Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Every year, more than 1.24 million traffic related deaths are registered globally with the highest fatality rates in middle- and low income countries. Minibus taxis represent the most dominant mode of public transportation associated with road traffic crashes and injuries in most African countries. From a safety perspective, aggressive driving behaviour is one of the main causes of road traffic crashes. This study examined the nature and the frequency of the most common types of the minibus taxis drivers’ on-road aggressive behaviour as well as the corresponding response behaviour of drivers of other vehicles to those behaviours. The research was done through video observations in Cape Town, South Africa. Through questionnaires, this study also explored the effect of driver age and gender of minibus taxi drivers on the on-road aggressive behaviour. The effect of age and gender of drivers frustrated by minibus taxi drivers’ aggressive on-road behaviours on levels of anger aroused as well as on the response behaviours reported was investigated from within the framework of a frustration and aggression model of aggressive driving. In a total of 7,266 minibus taxis observed from three different sites, 943 aggressive driving behaviours noted were divided into three categories: traffic obstructions (stopping in the road or outside bus stops), disregarding traffic signs and signals (red light running and violating stop lines), and improper passing behaviours (cutting in too close, overtaking on road shoulder or on yellow lane, crossing solid lines to pass vehicles in the next lane, inappropriate lane utilisation). Observations were coded based on pre-determined evaluation indices. The more frequent response manoeuvres by drivers behind aggressive minibus taxis were swerving to the next lanes, accelerating to refuse gaps for minibus taxis, running behind minibus taxi red light runners, and hooting. The results from the questionnaire survey revealed that driver age and gender affected both the minibus taxi drivers’ on-road aggressive behaviours and the response behaviours reported by other drivers. Respondents reported that younger minibus taxi drivers exhibit more on-road aggressive behaviour than old minibus taxi drivers. Male and younger drivers frustrated by minibus taxis’ on-road aggressive behaviours reported riskier and more severe forms of reactions than frustrated female and older drivers. The responses of drivers of other vehicles to the minibus taxi drivers’ on-road aggressive behaviours have parallels with the responses of individuals to social bullying or victimisation, as researched and explained in social-psychological theory. More work is needed to explore this relationship but it is possible that the responses of drivers of other vehicles to the minibus taxi drivers’ aggressive behaviours could be explained by these theories. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Elke jaar word meer as 1.240.000 verkeer verwante sterftes met die hoogste sterftekoerse in die middel- en lae-inkomste lande geregistreer. Minibus-taxi's verteenwoordig die mees dominante vorm van openbare vervoer wat verband hou met verkeer ongelukke en beserings in die meeste van die Afrika- lande. Wat veiligheid betref, is aggressiewe bestuursgedrag een van die belangrikste oorsake van die verkeers-ongelukke. Hierdie studie ondersoek die aard en die frekwensie van die mees algemene vorme van minibus taxi-bestuurders se aggressiewe padgedrag sowel as die reaksies van bestuurders van ander voertuie op dié gedrag. Die navorsing is deur middel van video waarneming in Kaapstad uitgevoer. Hierdie studie het ook die effek van die minibus taxibestuurders se ouderdom en geslag op aggressiewe padgedrag met vraelyste ondersoek. Die uitwerking van aggressiewe bestuurgedrag op die vlakke van woede wat deur ander bestuurders ervaar word, sowel as op hul reaksies is vanuit die raamwerk van 'n frustrasie en aggressie model van aggressiewe bestuur ondersoek. In totaal van 7266 minibus-taxi's is waargeneem op drie verskillende plekke. Die 943 voorvalle van aggressiewe ry-gedrag is in drie kategorieë verdeel naamlik verkeer obstruksies, verontagsaming van verkeerstekens en -seine, en onbehoorlike gedrag. Gedrag is gekodeer deur van voorafbepaalde evaluering-sindekse gebruik te maat. Hierdie gedrag het ingesluit belemmer in a van verkeer, insny voor ander verkeer, kruising van soliede lyne, onvanpaste laangebruik, verbysteek op pad-skouers of op die geellyne, verontagsaming van rooi verkeersseine, en die oortreding van stoplyne. Die mees waargenome reaksies deur voertuie agter aggressiewe minibus-taxi's is wegswenk na die volgende lane, versnelling om gapings vir minibus-taxi's te weier, naloop agter taxi wat deur verkeerseine ry, en die gebruik van die toeter. Die resultate van die vraelysopnames het getoon dat die bestuurder se ouderdom en geslag beide die taxi- bestuurders se aggressiewe padgedrag en die reaksie-gedrag daarop bepaal. Resondente het aangedui dat jonger minibus-taxi-bestuurders meer aggressiewe padgedrag as ouer minibus taxi-bestuurders toon. Die response van die ander bestuurders op taxibestuurders se aggressiewe padgedrag het ooreenkomste met die reaksies van individue tot sosiale boeliegedrag of viktimisering , soos nagevors en verduidelik in sosiaal-sielkundige teorie. Verdere werk is nodig om hierdie verhouding te verken, aangesien dit moontlik is dat die reaksies van bestuurders van ander voertuie op minibustaxi- bestuurders se aggressiewe padgedrag deur hierdie teorieë verklaar kan word.

