ITS Monday: Edition 15, 2025

Accounting for the location and allocation of working hours throughout the working week: A discrete-continuous choice

A new acadenic papaer on WFH, co-authored by Professor David Hensher, Edward Wei, and Andrea Pellegrini. The abstract:

As COVID-19 becomes a close distant memory for many, we are seeing the impact it has had on where working hours throughout the week are being undertaken. It is reasonable to assume that the support for greater flexibility in where work is completed compared to pre-COVID-19 is here to stay and that transport planning needs to move this new pattern of location behaviour centre stage in the revision of strategic transport models. Throughout a seven-day week, we are seeing days in which an individual goes to the main office all day or works from home all day, or undertakes a blended location workday, or does not work at all on a particular day.

These four alternatives for each day of the week define a discrete choice model setting which together with the actual hours worked at each location on each day represents a discrete–continuous modelling setting. The paper is interested in identifying where work takes place and the committed hours for each day of the week and treats the seven days of the week as an instantaneous panel. For days where there is commuting involved, we split the discrete alternatives to account for whether commuting occurs during the peak or off-peak period of a day, which is important in terms of the commuting activities in the transport network.

We account for the presence of error correlation between the discrete (mixed logit with error components) and continuous (seemingly unrelated regression equations) choices through a selectivity correction for each alternative where it is shown to be statistically significant. A series of direct and cross elasticities provide behaviourally informative evidence on the key drivers of the choice amongst the discrete location alternatives and the continuous choice of hours associated with each.

The model system has a very practical feature, in the sense that it can be easily programmed into a strategic transport model system in order to adjust commuting travel activity by mode and time of day in the presence of a more flexible and hence less rigid profiling of when and where work takes place.

Related iMOVE articles:

• Working from Home: Info, Projects & Resources
• Prospects for Working from Home: Assessing the evidence
• Traffic Congestion: Info, Projects & Resources

Co-designing the sound of safety: Embracing complexity in the acoustic vehicle alerting system sound for zero emission buses

There’s a brace of new academic article this week, and this one is co-authored by Christina Kirsch, Baki Kocaballi, Andrew Johnston, Anjum Naweed, and Ian Stevenson. Also, it’s derived from an iMOVE project, Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System sound design. The abstract:

Around the world, transport organisations are transitioning their bus fleets from internal combustion engines to electrified zero emission buses (ZEBs). The quiet nature of these buses raises safety concerns for vulnerable road users. To address these concerns, new standards mandate that electric vehicles, including ZEBs, be equipped with an acoustic vehicle alerting system (AVAS) emitting sound at low speeds, to make vehicles more detectable. However, developing an effective AVAS sound requires balancing safety and technical constraints with diverse stakeholder needs.

Using co-design, this study conducted a series of risk-focused subject matter expert workshops (n = 15), and a large user-experience focused participatory design workshop (n = 41) to inform the AVAS sound design. The latter included empathy and user journey mapping techniques, facilitating the collection of insights from various perspectives.

Results revealed stakeholder preferences for an AVAS sound that was both alerting and positive, and embodied qualities like calmness, politeness, and vibrancy. The workshops allowed for refinement of sound design requirements, although challenges emerged in balancing conflicting preferences and managing technical limitations to create a sound that could be both perceptible and non-intrusive.

This study provides a framework for the development of an AVAS sound that could capture a range of stakeholder needs and preferences and lays a foundation for AVAS sounds that enhance safety while being positively received. It highlights the importance of inclusive, iterative design in advancing public transport safety and sustainability, with outcomes supporting the future sound design, testing, and implementation.

World’s largest ‘100 per cent electric’ ship launched by Tasmanian builder Incat

“At 130 metres long, Hull 096 is the largest electric vehicle of its kind ever built, with its maker saying it represents a “giant leap forward in sustainable shipping”. The vessel, which was launched on Friday in Tasmania by shipbuilder Incat, has been constructed for South American ferry operator Buquebus.”

Related iMOVE project:

• Seafarer training for autonomous shipping: Needs & challenges

Australia’s e-mobility regulation boom: A call for national harmony, not fragmentation

A piece written on LinkedIn by Zipidi’s Stephen Coulter. “Every state review comes with its own frameworks, definitions, and timeframes. Mandatory standards in NSW, while voluntary standards are used elsewhere. Different vehicle specifications and riding rules. The result? A patchwork of overlapping, conflicting, or incomplete rules—often leaving consumers, importers, and enforcement agencies confused.”

