Brazilian Road Freight Transportation Sector: The Challenge of Sustainability

The road cargo transportation system has significant representativeness in the Brazilian economic scenario. Companies depend on transportation to receive inputs from their suppliers and take their products to consumers. This modal is also the major consumer of fuel oil products in the transportation sector. Thus, it is necessary to act with a focus on sustainability, considering the economic, social and environmental aspects. From this perspective, this study aims to present aspects of the concept of sustainability in the Brazilian road freight transportation sector, with emphasis on the environmental, social and economic dimensions. A qualitative research approach was used with the literature research technique in order to build the theoretical basis for discussion on the dimensions of sustainability in Brazilian road freight transportation. The results show that the road cargo transportation sector is relevant for the country and seeks to fulfill its social role and be economically viable; requires attention to environmental awareness and eco-efficiency; should make efforts to use alternatives to avoid damage to the environment, applying technologies to reduce noise pollution, GHG emissions; and seek to comply with environmental legislation acting in a sustainable manner.

Technical Solutions for Means of Rail Transport in Improving Accessibility for People with Disabilities and with Reduced Mobility

The article includes an analysis involving the requirements for the adaptation of rolling stock for use by people with movement dysfunction. The requirements including construction and dimensions have been summarized and detailed conditions necessary to ensure the assumed level of travel comfort for people with reduced mobility with real examples of solutions used in currently operated railway vehicles. The focus was on the requirements set out in Regulation No 1300/2014 regarding technical design and construction solutions for adapting railways to the transport of disabled people, TSI PRM. Based on the collected material, an analysis of the compliance of the actual state with the theoretical one, included in the standard, was carried out. Elements designed and manufactured in a manner consistent with the recommendations contained in the standard, as well as those that require a re-analysis of rolling stock constructors, repair or necessary changes are indicated. The components analyzed included, among others, seating positions, movement zone - including internal and external doors, toilets or platforms enabling access to the interior of the vehicle The opinion of disabled people using rail transport was also included by conducting a survey and performing analysis and then interpretation of the data obtained. Basing on this analysis, solutions that will increase the comfort of travelling for people with disabilities have been proposed.

Pedestrian Carelessness toward Traffic Environment Due to External Human–Machine Interfaces of Automated Vehicles

To determine whether external human–machine interfaces (eHMIs) make pedestrians careless toward the traffic environment, we examined the following four hypotheses: H1, the pedestrian decides to cross earlier after seeing a yielding message on an eHMI; H2, the pedestrian perceives safety after seeing a yielding message on an eHMI; H3, the pedestrian’s confirming behavior before crossing is suppressed after the pedestrian sees a yielding message on an eHMI; H4, miscommunication between pedestrians and automatic vehicles can be caused by yielding messages on an eHMI.

Interventions as Soft Policies to Support Sustainable Behavior

It is not always easy for consumers to estimate ecological factors of products. These characteristics of products from production to disposal are trust characteristics, because they “are not written on its forehead”. In a few consumption areas eco-labels are established, e.g. food. In others, they are not, e.g. transportation. There is a need of transparent and believable information to teach consumers. Information, training and education can empower people to make well-founded decisions. In many social groups (sinus milieus) informing is not enough. The awareness of sustainability is quite low and additional measures needed. Motivation, reflexion, coinage and economic benefits are the key to get these people to act more environmental-friendly. Measures like these are soft policies in the field of transportation and mobility. There are no restrictions or changes to the infrastructure. Soft policies are implemented much faster and with lower financial investment. In 1993 Dwyer et al. investigated different types of soft policy measures to preserve the environment, so called interventions to change individual behaviour and decisions and diffusions to spread changes into community and to penetrate all social groups. More than a quarter century later digital mediums and a high level of social connection and interaction opened up new ways to intervene and diffuse. This paper presents new formats based on the development of 1993 tested formats. Formats are compared to Dwyer et al., Mosler and Schade.

Mixed Flow Assembly Line Balancing Problem Considering Material Supply Strategy

With the capacity limitation of the assembly line buffer area, a method for solving the mixed flow assembly line balancing problem considering material supply strategy is proposed. This paper analyzes the changes in material transportation time and assembly time due to different supply strategies, and proposes a method for jointly modeling the assembly line balancing and material supply problem. In the case of meeting the production cycle, with the buffer area capacity as the limit and the shortest production operation time as the goal, a joint optimization model including material handling time, material transportation time and assembly line working time is established, and the model is designed for the established model Genetic algorithm with piecewise coding. Finally, the proposed algorithm was evaluated using a workshop raw date， the simulation results show that although the indirect supply cost is relatively more than the direct supply, it can effectively alleviate the problem of the capacity limitation of the buffer area.

