Evaluating Public Transit Reforms for Shrinking and Aging Populations: The Case of Takamatsu, Japan

Many small and midsized cities around the world are expected to experience rapid shrinking and aging of their populations in the near future. In Japan, these dramatic demographic shifts have already begun in all but the largest cities, creating an urgent need to redesign public transportation systems to accommodate the transit needs of smaller, older populations. Here we focus on the specific case of Takamatsu, a medium-sized city with a population of 420,000 that is currently redesigning its transit system to better serve an aging city with a declining working-age population. We use the agent-based transportation simulation model MATSim to predict the ramifications of Takamatsu’s transit system reforms on transportation behavior in the year 2050. Our analysis reveals how the effects of Takamatsu’s transit reforms vary geographically and temporally, with societal implications—particularly for the mobility of elderly residents—that we discuss.

Review of Whole System Simulation Methodologies for Assessing Mobility as a Service (MaaS) as an Enabler for Sustainable Urban Mobility

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is an emerging concept that is being advanced as an effective approach to improve the sustainability of mobility, especially in densely populated urban areas. MaaS can be defined as the integration of various transport modes into a single service, accessible on demand, via a seamless digital planning and payment application. Recent studies have shown the potential reduction in the size of automobile fleets, with corresponding predicted improvements in congestion and environmental impact, that might be realized by the advent of automated vehicles as part of future MaaS systems. However, the limiting assumptions made by these studies point to the difficult challenge of predicting how the complex interactions of user demographics and mode choice, vehicle automation, and governance models will impact sustainable mobility. The work documented in this paper focused on identifying available methodologies for assessing the sustainability impact of potential MaaS implementations from a whole system (STEEP—social, technical, economic, environmental, and political) perspective. In this research, a review was conducted of current simulation tools and models, relative to their ability to support transportation planners, to assess the MaaS concept, holistically, at a city level. The results presented include: a summary of the literature review, a weighted ranking of relevant transportation simulation tools per the assessment criteria, and identification of key gaps in the current state of the art. The gaps include capturing the interaction of demographic changes, mode choice, induced demand, and land use in a single framework that can rapidly explore the impact of alternative MaaS scenarios, on sustainable mobility, for a given city region. These gaps will guide future assessment methodologies for urban mobility systems, and ultimately assist informed decision-making.

framework to generate virtual cities as sandboxes for land use-transport interaction models

One of the major critiques of land use-transport interaction (LUTI) models over the ages has been their over-dependence on individualized software and context. In an effort to address some of these concerns, this study proposes a framework to construct "virtual cities" that can act as sandboxes for testing different features of a LUTI model, as well as provide the capability to compare different LUTI models. We develop an approach to translate any prototypical transportation infrastructure network into a plausible land use zoning plan and synthetic population that are suitable for spatially detailed LUTI microsimulation of the virtual city. Disaggregate units of spatial geometry, like parcels and post codes, are generated using geospatial techniques applied to the transportation network. Households and jobs are randomly sampled from an actual city, and allocated in the virtual city based on matching density gradients. Students are matched with schools and workers are matched with jobs to complete the calibration of a synthetic population for the virtual city. Following the adjustment of behavioral models to complement the reduced scale of the virtual city, we demonstrate the integration between the land use and transportation simulation components in our LUTI model, SimMobility. The benefits of faster convergence times and shorter simulation times are clearly demonstrated through this exercise. We hope that this study, and the open-source releases of the SimMobility software with the virtual city database, can accelerate experimentation with LUTI models and aid the transition from individualized LUTI models to a common shared integrated urban modeling platform.

