Regional repositioning of empty containers involves empty container movement between regional imp... more Regional repositioning of empty containers involves empty container movement between regional importers, marine terminals, depots, and export customers. This chain movement generates unproductive empty vehicle miles in the region. The problem of empty vehicle miles becomes more prominent because empty container depots are located close to the port and customers are inland. Considering the double-digit increase in containerized trade volumes and the persistent trade imbalance that strain existing depot capacities in major import areas, this paper focuses on the optimal location of new container depots and the repositioning of empty containers in a region. It proposes a system of inland depots for empty containers (IDEC) in which new depots would be built closer to customer clusters. An IDEC system can minimize the total system costs (cost of opening new depots plus repositioning cost of empties) and provide additional required capacity. The paper presents a mathematical model of such a system and discusses its feasibility and effectiveness. The proposed system is evaluated for a region based on the New York–New Jersey port region. Results show that by building inland depots, empty vehicle miles traveled and total system cost of repositioning empties are reduced significantly. At the same time, capacity is added to the system, preventing a shortfall that would result from the increase in trade and the trade imbalance. The authors believe that an IDEC system has great potential in optimizing regional empty moves.
With port competition now increasingly taking place on the landside, port actors have a genuine i... more With port competition now increasingly taking place on the landside, port actors have a genuine interest in enhancing their role and introducing improvements in the hinterland transport and logistics system. Among the different opportunities that are available, less attention has been placed on those that port–hinterland corridor management initiatives have to offer. These will be discussed herein, and a proposal is put forward for strengthening the collaborative environment in those initiatives, further reinforcing existing opportunities or creating new ones. More specifically, a value system approach is outlined and the steps for its development are sketched, putting forward value-oriented perspectives over the current performance-related ones. The proposed approach adds another useful dimension to the business thinking and decision-making of corridor members, enabling them to more holistically understand their respective roles and positioning and, in turn, further enhance collabo...
Coastal shipping plays a key role in insular regions, ensuring economic, territorial and societal... more Coastal shipping plays a key role in insular regions, ensuring economic, territorial and societal cohesion at national and regional level and supporting the transport of passengers, vehicles and goods. For Greece, passenger maritime transport is essential, considering its lengthy coastline (about 15,000 km) and its numerous islands, scattered within its territorial waters. This paper investigates demand for passenger maritime transport of the Greek coastal shipping before and during the pandemic through a spatial assessment based mainly on primary data provided by the responsible National Authority, thus highlighting issues to be addressed through policy and decision making. Considering that Covid-19 led to significant disruption of transport services, especially in ferry operations, demand for passenger maritime transport was almost halved during 2020. However, the supply services provided are mostly determined by the terms of the public service obligations (PSOs) that are announce...
Freight Transport Modeling in Emerging Countries, 2021
Abstract Efficient, reliable, and sustainable freight transport systems are essential for the smo... more Abstract Efficient, reliable, and sustainable freight transport systems are essential for the smooth functioning of cities. Although freight transport systems are driven by private sector initiatives, the role of the public sector is crucial in developing the proper regulatory framework, addressing social issues, and providing the necessary transportation infrastructure. This role is even more important in emerging market cities, in which urbanization is increasing very rapidly, posing significant opportunities and major challenges to policymakers and companies alike. Emerging market cities exhibit a changing environment in terms of structure and needs of industries requiring goods movement activity, consumption pattern fluctuations due to transformations in population and economy, and logistics processes and supply chains associated with the evolution in international trade. The existence of a port within the region is a critical factor for increasing economic prosperity and development potential but adds to the overall complexity and contributes to negative impacts from port-related activities. Port cities have peculiarities in regard to freight movements and face the challenge of balancing the demand for additional space for different activities (i.e., operational, industrial, touristic, etc). Constructive dialog among key stakeholders with the aim of determining priorities and objectives in freight movement planning could provide a solid basis to overcome the difficulties derived from the interaction of port activities and urban growth. The focus of this chapter is on how stakeholder consultation may support freight planning with the aim of achieving sustainable development in emerging market port cities. The policy challenges, previous experience, and the mix of commonly acceptable plans from different stakeholders are presented for supporting decision-making of public sector and industry.
Routing of vehicles is an important procedure, whereby there is the necessity to reach a destinat... more Routing of vehicles is an important procedure, whereby there is the necessity to reach a destination in a timely manner. As such, networking of vehicles is undertaken using wireless and telecommunication capabilities, in order to promote such a service. In this paper, we present two subsystems, namely a vehicle and a traffic light subsystem aiming to interconnect them, in order to provide a routing service in a distributed manner. We show the deployment of the traffic light and vehicle subsystem in a real world application and we provide results on the capturing and counting of vehicles, the acquisition of the GPS signal of the vehicles as well as their speed. The aforementioned metrics reach a dedicated server. Finally, we employ an electric vehicle, which we use to visit a set of customers and we utilise an off-the-shelf GPS logger to obtain metrics such as speed and location. The aim is to show its applicability, when we are going to employ it with our built subsystem, for future...
