Analyzing the relation between commuting satisfaction and residential choices using discrete choice theory and structural equation modeling

Poster (2017, January)

The concept of travelling satisfaction is gaining more and more interest in the transportation field. While increasing travellers’ satisfaction should be a goal of policy makers and practitioners, a drop ... [more ▼]

The concept of travelling satisfaction is gaining more and more interest in the transportation field. While increasing travellers’ satisfaction should be a goal of policy makers and practitioners, a drop in commuting satisfaction might lead to switch from one mode to another. Objective trip characteristics (time, cost, mode) as well as other elements such as mode attitude, lifestyle, etc. affect travel satisfaction rating. Despite an extensive literature on travel satisfaction determinants, often, the interaction between the studied determinants is overlooked. The main aim of this paper is to quantify the impact (both direct and indirect) of residential choices on the home-to-work stated travelling satisfaction. Methodologically, a Discrete Choice Theory approach (via the well-known concept of the utility Logsum) and a Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach have been used and compared. Results of both modelling approaches show that the direct effect of residential choices on commuting satisfaction is negligible compared to individuals’ external factors such as trip characteristics. However, using the PLS-SEM approach, indirect effects of residential choices on commuting satisfaction can be quantified [less ▲]

A local dynamic route and green time swapping control algorithm maximizing total network capacity

in Proceedings of the 25th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED 2017 (2017)

This paper deals with the traffic signal control problem. More specifically it investigates the impact at a network level of simple dynamic local traffic control policies. A dynamic route swapping rule is ... [more ▼]

This paper deals with the traffic signal control problem. More specifically it investigates the impact at a network level of simple dynamic local traffic control policies. A dynamic route swapping rule is adopted to model the behavioral response of the travellers to signal changes, while a dynamic signal control swapping rule based on an equi-pressure policy is used to implicitly consider the flow response within the control updating process. Results on a simple network show that the flow responsive control policy outperforms pre-timed control, as well as a more conventional local control policy based on signal equi-saturation. Numerical results show also that the swapping rule based on equi-pressure is less susceptible to local optima, to systematically improve total network throughput, and to increase its effectiveness with when demand increases. © 2017 IEEE. [less ▲]

Novel C-ITS support for Electric Buses with Opportunity Charging

in Proceedings of IEEE-ITS Conference (2017)

Equilibrium models in multimodal container transport systems

in Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal (2017), 29

Generating Macroscopic, Purpose-Dependent Production Factors Through Monte Carlo Sampling Techniques

in Transportation Research Procedia (2017)

Towards Estimating Urban Macroscopic Fundamental Diagrams From Mobile Phone Signaling Data: A Simulation Study

Poster (2017)

A network-wide assessment of local signal control policies’ performance in practical implementations

in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2016 IEEE 19th International Conference on (2016, November)

Cross-border activity-travel patterns: the Luxembourg residents perspective

Scientific Conference (2016, October 07)

Despite its small size (2586 km2), the Grand-duchy of Luxembourg is a strong economic locomotive. Indeed, among the 380 000 available jobs in the country, 44% are occupied by cross-border workers from ... [more ▼]

Despite its small size (2586 km2), the Grand-duchy of Luxembourg is a strong economic locomotive. Indeed, among the 380 000 available jobs in the country, 44% are occupied by cross-border workers from France, Belgium and Germany. While the commuting behavior and the activity chains of the cross-border workers have been largely studied (Carpentier, 2012, Drevon et al., 2013, Gerber, 2012) this is not the case for the population living in Luxembourg. This scientific contribution aims at analyzing the daily activity chains of resident population. Do residents perform all their activities in Luxembourg? If not, in which country do they go and for which type of activity? Due to the small size of the country and plausible attraction for surrounding countries (linked to familial reasons, nationality, past residential place of residence, differentials in prices etc.) the people living in Luxembourg might conduct some activities in Belgium, France or Germany. Between June and July 2015, a multi-day survey has been implemented on 52 staff members of the University of Luxembourg working, at that time, at Walferdange campus. These individuals provided information regarding their daily activities (activity duration and location, activity type) and their travel behavior (travelling time and mode) for two weeks. Among the respondents, 35 participants are living in Luxembourg and provided information for 490 days and 1850 activities in total. The studied population is interesting in many aspects. First of all, the individuals were working in Walferdange, a city located 8 km north of Luxembourg-city, so a central geographic position. Second, this is a high-qualified and international population. Actually, the education level of the respondents is high (45% have a PhD degree, 37% a master degree) and many of them moved to Luxembourg because of the attractive labour market. Third, the income of the surveyed population is higher than the average national salary. With its limited area, one would think that individuals living in Luxembourg would cross the borders quite often for shopping, leisure activities...However, Luxembourg has abundant and various services (shopping malls, leisure and cultural places ...). Indeed close to 30% of the respondents had all their activities in Luxembourg and out of the 1850 total activities, only 130 had been done in a neighboring country. But on the other hand, one fourth of the respondents had done 75% of total activities outside Luxembourg. In a way to better understand the mobility behavior of resident population, a detailed activity chain analysis will be presented. This will be completed by a spatial analysis of the activities, in order to examine the effects of the borders on non-work related activities. Finally, different activity behaviors will be identified through a multivariate analysis. The results of this explorative analysis will be compared to the abundant literature regarding the behavior of the cross-borders workers. [less ▲]

