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A Message from the JTRF Co-General Editors
The Fall 2007 issue of JTRF contains the usual wide variety of contemporary transportation topics that has become the distinguishing characteristic of JTRF. Topics in this issue include the following:
- Perceptions of motor carrier choice decision
- Determinants of Mississippi River locking times
- Benefits of coordinating transport agency service for medical trips
- Service performance of shipments involving short line railroads
- Road pricing and grain transport
- New tools for calculating traffic safety risks
- Air traffic controller workload and airline safety
In "Motor Carriers' and Shippers' Perception of the Carrier Choice Decision," Shane R. Premeaux investigates the motor carriers and shippers perceived importance of 36 carrier selection variables. The perceptions were measured by a survey of motor carrier managers and traffic managers. Premeaux found perceptual differences between shippers and carriers for nine of the 36 selection variables. He concluded that carriers need to offer more flexible rates, respond effectively to unexpected events, and provide information and services through a comprehensive web-enhanced electronic-data-interchange.
Seth D. Meyer and John Kruse examine factors affecting variation in locking time on the Upper Mississippi River in "Factors Affecting Locking Times at 600' and 1200' Locks on the Mississippi River with an Examination of Excessive Locking Time Charges." Using LPMS (Lock Performance Monitoring System) data which summarizes the characteristics for every vessel traversing the locks, the authors specify a model of locking time which is made a function of various dummy variables such as lock characteristics, time of day, season of the year, and barge type. Meyer and Kruse concluded that 1200' locks reduce both lock time and lock time variation, and also that lock capacity has declined during the 1992-2004 period for all locks. They also found that lockage fees based purely on relative locking times would not reduce average locking times.
In "Estimating Cost Savings of Coordinating Regional Non-Emergency Human Transport Services," Ryoichi Sakano and Julian Benjamin investigate the benefits and costs of coordinating transport service to hospitals in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. The authors compared the operating costs of providing transport services between the region and the University of North Carolina (UNC)/Duke medical areas of the coordinated service (PART Connections) to the cost of each county providing separate service. Sakano and Benjamin found that the net saving of annual operating costs from using PART Connections was $47,600.
Carl D. Martland and Steve Alpert analyze trip times and trip time variability of general merchandise freight moving to and from short line railroads in "Origin-to-Destination Performance for General Merchandise Traffic Moving to and from Short Line Railroads." The authors illustrated the level of service provided to short line customers by selecting a representative sample of 39 origin-to-destination (OD) movements that originated or terminated on one of 10 short lines during the first half of 2006. They found that the average trip time for an OD movement was 7.3 days with a standard deviation of one to three days. According to Martland and Alpert this result was similar to rail service levels at various times during the past 30 years. The authors concluded that service will have to improve if railroads are to maintain or enhance their market share.
In "Assessing the Effects of Road Pricing on an Industry: The Grain Handling and Transportation System in Saskatchewan," Eric K. Larson and James F. Nolan evaluate the effect of three road pricing scenarios on grain movement in west central Saskatchewan, Canada. The authors point out that grain trucking on the rural road network of the region has been increasing, leading to deterioration of these roads. To finance road rehabilitation, Larson and Nolan employ a simulated optimization framework to measure the effects of three road pricing scenarios, where one of them is a base scenario of no road pricing. The authors concluded that neither of the other two road pricing scenarios produced a significant welfare increase relative to the status quo. Larson and Nolan attributed this result partly to the dominance of rail freight and grain elevation charges in total cost, neither of which varies across scenarios.
Paul S. Fischbeck, Barbara Gengler, David Gerard, and Randy S. Weinberg discuss a new tool for estimating traffic safety risks in "An Interactive Tool to Compare and Communicate Traffic Safety Risks: Traffic STATS." The authors explain that Traffic STATS integrates publicly-available government data on traffic fatalities from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and personal travel behavior from the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). The authors describe the motivation for development of the tool, explain the technology developed to store the data, and provide a series of examples of the types of comparisons of traffic safety risks that can be obtained quickly and efficiently.
In "An Eye for the Air Traffic Controller Workload," Ulf Ahlstrom outlines an approach for measuring air traffic controller workload and developing air traffic systems and displays that meet controller needs. The author points out that eye movement data can inform researchers as to when a change in controller workload has occurred and what the controller was looking at when it happened. He says that eye movement monitoring under actual controller conditions can help develop optimal information systems and displays, reducing search times, and increasing the safety of airline operations.
Michael W. Babcock
Co-General Editor - JTRF
Kofi Obeng
Co-General Editor - JTRF
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