This paper aims to provide proper guidelines for supporting decision-making and prioritization of... more This paper aims to provide proper guidelines for supporting decision-making and prioritization of infrastructure investments and actions. It is based on a framework for asset management of transportation networks. The paper emphasizes the enhancement of resilience of the transport systems, covering multimodal network aspects. The proposed framework promotes a fully functional transport network, optimizing processes at a cross modal and cross border level. Guidance is provided on how to enrich and support the individual, institutional and political action arenas. The main effort is to develop synergies at a cross border and cross modal level and for this reason cooperative solutions offering mutual gain are promoted. Overall, the guidelines ensure the effective use of the generic framework, which could constitute the basis for asset management of National Infrastructure Agencies considering also resilience, as well as regional planning objectives, social factors and criteria.
This article addresses some critical issues facing the public and the freight transportation indu... more This article addresses some critical issues facing the public and the freight transportation industry in the U.S. and presents a solution -- a high-speed integrated passenger/freight intermodal transportation system, which has the potential to make better use of transportation infrastructure, as well as improve productivity and service quality for certain passenger and freight services. The combined system differs from traditional models in that it proposes intermodal movement of containerized cargo and passengers using a sequence of interconnected, coordinated transportation services. A new vehicle called an intermodal coach that could carry both passengers and two standard 10-foot containers is a central piece in the proposed system since it can provide connections between central cities, airports, rail terminals or remote areas.
Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, 2018
The road transport accounts for 73% of the CO2 emissions of transport sector in EU and constitute... more The road transport accounts for 73% of the CO2 emissions of transport sector in EU and constitutes one of the main sources of pollution and negative environmental implications. In the dynamic environment of urban areas, traffic flows are still a challenge since they apply substantial influence on the related generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions affecting air quality and health impacts on citizens. This study quantifies the environmental effect of traffic flows using the case of Amfissa, a medium sized city in Greece. The aim of this paper is to measure the environmental impacts of traffic flows on the city’s central road network in terms of emissions and air quality. On-site measurements are conducted to compare the environmental effects of “normal traffic” with “zero traffic” flows in the city center. The findings reveal that GHG emissions resulting from traffic flows are significant even for medium-sized cities. As such, zero or limited traffic zones, where no or limited private vehicles are permitted, could be a possible measure for CO2-free cities deploying more sustainable and ecological ways of transport in the city center (i.e. electric vehicles, R-vehicles, etc.). The results are analyzed in the context of Amfissa’s urban sustainable plans and current debates surrounding the pedestrianization actions in the city center and the challenge of reconciling environmental sustainability with urban and traffic growth.
Regional repositioning of empty containers involves empty container movement between regional imp... more Regional repositioning of empty containers involves empty container movement between regional importers, marine terminals, depots, and export customers. This chain movement generates unproductive empty vehicle miles in the region. The problem of empty vehicle miles becomes more prominent because empty container depots are located close to the port and customers are inland. Considering the double-digit increase in containerized trade volumes and the persistent trade imbalance that strain existing depot capacities in major import areas, this paper focuses on the optimal location of new container depots and the repositioning of empty containers in a region. It proposes a system of inland depots for empty containers (IDEC) in which new depots would be built closer to customer clusters. An IDEC system can minimize the total system costs (cost of opening new depots plus repositioning cost of empties) and provide additional required capacity. The paper presents a mathematical model of such a system and discusses its feasibility and effectiveness. The proposed system is evaluated for a region based on the New York–New Jersey port region. Results show that by building inland depots, empty vehicle miles traveled and total system cost of repositioning empties are reduced significantly. At the same time, capacity is added to the system, preventing a shortfall that would result from the increase in trade and the trade imbalance. The authors believe that an IDEC system has great potential in optimizing regional empty moves.
With port competition now increasingly taking place on the landside, port actors have a genuine i... more With port competition now increasingly taking place on the landside, port actors have a genuine interest in enhancing their role and introducing improvements in the hinterland transport and logistics system. Among the different opportunities that are available, less attention has been placed on those that port–hinterland corridor management initiatives have to offer. These will be discussed herein, and a proposal is put forward for strengthening the collaborative environment in those initiatives, further reinforcing existing opportunities or creating new ones. More specifically, a value system approach is outlined and the steps for its development are sketched, putting forward value-oriented perspectives over the current performance-related ones. The proposed approach adds another useful dimension to the business thinking and decision-making of corridor members, enabling them to more holistically understand their respective roles and positioning and, in turn, further enhance collabo...
Coastal shipping plays a key role in insular regions, ensuring economic, territorial and societal... more Coastal shipping plays a key role in insular regions, ensuring economic, territorial and societal cohesion at national and regional level and supporting the transport of passengers, vehicles and goods. For Greece, passenger maritime transport is essential, considering its lengthy coastline (about 15,000 km) and its numerous islands, scattered within its territorial waters. This paper investigates demand for passenger maritime transport of the Greek coastal shipping before and during the pandemic through a spatial assessment based mainly on primary data provided by the responsible National Authority, thus highlighting issues to be addressed through policy and decision making. Considering that Covid-19 led to significant disruption of transport services, especially in ferry operations, demand for passenger maritime transport was almost halved during 2020. However, the supply services provided are mostly determined by the terms of the public service obligations (PSOs) that are announce...