Considering activity pattern to achieve a more sustainable commuting behavior

Scientific Conference (2016, September 19)

While commuting allows workers to take part to the economy, this specific trip represents a non-negligible share of the total trips undertaken by individuals. Because of the repetitive pattern both in ... [more ▼]

While commuting allows workers to take part to the economy, this specific trip represents a non-negligible share of the total trips undertaken by individuals. Because of the repetitive pattern both in time and space of the home-to-work trip, different transport policies can be implemented in order to reduce some of its negative impacts. Travel Demand Management (TDM) measures aim at reducing the transport demand or inducing a modal shift towards active or public transport modes. Too often, these strategies, by focusing narrowly on the home-to-work trip, do not take into account the complexity of the individuals’ daily activity chain. Indeed, the complexity of the activity pattern might impede some workers to use public or active modes for the commuting trip despite, for instance, a very short home-to-work distance. Results of a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach indicates that, for working days, socio-demographic variables affect more car use than activity-chain complexity. Thus, the proposed TDM measures aiming at decreasing car use for commuting takes into account the daily activity behavior but also suggest ways to deal with individual’s characteristics [less ▲]

An Extended Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) Algorithm for Efficient Energy Consumption & Traffic Density Formulation

in Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics Committee (AHB45) 2016 Summer Meeting, Sydney, Australia, 2016 (2016, July 02)

Electric transportation, one of the most promising technologies of the century, can contribute to a greener environment as it is emission-free and sustainable. Although this technology promises a clean ... [more ▼]

Electric transportation, one of the most promising technologies of the century, can contribute to a greener environment as it is emission-free and sustainable. Although this technology promises a clean transportation style, it also has some drawbacks. One of the most significant one is cruising range, which needs to be addressed sustainably. The most eco-friendly solution is decreasing energy consumption by addressing driving behaviour. This can be achieved by taking the advantage of implementing an advancing vehicle automation technology which controls vehicles using a driver-assistance system such as Eco-Cruise Control (Eco-CC). Variety of systems already exist in the literature and a little known advanced version Eco-Adaptive Cruise Control (Eco-ACC) systems are developed as well. The next step of the vehicle automation is vehicle cooperation and information sharing, so-called Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC). It is already developed and tested by various researcher. However, the largest deal of existing studies focus on assessing the performance in terms of safety, possible contributions to the energy consumption is not taken into account. This study covers the extension of Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control systems while aiming to provide an energy efficient extended control algorithm to increase the energy efficiency and battery usage for electric vehicles. An energy efficient control algorithm is aimed to be derived to decrease the consumption of the vehicle. Cruising velocities and vehicle positions are received from the leading vehicles and accordingly traction force is adjusted to achieve efficient energy consumption. By providing vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication tighter spacing gaps, lower time headway, are aimed to obtain while traffic disturbances are damped, whereas in the cases ACC applications amplify the disturbance. Traffic density formula is introduced by using V2V communication which might be useful for ADAS and ITS framework. As a result, increase in traffic stability, density, and reduction in the total energy consumption is expected. Moreover, possible reductions in air drag with tighter spacing gaps may lead reduction in energy consumption. For the energy calculations and the validation of the proposed method, vehicle dynamics and energy consumption of an electric car is formulated, which has completely different characteristics and limitations than combustion engine cars. Hence the study aims to provide additional understanding of behaviour of a fleet of CACC-equipped electric vehicles. Even though the proposed control algorithm is developed for Electric Vehicles, it can be extended to other vehicle types based on their energy consumption characteristics and vehicle dynamics. [less ▲]