The Fields Symposia on the Mathematics of Transportation
Thursday May 15 11:30-14:30
Board Room of the Fields Institute
222 College Street, Toronto
The final Fields Symposium on the Mathematics of Transportation
will look at (perhaps) the most important issue of all: once we
have designed a better transportation network, how do we pay for
it and how do we ensure it is used efficiently?
Market-based solutions to transportation problems
Matheus Grasselli, Department of Mathematics & Statistics,
McMaster University
Pollution and transportation problems are special cases of market
distortions (benefits for individuals or organizations that force
unwanted costs on other people). It therefore makes sense to seek
market-based solutions. We discuss market-based solutions to environmental
problems in three general categories: environmental taxes (the polluter-pay
principle), subsidies (incentives to behavior change) and cap-and-trade
systems. Specifically for transportation, we discuss how pricing
principles can be used to rationalize the use of resources. These
include traditional road and parking pricing, but also the use of
novel strategies such as congestion charges, cordon areas, managed
lanes and pay-as-you-drive vehicle insurance.
Additional topics for discussion:
how do people respond to incentives/disincentives?
how to price negative externalities (i.e. Pigovian tax)?
real time pricing (connection with data)
relation of transit to economic development
the relation of density to wealth generation (the multiplier effect
inherent in dense, tightly coupled cities).
About the speaker
Dr Grasselli's reseach is focused on Financial Mathematics - the
use of modern mathematical tools from stochastic analysis, probability
theory and statistics to understand, model and make decisions in
Financial Markets. As a member of PhiMac he is involved in a number
of research projects in this area, such as optimal portfolio selection
in incomplete markets (mainly based on duality techniques from convex
analysis), positive interest rates for defaultable bonds (as an
extension of the Flesaker-Hughston framework) and discrete time
hedging strategies (particularly the differences between quadratic
and linear risk minimization).
I hope to see you again at the Fields Institute on Thursday May
15 11:30-14:30.
Don't hesitate to let others know about this series! However, please
let me
know in advance (at least a week if possible) if you (or other members
of your group) will be attending so we can arrange for lunch.
kevlahan@mcmaster.ca
This is the last meeting of the transportation symposium for the
year
Thursday April 24 11:30-14:30
Boardroom of the Fields Institute
222 College Street, Toronto
The theme of the next Transportation Symposium is "Integrating
Transportation and Urban Planning", and will feature the following
talk:
Integrated Transportation and Land Use Models (ITLUMs): The
McMaster Experience
Pavlos S. Kanaroglou, Canada Research Chair in Spatial Analysis
Center for Spatial Analysis (CSpA), McMaster Institute for Transportation
and Logistics (MITL), McMaster University
The interest in using computer simulation models to support the
urban planning process has a long history that can be traced to
the mid 1950s. Urban planners and practitioners have been using
such models to simulate the impacts of proposed new land use and
transportation infrastructure projects. These models have also been
used to assess the ramifications of future urban population and
economic growth policies. Several schools of thought have emerged
over time to develop such models, which are also known as Integrated
Transport and Land Urban Models (ITLUMs). A key feature of these
models is their ability to simultaneously forecast changes in transportation
flows and land-use patterns in a metropolitan area. In recent years,
there has been an increased interested in developing and using such
models to assess the interaction between land use, transportation
and the environment. As a result, these computer simulation models
are progressively becoming an essential component of the urban planning
process in many Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in Canada
and elsewhere around the world. This seminar presents the experience
of a group of researchers at McMaster University in developing and
applying such models to study land use and transportation problems
in Canadian cities.
About the speaker:
Pavlos S. Kanaroglou is Professor of Geography at McMaster University
and holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Spatial Analysis. His
formal education includes degrees in Mathematics (B.Sc), Computer
Science (M.Sc) and Geography (M.A, Ph.D). He combines several years
of industrial experience with academic teaching and research. Dr.
Kanaroglou has held faculty positions at Wilfrid Laurier University,
the University of Aegean (Greece) and McMaster University. He is
the founder and director of the Centre for Spatial Analysis (CSpA)
at McMaster. His research, funded by Canadian councils (NSERC, SSHRC),
as well as ministries and municipalities in Canada, focuses on sustainable
transportation at the urban and regional level, on urban air quality
and on the relationship between air quality and health. He has been
the principal investigator and participated in several national
and international projects. He has published extensively on transportation
issues and is a member of the editorial board for several transportation
related journals. Recently, Dr. Kanaroglou spearheaded the establishment
of the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics (MITL)
that is designed to bring together the private and public sectors
with academia for the development of relevant and high quality research
in transportation and logistics.
I hope to see you again at the Fields Institute on Thursday April
24 11:30-14:30.
Don't hesitate to let others know about this series! However, please
let me know in advance (at least a week if possible) if you (or
other members of your group) will be attending so we can arrange
for lunch.
Thursday March 20 11:30-14:30
Boardroom of the Fields Institute
222 College Street, Toronto
The theme of our next meeting is the appropriate use of models
to guide planners and managers of transportation systems. In particular,
we will examine how optimization theory might improve (or even optimize!)
transportation networks.
We will begin with a short introductory talk:
"Stable Traffic Equilibria:
Properties and Applications"
Yurii Zinchenko (Advanced Optimization Lab, McMaster University)
We present Nesterov's theory of static equilibrium in congestedtransportation
networks. The theory postulates that under some natural assumptions,
the Wardrop principle leads to a very strong relation between the
loading of the arc, arc flow and arc travel time. This
relation allows us to simplify significantly the arc performance
model. It is shown that instead of fixing a functional form of travel
time function, one can obtain equilibrium solutions for static traffic
assignment models using only some natural bounds for arc travel
time and arc flow. We compare the results of Nesterov's model with
the results of standard Beckmann model.
Discussion topics:
-prediction and design of network systems (capacity, performance,
robustness)
-combining transportation and urban planning
-anticipating large and sudden changes
Mathematics:* optimization, dynamical systems, qualitative analysis
of sudden changes.
Don't hesitate to let others know about this series! However, please
let me know in advance (at least a week if possible) if you (or
other members of your group) will be attending so we can arrange
for lunch.
Thursday February 21 11:30-14:30
Boardroom of the Fields Institute
222 College Street, Toronto
Modelling
-microscale (agent) to macroscale.
-traffic flow
-urban growth models
Mathematics: derivation of macro and micro scale models (including
PDEs and kinetic-type equations), determining correct averaging
procedures to connect the micro and macro scale models, appropriate
measures to interpret the results of these models, assessing
errors/stability/convergence properties of the models (confidence
levels).
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