This research aims at providing methods in analyzing and estimating the taxi times of aircraft at airports, which are expected to be an important element for reducing taxiing delay and consequent excess fuel consumption and environmental costs. The proposed model involves a set of regression equations to model the taxi-out and taxi-in times at airports. The estimated results can be used to calculate the nominal taxi times, which are essential measures for evaluating the taxiing delays at airports. Given the outcomes of the regression model, an iterative algorithm is developed to predict taxi times. A case study at LGA shows that the proposed algorithm demonstrates higher accuracy in comparison to other algorithms in existing literature.

iSmart Taxi är en Android mobilapplikation (app) för taxiförarna på iSmart Taxi AB. Förarna kan med hjälp av denna applikation rapportera deras körningar. Denna applikation har skapats med hjälp av ett REST-API för att interagera med databasen.   Rapporten innehåller beskrivning om hur applikationen skapades och hur återkoppling från testfall som genomfördes av användarna påverkade applikationens design. / iSmart Taxi is a mobile application (app) for taxi drivers at iSmart TaxiAB. The application helps the drivers to register their fares on an Android mobile. A REST-API was build to interact with the database.   The report contains a description of how the application was created and how the feedback from the tests conducted by the users affected application design.

Torito es una aplicación que busca combatir la constante informalidad en los servicios de transporte en Lima al invitar a los conductores, que buscan generar ingresos adicionales, a un trabajo formal; y a usuarios, que requieran movilizarse en cortas distancias, a un servicio de transporte seguro y confiable Torito cobrará a los conductores suscritos una comisión del 20%, la cual se efectuará del precio total del servicio de traslado. En una primera etapa, Torito estará disponible en San Juan de Miraflores, con un plan de expansión para los próximos 5 años, que abarca los distritos de Lima Sur y Lima Este. Este servicio es totalmente posible, ya que está alineado a las necesidades de los clientes que usan diariamente el servicio de mototaxi para acercarlos a los paraderos, centros de trabajo y a otros destinos. Finalmente, en el análisis financiero, se demostró que Torito es un negocio viable y rentable, debido a que la Tasa Interna de Retorno es de 24.21%, que significa que Torito generará valor a sus inversionistas. Además, se podrá recuperar la inversión en un plazo máximo de 4 años. / Torito is an application that seeks to combat the constant informality in transportation services in Lima by inviting both drivers, who seek to generate additional income, to a formal job; and customers, who need to move around short distances, to a safe and reliable transportation service. Torito will charge subscribed drivers a 20% commission, which will be taken from the service fee. In a first stage, Torito will be available in San Juan de Miraflores, with an expansion plan for the next 5 years, covering the districts of southern Lima and eastern Lima. This service is totally possible, since it is aligned to the needs of the customers who use the motorcycle taxi service daily to bring them closer to the bus stops, work centers and other destinations. Finally, in the financial analysis, it was shown that Torito is a viable and profitable business, since the Internal Rate of Return is 24.21%, which means that Torito will generate value for its investors. In addition, the investment can be recovered within a maximum period of 4 years. / Trabajo de investigación

This master´s thesis is focused on now being developed electric taxi system, which is going to be used for aircraft´s ground movement. The content of this work includes description of this system, requirements and developed solutions, next part describes and evaluate the consequences of deployment such system in real traffic.