Freight Transport Modeling in Emerging Countries, 2021
Abstract Efficient, reliable, and sustainable freight transport systems are essential for the smo... more Abstract Efficient, reliable, and sustainable freight transport systems are essential for the smooth functioning of cities. Although freight transport systems are driven by private sector initiatives, the role of the public sector is crucial in developing the proper regulatory framework, addressing social issues, and providing the necessary transportation infrastructure. This role is even more important in emerging market cities, in which urbanization is increasing very rapidly, posing significant opportunities and major challenges to policymakers and companies alike. Emerging market cities exhibit a changing environment in terms of structure and needs of industries requiring goods movement activity, consumption pattern fluctuations due to transformations in population and economy, and logistics processes and supply chains associated with the evolution in international trade. The existence of a port within the region is a critical factor for increasing economic prosperity and development potential but adds to the overall complexity and contributes to negative impacts from port-related activities. Port cities have peculiarities in regard to freight movements and face the challenge of balancing the demand for additional space for different activities (i.e., operational, industrial, touristic, etc). Constructive dialog among key stakeholders with the aim of determining priorities and objectives in freight movement planning could provide a solid basis to overcome the difficulties derived from the interaction of port activities and urban growth. The focus of this chapter is on how stakeholder consultation may support freight planning with the aim of achieving sustainable development in emerging market port cities. The policy challenges, previous experience, and the mix of commonly acceptable plans from different stakeholders are presented for supporting decision-making of public sector and industry.
Routing of vehicles is an important procedure, whereby there is the necessity to reach a destinat... more Routing of vehicles is an important procedure, whereby there is the necessity to reach a destination in a timely manner. As such, networking of vehicles is undertaken using wireless and telecommunication capabilities, in order to promote such a service. In this paper, we present two subsystems, namely a vehicle and a traffic light subsystem aiming to interconnect them, in order to provide a routing service in a distributed manner. We show the deployment of the traffic light and vehicle subsystem in a real world application and we provide results on the capturing and counting of vehicles, the acquisition of the GPS signal of the vehicles as well as their speed. The aforementioned metrics reach a dedicated server. Finally, we employ an electric vehicle, which we use to visit a set of customers and we utilise an off-the-shelf GPS logger to obtain metrics such as speed and location. The aim is to show its applicability, when we are going to employ it with our built subsystem, for future...
This paper aims to provide proper guidelines for supporting decision-making and prioritization of... more This paper aims to provide proper guidelines for supporting decision-making and prioritization of infrastructure investments and actions. It is based on a framework for asset management of transportation networks. The paper emphasizes the enhancement of resilience of the transport systems, covering multimodal network aspects. The proposed framework promotes a fully functional transport network, optimizing processes at a cross modal and cross border level. Guidance is provided on how to enrich and support the individual, institutional and political action arenas. The main effort is to develop synergies at a cross border and cross modal level and for this reason cooperative solutions offering mutual gain are promoted. Overall, the guidelines ensure the effective use of the generic framework, which could constitute the basis for asset management of National Infrastructure Agencies considering also resilience, as well as regional planning objectives, social factors and criteria.
This article addresses some critical issues facing the public and the freight transportation indu... more This article addresses some critical issues facing the public and the freight transportation industry in the U.S. and presents a solution -- a high-speed integrated passenger/freight intermodal transportation system, which has the potential to make better use of transportation infrastructure, as well as improve productivity and service quality for certain passenger and freight services. The combined system differs from traditional models in that it proposes intermodal movement of containerized cargo and passengers using a sequence of interconnected, coordinated transportation services. A new vehicle called an intermodal coach that could carry both passengers and two standard 10-foot containers is a central piece in the proposed system since it can provide connections between central cities, airports, rail terminals or remote areas.
Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, 2018
The road transport accounts for 73% of the CO2 emissions of transport sector in EU and constitute... more The road transport accounts for 73% of the CO2 emissions of transport sector in EU and constitutes one of the main sources of pollution and negative environmental implications. In the dynamic environment of urban areas, traffic flows are still a challenge since they apply substantial influence on the related generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions affecting air quality and health impacts on citizens. This study quantifies the environmental effect of traffic flows using the case of Amfissa, a medium sized city in Greece. The aim of this paper is to measure the environmental impacts of traffic flows on the city’s central road network in terms of emissions and air quality. On-site measurements are conducted to compare the environmental effects of “normal traffic” with “zero traffic” flows in the city center. The findings reveal that GHG emissions resulting from traffic flows are significant even for medium-sized cities. As such, zero or limited traffic zones, where no or limited private vehicles are permitted, could be a possible measure for CO2-free cities deploying more sustainable and ecological ways of transport in the city center (i.e. electric vehicles, R-vehicles, etc.). The results are analyzed in the context of Amfissa’s urban sustainable plans and current debates surrounding the pedestrianization actions in the city center and the challenge of reconciling environmental sustainability with urban and traffic growth.
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Papers by maria boile