SIMULASI TRANSPORTASI TOMAT DAN PERUBAHAN MUTU TOMAT SELAMA PENYIMPANAN

Chemical, physical, and microbiological damage of fruits and vegetables can occur during the transportation process. The percentage of damage can reach 30-50% if the treatment during transportation is not carried out properly. The research objective was to determine the quality changes in tomatoes after transportation simulation based on the arrangement of the fruit in cardboard packaging. The treatment in this research is tomato arrangement patterns: the face centered cubic (FCC) arrangement, the traditional arrangement and the jumble (farmer) arrangement. The research begins with a transportation simulation using a vibrating table in a vertical direction, using a frequency range of 3.9 Hz and an amplitude of 5.2 cm. The simulation is carried out in 1 hour. After the simulation at the 1st hour, amount of mechanical damage (bruising) on ​​every package was carried out. The results showed that the pattern of arranging tomatoes in cardboard packaging that gave the least damage was the FCC arrangement pattern. The FCC pattern only causes shrinkage of 0.11% and the smallest amount of mechanical damage (bruising) is 0.64%.

Laboratories for Research on Freight Systems and Planning

Advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the advent of novel mobility solutions have brought about drastic changes in the urban mobility environment. Pervasive ICT devices acquire new sources of data that can inform detailed transportation simulation models, and are useful in analyzing new policies and technologies. In this context, we developed software laboratories that leverage the latest technological developments and enhance freight research. Future mobility sensing (FMS) is a data-collection platform that integrates tracking devices and mobile apps, a backend with machine-learning technologies and user interfaces to deliver highly accurate and detailed mobility data. The second platform, SimMobility, is an open-source, agent-based urban simulation platform which replicates urban passenger and goods movements in a fully disaggregated manner. The two platforms have been used jointly to advance the state of the art in behavioral modeling for passenger and goods movements. In this chapter, we review recent developments in freight-transportation data-collection techniques, including contributions to transportation modeling, and state-of-the-art transportation models. We then introduce FMS and SimMobility and demonstrate a coordinated application using three examples. Lastly, we highlight potential innovations and future challenges in these research domains.

Applying Bayesian Optimization for Calibration of Transportation Simulation Models

The parameters of a transportation simulation model need to pass through a careful calibration process to ensure that the model’s output is as close as possible to the actual system. Owing to the computationally expensive and black-box nature of a simulation model, there is a need for robust and efficient calibration algorithms. This paper proposes a Bayesian optimization framework for the high-dimensional calibration problem of transportation simulation models. Bayesian optimization uses acquisition functions to determine more promising values for future evaluation, instead of relying on local gradient approximations. It guarantees convergence to the global optimum with a reduced number of evaluations, therefore is very computationally efficient. The proposed algorithm is applied to the calibration of a simulation network coded in simulation of urban mobility (SUMO), an open-source microscopic transportation simulation platform, and compared with a well-known method named simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA). To assess the calibration accuracy, speed distributions obtained from the two models calibrated using these two different methods are compared with the observation. For both the Bayesian optimization and SPSA results, the simulated and observed distributions are validated to be from the same distribution at a 95% confidence level for multiple sensor locations. Thus, the calibration accuracy of the two approaches are both acceptable for a stochastic transportation simulation model. However, Bayesian optimization shows a better convergence and a higher computational efficiency than SPSA. In addition, the comparative results of multiple implementations validate its robustness for a noisy objective function, unlike SPSA which may sometimes get stuck in a local optimum and fail to converge in a global solution.

