to industry stakeholders to examine perceived barriers to adoption, expected impacts of adoption, and effects of policy on adoption. Questions about regulations discriminated between five e-bike types: pedal-assist, throttle-assist, scooter-style, electric recumbents, and enclosed electric recumbents. Results indicate strong agreement among industry stakeholders that scooter-style e-bikes require separate and additional regulation from other types of e-bikes and from existing regulation in BC. In contrast, there was misalignment in the expected mode shift resulting from e-bike adoption, with government agencies least optimistic about diversion of automobile trips. Industry stakeholders broadly agreed on the need for speed regulation and viewed higher speeds as one of the least important benefits of e-bikes, which contrasts with past research on user perspectives. Policy recommendations include reclassifying scooter-style e-bikes, rebate or tax programs to reduce e-bike costs, further research on optimal e-bike speed limits, and continued support for improvements in general cycling infrastructure (a top priority for industry and user stakeholders).