Conditional Transit Signal Priority for Connected Transit Vehicles

Connected vehicle (CV) technologies enable safe and interoperable wireless communication among vehicles and the infrastructure with the possibility to run many applications that can improve safety, and enhance mobility. This paper develops CV-based algorithms which use transit vehicle speed and the estimated time that the vehicle needs to arrive at an intersection to trigger transit signal priority (TSP) initiation. This information is updated each second based on the traffic conditions such as speed, a current distance of a transit vehicle to the intersection, and queue conditions. The algorithm uses the actual speed of a transit vehicle and its latitude/longitude (lat/lon) coordinates to compute the time that the vehicle needs to reach the stop line. It was tested on a real-world network using VISSIM traffic simulation, but can easily be implemented in the field, since it is using world coordinates. The upgraded algorithm was applied to a future bus rapid transit (BRT) scenario, and included different levels of conditional TSP, which depend on three combined conditions: the time that a transit vehicle needs to reach the stop line, the number of passengers on board, and the lateness that the transit vehicle experiences. The test-case network used for model building is a corridor consisting of ten signalized intersections along State Street in Salt Lake City, UT. The CV algorithms coupled with TSP can yield notable delay reductions for both the regular bus and the BRT of 33% and 12%, respectively.

Multi-Level Conditional Transit Signal Priority in Connected Vehicle Environments

Connected Vehicles (CV) are an emerging technology with a large potential to improve traffic operations and safety. This paper develops and tests advanced CV-based multi-level conditional Transit Signal Priority (TSP). The algorithms are using the latitude/longitude (lat/lon) coordinates of CV vehicles and intersections to establish communication, share information and request priority. The TSP strategies are implemented through controllers’ built-in features and logic processor, using Econolite ASC/3 as a representative traffic signal controller. The tests were performed in VISSIM microsimulation with the ASC/3 Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) controller emulator. State Street in Salt Lake City, UT, is selected as a test-case corridor. The paper shows that the developed signal control priority (SCP) algorithms are successful in reducing delays for target vehicles in excess of 6%, without significant impacts on other traffic. The information obtained from CV vehicles can be used to further enhance control algorithms and create adaptive SCP programs.

The new permanent universal owners: Index funds, patient capital, and the distinction between feeble and forceful stewardship

Fundamental change is happening in global finance – the shift from active management to index funds. This money mass-migration into index funds has far-reaching socio-economic consequences, as it has the potential to transform the nature of shareholder capitalism. We call BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street the ‘New Permanent Universal Owners’ that are invested indefinitely in thousands of firms. We provide novel findings on the combined ownership of the Big Three in European countries and Japan and investigate how this signals a shift away from the shareholder capitalism that has been dominant for the past three decades. We discuss the future role(s) of the New Permanent Universal Owners in corporate governance including whether they foster patient capital and introduce the distinction between feeble and forceful stewardship.

The Rise of Institutional Investors

During the last decades, institutional investors gained an ever more important position as managers of assets and owners of corporations. By demanding (short-term) shareholder value, some of them have driven the financialization of corporations and of the financial sector itself. This chapter first characterizes the specific roles that private equity funds, hedge funds, and mutual funds have played in this development. It then moves on to focus on one group of institutional investors that is rapidly becoming a pivotal factor for corporate control in many countries – the “Big Three” large passive asset managers BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street.

Performance in financial services: Does institutional ownership matter?

Institutional investor ownership has often been considered a corporate governance variable, typically used to proxy those investors’ ability to influence managers and to expropriate wealth from smaller shareholders. Large institutional investors have developed common holdings across numerous firms within industries. We consider the effects of institutional investor ownership on the performance of banks and insurance companies. Using a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model with firm- and year-fixed effects, we find strong statistical relation between performance and individual firm’s ownership stakes by Blackrock, Inc. and Fidelity Investments. Moreover, we find a positive and statistically significant relation between performance and the percentage of the industry’s equity owned by the Blackrock, Fidelity, State Street and Vanguard. The findings suggest that organizations like Blackrock are successful in obtaining long-term returns by exerting influence over the management of their invested firms, which is consistent with recent statements by the CEO of Blackrock but is also consistent with a “bet on the winners” strategy.