在石油價格高漲、都市空氣汙染及全球溫室效應日趨嚴重的情況下，電動車的推廣被個許多國家視為重要的發展政策。但由於目前電動車受限於車價高、充電速度慢、性能尚不足以滿足多數使用者的需求，因此將電動車的推廣目標從一般民眾改為大眾交通運輸業者如:乘計程車，成為許多國家的優先目標。而在台灣由於電動車推廣並不普遍，計程車司機對於電動車並不了解，加上車價較汽油車高，在推廣上更加困難。因此電動計程車的推廣由計程車車隊購買，再以租賃的方式給予計程車司機使用是較為可行的方式，本研究針對電動車與計程車業者的搭配進行探討，並以台灣大車隊為例子作為可行性研究目標。 本研究從計程車司機、計程車車行、乘客、政府，四個腳色下去探討，由對計程車司機的問卷調查及目前車輛使用的方式、與台灣大車隊經營團隊的訪談結果、政府目前對電動車的政策方向及補助、還有各家車廠的電動車技術，從上述這些資訊去分析電動車在台灣作為計程車的可行性，以及可以帶來什麼樣的益處。最後再將電動車和現行汽油車做使用成本的比較，進一步凸顯電動車適合作為計程車使用的特性。 本研究發現: (1) 現行電動車的續航力足夠台灣一般計程車司機使用一整天不須充電。 (2) 在行駛相同的里程數下，電動車的充電費用遠低於汽油價格 (3) 以目前的車輛價格，電動計程車租金可達到計程車司機的接受範圍。(4)長期使用下，以電動車作為計程車的總成本低於使用汽油車，可以增加司機的收入 / In the soaring oil price, increasing urban air pollution and worsening global warming situation, promotion of Electric Vehicle has become an important development policy in many nations. However, many nations have focus and prioritize Electric Vehicle’s development in the public transit vehicle market instead of the consumer vehicle market, such as taxi, due Electric Vehicle’s high retail price, slow charging process and lack of functionality still cannot meet most consumers’ demands. In Taiwan, due to the lack of Electric Vehicle promotion and understanding in all markets and the higher price compared to petroleum-based vehicles, deployment of the aforementioned development policy has encountered more difficulties. Therefore, the more logical approach for Electric Vehicle promotion would be enabling taxi organization to purchase in mass numbers, then rent the vehicle to Taxi drivers. This research focuses on the partnership between the Electric Vehicle industry and the Taxi Organizations, and will focus on the Taxi Organization, Taiwan Taxi, as a feasible research target case study. This research will analyze based on four different roles of the Taxi industry, namely, the Taxi Driver, Taxi Organization, Taxi Customers and the government through: questionnaires that inquire about current vehicle use, interviews that provide insights to Taiwan Taxi’s management directions, documents that highlights government policy directions as well as subsidy on Electric Vehicles, and summaries that provide an understanding of each Electric Vehicle Manufacturers’ technologies. From the above analysis, this research will aim to determine the feasibility of Electric Vehicles as Taxi in Taiwan and the possible benefits of such change. Finally, this research will compare the cost of Electric Vehicle versus current petroleum-based vehicles as an operative cost comparison to further prove that Electric Vehicle is a suitable replacement technology for the Taxi industry. This research has found that: modern electric vehicle’s battery life is sufficient for regular taxi drivers in Taiwan for an entire day without recharge; under the same mileage, the cost of charging an electric vehicle is far cheaper than refilling petroleum; the cost of renting an electric vehicle is in an acceptable range compared to the current vehicle purchase price; in long terms, the cost of electric vehicles as taxi is far cheaper than using petroleum-based vehicles, which can increase the drivers’ profits.

Aim of this master thesis is to determine whether the introduction of new functionality into mobile application based on existing competitive trends, can grant selected application a new position on the market. To evaluate the hypothesis we used data collection and feedback from users. Thesis shows introduces various aspects associated with product management in practice. The theoretical part defines the product management and mobile applications as products, product innovation and describes the methodology used within management of the product. The goal of the practical part is the selection process of the new functionality, which is corporate program, description of all aspects of the preparation of the functionality and consequently its development. Based on the data and the feedback from users we evaluate its contribution to the company Liftago and its new positioning on the market.