Related iMOVE article:

• Micromobility: Info, Projects & Resources

Related iMOVE projects:

• OneDock: Supercharging e-micromobility
• Road use activity data: Cyclists, pedestrians and micromobility

Understanding shared e-scooters from a civic stakeholder perspective

Co-authored by Yuting Zhang, John Nelson, Corinne Mulley, and Jennifer Kent . The abstract:

The popularity of e-scooters has introduced both new challenges and opportunities for urban mobility. This paper explores shared e-scooters’ development and regulation internationally through a civic (non-profit-oriented) stakeholder lens. Nine international expert interviews were conducted spanning different types of organisations. Data were analysed using NVivo software.

A stakeholder framework was used to identify and examine the needs of stakeholder groups, to aid understanding of behaviours, conflicts, and collaborations within the shared e-scooter ecosystem. The findings suggest that successful partnerships in the e-scooter sector require proactive government leadership, a competitive yet sustainable operator environment, and technological advancements. Clear responsibility distribution in regulation among government bodies and addressing public safety concerns are crucial.

This paper also details the interests and interactions among typical stakeholders in a shared e-scooter scheme. By presenting diverse perspectives and experiences from different regions, this paper provides comprehensive insights into the current status and potential future developments of shared e-scooters. The findings offer an evidence base for proposing recommendations to engage stakeholders effectively and foster positive outcomes for shared e-scooter schemes.

Related iMOVE articles:

• Active Transport: Info, Projects & Resources
• Micromobility: Info, Projects & Resources
• Road Safety: Info, Projects & Resources

Short-term conflict-based crash risk forecasting: A Bayesian conditional peak-over-threshold approach

This article is co-authored by Depeng Niu and Tarek Sayed, both of the University of British Columbia. The abstract:

Forecasting short-term crash risks is crucial for real-time road safety management, yet this research area remains largely underexplored. Classical Extreme Value Theory (EVT) models assume independent observations, limiting their ability to capture the clustering behavior in occurrence times and magnitudes of extreme traffic conflicts.

To overcome this limitation, we introduce conditional peak-over-threshold (POT) models that incorporate time-varying parameters to simultaneously capture the dynamics of extreme traffic conflicts and enable forecasting for crash risk. Within the framework of marked point process (MPP) and EVT, we develop the conditional POT models based on two observation-driven approaches (self-exciting and score-driven) through Bayesian inference. A dynamic risk measure, Value-at-Risk (VaR), is employed to assess the performance of these conditional POT models for crash risk forecasting.

Empirical analysis of rear-end conflict data collected from a signalized intersection across two separate days demonstrates that both self-exciting and score-driven POT models effectively characterize the clustering behavior of extreme traffic conflicts. Furthermore, backtesting confirms that conditional POT models provide more accurate crash risk forecasts than classical POT models, which tend to underestimate crash risk by ignoring temporal dependence in extreme traffic conflicts. Among the examined model specifications, score-driven POT models demonstrate superior forecasting performance. Our proposed Bayesian conditional POT approach provides probabilistic forecasting that enables direct uncertainty quantification and dynamic monitoring of crash risk, thereby supporting informed safety decisions.

World’s first autonomous road-to-rail truck to launch on California’s Skunk Train route

“Sustainable rail mobility trailblazer Glīd and heritage freight operator Mendocino Railway have joined forces to launch a groundbreaking autonomous and hybrid freight pilot along one of the Golden State’s most iconic and scenic rail corridors.

The pilot project, which is set to debut later this year, will reportedly integrate Glīd’s next-gen road-to-rail vehicles into active freight operations, including the the hybrid-powered GliderM and its autonomous sibling, the AR2RV (Autonomous Road-to-Rail Vehicle).”

Related iMOVE articles:

• Autonomous Driving Info, Projects & Resources
  
• Autonomous Driving Technology
• Connected Vehicles: Info, Projects & Resources

Related iMOVE projects:

• C-ITS national harmonisation and pre-deployment research
• Environmental impacts of Connected and Automated Vehicles
• Safely deploying automated vehicles on Australian roads