МЕТОД ФОРМУВАННЯ ЛОГІСТИЧНИХ ТРАНСПОРТНИХ ВЗАЄМОДІЙ ДЛЯ НОВОГО ПОРТФЕЛЮ ЗАМОВЛЕНЬ РОЗПОДІЛЕНОГО ВІРТУАЛЬНОГО ВИРОБНИЦТВА

The subject of research in the paper is to organize the logistics of interactions in a distributed virtual manufacture of high-tech products. The work aims to develop the method to find rational routes in the heterogeneous transport network, considering the time (deadlines), costs, and risks. The article addresses the following tasks: research of logistics interactions across the virtual manufacture of high-tech products (aircraft, automotive, etc.). Logistic interactions are carried out in a heterogeneous transport network that connects individual technological processes of high-tech manufacture. The features of logistics related to the virtualization of manufacture in the form of the new portfolio of orders are analyzed. The suppliers of materials, raw materials, and components that are located in the nodes of the heterogeneous transport network and which are the sources of goods transported in the distributed virtual manufacture are determined. To assess the possible routes of goods transportation in the heterogeneous transport network the values of time (deadlines of goods delivery), as well as freight costs and risks, are considered. The purposeful search for rational routes is carried out using the proposed algorithm for generating and moving numerical "waves" in a heterogeneous transport network. The simulation model to simulate the process of numerical “wave” propagation using planning and implementing of events related to the arrival of goods transported to the nodes of the heterogeneous transport network has been built. The algorithm to simulate the flow of requests in neighboring nodes concerning the node of the considered heterogeneous transport network has been developed. The dead-end nodes and possible parallel paths of equal types of transportation combining neighboring nodes are considered. The built algorithm includes two different phases of simulation: to achieve the “final” node and the inverse phase that is to define the route. The search algorithm is universal and makes it possible to find the routes with minimal time of goods transportation, minimal costs, and risks. The search for a compromise route that satisfies the conflicting criteria of time, cost, and risk has been proposed. The method of rational routes search is designed in the form of the agent simulation model. The following methods are used in the article: system analysis to create the topology of heterogeneous transport network structure; graph theory to represent the flows and routes of goods transportation; simulation to generate and move numerical "waves"; route optimization based on simulation; multi-criteria optimization to find the rational route; agent-oriented simulation to create the routes in the heterogeneous transport network. Conclusions: the proposed method to find the rational routes in a heterogeneous transport network of distributed virtual manufacture allows organizing the logistics transport interactions in distributed virtual production at the initial stages of planning of the new portfolio of orders.

Cloud and Edge Computing for Developing Smart Factory Models using a iFogSim Wrapper: Transportation Management System (TMS) Case Study

<p><b>The given literature focuses on developing a Smart Factory model based on Cloud and Edge computing used to develop Transportation Management System(TMS) using a iFogSim wrapper. Cloud computing identifies data centres for users and offer computer system services on-demand, including data storage and processing power, without direct active user management. In the smart industry, several devices are connected together across the internet, where vast volumes of data are collected during the entire process of output. Thus, to handle this data smart factory based on cloud and edge computing is used. The intelligent cloud-based factory offers some facility like large scale analysis of data. Concepts like fog and edge computing play a significant role in extending data storage and network capacities in the cloud that addresses some challenges, such as over-full bandwidth and latency. The literature also focuses on the implementation of TMS using the iFogSim Simulator. The simulator provides efficient execution of TMS by showing the amount of resources used which gives an idea regarding optimum use of resources. All types of data related to TMS is obtained at cloud by using smart factory like object location, time taken and energy consumption. To implement the TMS we have created a topology which displays various devices connected to the cloud which gives necessary information regarding the ongoing transportation simulation.</b></p>

Cloud and Edge Computing for Developing Smart Factory Models using a iFogSim Wrapper: Transportation Management System (TMS) Case Study

<p><b>The given literature focuses on developing a Smart Factory model based on Cloud and Edge computing used to develop Transportation Management System(TMS) using a iFogSim wrapper. Cloud computing identifies data centres for users and offer computer system services on-demand, including data storage and processing power, without direct active user management. In the smart industry, several devices are connected together across the internet, where vast volumes of data are collected during the entire process of output. Thus, to handle this data smart factory based on cloud and edge computing is used. The intelligent cloud-based factory offers some facility like large scale analysis of data. Concepts like fog and edge computing play a significant role in extending data storage and network capacities in the cloud that addresses some challenges, such as over-full bandwidth and latency. The literature also focuses on the implementation of TMS using the iFogSim Simulator. The simulator provides efficient execution of TMS by showing the amount of resources used which gives an idea regarding optimum use of resources. All types of data related to TMS is obtained at cloud by using smart factory like object location, time taken and energy consumption. To implement the TMS we have created a topology which displays various devices connected to the cloud which gives necessary information regarding the ongoing transportation simulation.</b></p>