Cities have adopted evolving urban digitization strategies, and most of those increasingly focus on data, especially in the field of public transportation. Transportation data have intuitively spatial and temporal characteristics, for they are often described with when and where the trips occur. Since a trip is often described with many attributes, the transportation data can be presented with a tensor, a container which can house data in $N$-dimensions. Unlike a traditional data frame, which only has column variables, tensor is intuitively more straightforward to explore spatio-temporal data-sets, which makes those attributes more easily interpreted. However, it requires unique techniques to extract useful and relatively correct information in attributes highly correlated with each other. This work presents a mixed model consisting of tensor decomposition combined with seasonal vector autoregression in time to find latent patterns within historical taxi data classified by types of taxis, pick-up and drop-off times of services in NYC, so that it can help predict the place and time where taxis are demanded. We validated the proposed approach using the experiment evaluation with real NYC tax data. The proposed method shows the best prediction among alternative models without geographical inference, and captures the daily patterns of taxi demands for business and entertainment needs.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / To meet the security constraints for mission control rooms; the rooms must interface to other systems via fiber optic cable. Analog data from DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) outputs were initially brought into the rooms on copper wire. This paper outlines the conversion to fiber optic cable using the AMD TAXI chips in our Optical Digital Interface (ODI).

Thesis (PhD (Civil Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 1998. / 147 leaves single sided printed, preliminary pages i-v and numbered pages 1-1 to 8-8. Includes bibliography,list of figures and tables. Digitized using a Hp Scanjet 8250 Scanner to pdf format (OCR). / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The dissertation describes the functions of bus and minibus taxi terminals and transfer facilities. Planning, design and evaluation guidelines are proposed. These proposals are aimed at the following aspects: the geometric features and functional layout of facilities in order to enhance the effective usage thereof by passengers, as well as the smooth flow of vehicles; the location of facilities and traffic control arrangements, which take cognisance of effective traffic flow as well as acceptable walking distance by commuters; and an evaluation methodology which addresses allocative efficiency from an economic viewpoint, supplemented by analysis guidelines which consider distributive efficiency from a viewpoint of equitable distribution of welfare. It is explained how benefits for travellers, the transit operator and the subsidizing authority, and the opportunity costs of supplying the facility can be determined. A model is proposed whereby the non-monetary component of generalised travel costs can be estimated. The use of economic evaluation techniques for the selection and prioritisation of projects is detailed. This is supplemented by an example of an economic evaluation of a proposed bus/minibus taxi terminal. Subsequently it is examined how the design and effectiveness of a real world passenger transport terminal could be affected by the use of the guidelines proposed in the dissertation. The dissertation, lastly, deals with welfare distribution and the more equitable community accessibility and mobility which can be brought about by the creation and use of passenger transport terminals and transfer facilities. Also discussed is the accommodation of welfare distribution with an economic evaluation as a means of achieving greater equity or fairness and the ways in which this can be done. / AFRIKANSE OPSOMMING: Die proefskrif beskryf die funksies van bus- en minibustaxivervoereindpunte en oorstapfasiliteite. Beplannings-, ontwerp- en evalueringsriglyne word voorgestel. Die voorsteUe is gerig op die volgende aspekte: (1) Die geometriese en funksionele uitieg om die doeltreffende gebruik deur passasiers en vloei van voertuie te bevorder; (2) fasiliteitplasing en verkeersbeheermaatreels wat vlot voertuigbeweging sowel as aanvaarbare stapafstand in ag neem; en (3) 'n evalueringsmetodologie wat toewysingsdoeltreffendheid vanuit 'n ekonomiese oogpunt en verdelingsdoeltreffendheid vanuit 'n billike welvaartsverdelingsoogpunt in ag neem. Dit word verduidelik hoe voordele vir reisigers, die transit-operateur en die subsidierende owerheid, en die geleentheidskoste van fasiliteitsvoorsiening bepaal kan word. 'n Model word voorgestel waarvolgens die nie-monetere gedeelte van veralgemeende reiskoste beraam kan word. Die gebruik van ekonomiese evalueringstegnieke vir die keuse en prioritisering van projekte word verskaf. Dit word aangevul met 'n voorbeeld van 'n ekonomiese evaluering van 'n voorgestelde bus/minibustaxi-eindpunt. Vervolgens word dit ondersoek hoe die ontwerp en doeltreffendheid van 'n werklike passasiervervoereindpunt deur die gebruik van die voorgestelde riglyne beinvloed kan word. Ten slotte word welvaartverdeling en die groter toeganklikheid en beweeglikheid behandel wat binne 'n gemeenskap geskep kan word deur die voorsiening en gebruik van passasiersvervoereindpunte en oorstapfasiliteite. Dit word bespreek hoe 'n ekonomiese evaluering aangepas kan word as 'n maatreel om billikheid te bevorder.