Trip Generation Rates Using Household Surveys in the State of Qatar

Investment in transportation can bring a range of economic, social, and environmental benefits. In order to manage resources effectively and to choose the best decision from a variety of investment options for the transportation projects, transportation model is normally used, moreover it can help in predicting the impact of these transportation project options on traveler’s mobility based on future changes in land uses, population, jobs, and other economic factors. Transportation modelling outputs will support in assessing transportation project options and setting the transportation investments priorities. Trip generation is considered the first step in four-stage transport modelling. It estimates the number of trips produced or attracted by households' members over one full day. In the paper, trip generation regression models were developed using household surveys for villas and apartments. The regression models for Villa is (0.357+1.3681X1+2.4914X2) were X1 and X2 and the number of people with driving license and number of active people (employees and students) respectively with an R2 of 0.65 , on the other hand the regression model for the apartment is (0.5323+0.9815X1+2.3961X2) with R2 of 0.54.

A SUMO Based Simulation Framework for Intelligent Traffic Management System

Continuous increments in world population demands transportation with essential vehicle facilities and directly effect on road traffic volume or congestion, mostly in metropolitan cities, and thus it needs significant investigation, analysis, and maintenance. In these regards, an Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) with a Deep-Neuro-Fuzzy model was proposed and implemented. Dijkstra algorithm is used to select optimum path from source to destination on the basis of calculated road segment weights from Deep-Neuro-Fuzzy framework. However, Deep-Neuro-Fuzzy framework needs some comprehensive analysis, other means some simulation or emulation, and etc, to proof the efficiency and workability of the model. In this paper, we are going to explore the Deep-Neuro-Fuzzy model in pragmatic style with an open-source traffic simulation model (SUMO) and helps to explore traffic-related issues including route choice, simulate traffic light or vehicular communication, etc in our ITMS. In addition, a new GUI is developed to control the simulation input attributes and presents the feedbacks into the traffic flow in SUMO environment. Results highlight that the proposed SUMO model can realistically simulate ITMS based on the road segment weights from Deep-Neuro-Fuzzy model. Different built-in routing algorithms are also used to proof the workability of this model.

Quality of Transport Service in Intercity Road Passenger Transport: A Literature Review

Achieving an adequate level of quality of transport services is a prerequisite for providing transport services. Certain level of quality of transport services is essential for the operation of intercity road passenger transport due to the increasingly competitive competitiveness of road transport companies in the transport services market. The topic of this research is also based on the presented topic, primarily through a comprehensive and systematic presentation of the current scientific knowledge in the area of quality management in road passenger transport. The structure of the public road transport system and the quality of transport services are described. The paper presents the quality of transport services as the basis of business excellence of road transport companies. Various models of quality management of transport services are described, as well as methods of assessing the quality of transport services in road passenger transport. The review is displayed of the current scientific research on the elements of quality of transport services in road passenger transport. The purpose of the research is to improve the methodology for assessing the quality of transport services with the aim of optimizing business and competitiveness of the road transport company.

An Empirical Study of Additional Stopover Behaviors of Car Tourists Affecting by Traffic Congestion Information Using Mobile Probe Data

Car tourists may make some additional stopovers for sightseeing, meal, shopping, or leisure activities which is not originally planned, to avoid becoming involved in the traffic congestion occurring on the homeward route. The objective of this paper is to examine whether this induced stopover behavior exists and to empirically analyze the tendency of additional stopovers by departure time periods for homeward trip and level of traffic congestions. An analysis of route search data and GPS travel trajectory data collected by mobile car navigation application is conducted. The study results show car tourists tend to have additional stopovers when the departure time for homeward trip is early, and differences in the tendency of additional stopovers by congestion levels are observed, implying the impact of traffic congestion on additional stopover behaviors to some extent. The study results suggest the possibility of promoting additional stopovers in tourism areas for congestion avoidance by providing predicted near future traffic congestion and surrounding tourism information, which is beneficial to both tourism promotion and traffic congestion mitigation.

Acceptance Factors of Car Insurance Innovations: The Case of Usage-Based Insurance

Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) is an application of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in the context of car insurance. UBI refers to insurance models in which insurers collect driving data using a telematics device. Based on the collected information, insurers can offer individual discounts depending on driving behaviour and provide feedback about each trip. Although there are plenty of advertising materials about the benefits of UBI, its user acceptance and usability have not received much research attention so far. To cover this gap, we conducted two user studies: semi-structured interviews with UBI users and a qualitative analysis of 186 customer inquiries concerning a UBI program from a web forum of a German insurer. We found that UBI can benefit drivers, insurers and society. Moreover, the country driving conditions, the policy conditions, the users’ perceived driving style, the perception of UBI, and the premium reduction influence UBI acceptance. Regarding traffic safety, some of our participants were concerned that UBI may provoke dangerous driving behaviour under certain circumstances. Finally, we make recommendations for insurers derived from users’ views, such as to provide to drivers more control over the user interface and over the way driving feedback is given to them. Concerning the driving scores, the ways in which they are calculated should be more transparent.