ITS Monday: Edition 1, 2025

Wired for tomorrow: A vision for electrified precincts

“Wired for Tomorrow is an initiative to accelerate the transition to all-electric precincts in the City of Yarra. This website illustrates the vision of Wired for Tomorrow. It shows how an everyday precinct and its community may be able to transition to and thrive in an all-electric future.”

Related iMOVE article:

• The Conductor Series: The electrification of transport

Related iMOVE projects:

• Charging requirements for Melbourne’s electric bus fleet
• Electric vehicles: Supporting uptake, investigating smart charging
• ESP: Preparing for the electrification of transportation
• Leading the charge in bi-directional charging

New York first US city to have congestion charge

“The first congestion charge scheme for vehicles in the US has come into effect in New York City. Car drivers will pay up to US$9 a day, with varying rates for other vehicles.”

Related iMOVE article:

• Road pricing reform: a thorny issue
• Traffic Congestion: Info, Projects & Resources

Related iMOVE project:

• Innovative road network pricing models

A nexus or not? A first examination of cost-of-living concern, neighbourhood perceptions, active travel, and wellbeing in cities

A new paper from the Univeristy of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, co-authored by Matthew Beck and Stephen Greaves . The abstract:

This paper represents an important first step in the literature, to look at potential links between cost-of-living stress and the perceptions of local neighbourhoods, under the hypothesis that greater pressure about housing affordability, transportation costs, or indeed cost overall could lead to a degradation in how the neighbourhood within which a person lives is perceived.

We do find confirmation that cost-of-living goes beyond technical measure of housing stress and indeed beyond just housing stress alone. Of particular relevance is that those who could be classified as having rising concern (consumables) have among the highest levels of relative stress. This is to be expected as there are many reports in the general media about spending on eating out and indeed cutting back on meals prepared at home, as being initial strategies to reduce spending.

Such cuts to spending are also likely to spill over into discretionary trip making and travel activity patterns overall. We find that there is generally just as much concern about the rising cost of fuel, which is directly related to trip making, further compounding transport accessibility and equity.

Overall, our first attempt to investigate the potential nexus of cost-of-living, neighbourhood perception, wellbeing, physical activity and active travel, produces enough evidence and insight to establish that there are potential links which are likely to play out in unknown ways during cost-of-living crises.

We argue that our results are sufficient enough that research should extend them to transportation costs and trip making more generally under the current spike in general prices and urge other researchers to consider building on these insights.

Related iMOVE article:

• Active Transport: Info, Projects & Resources

Related iMOVE projects:

• Impacts & community benefits of a regional active travel network
• Modelling cycling investments in regional areas
• Safer cycling infrastructure: Design and policy

Volkswagen leak exposed precise location data on thousands of vehicles across Europe for months

“Volkswagen Group’s troubled automotive software unit Cariad left terabytes of customer data on around 800,000 electric Audi, Seat, Skoda, and Volkswagen vehicles exposed to the internet for months, reports Der Spiegel citing security researchers who learned about the data spill from an unnamed whistleblower.”

Related iMOVE projects:

• How cybersecurity safe is your vehicle?
• Cyber security for connected vehicles and vehicular networks

Access for Aotearoa New Zealand

“This tool helps communities understand and enhance their local connectivity, supporting the natural ways people move through and interact with their neighborhoods. By mapping access to services, decision-makers and communities can create places where residents of all ages can live active, engaged lives while building the connections that make communities resilient.”

Test facility unveils digital twin, making its physical AV testing facility available for free in the virtual world

“The first open-source digital twin of the Mcity Test Facility—the University of Michigan’s test center for connected and autonomous vehicles and technologies—is now available to the public, giving researchers around the world a new free tool.”

General Motors cuts funding to Cruise, nixing its robotaxi plan

“General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the company would no longer invest in Cruise and its robotaxi services. Instead, GM says it will combine Cruise’s efforts on autonomy with its own teams focused on driver-assistance features. Eventually, the combined team will build “personal” autonomous vehicles”

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

Mobility-as-a-service and travel behaviour change: How multimodal bundles reshape our travel choices

A new academic paper, co-authored by Aitan Militão, Chinh Ho, and John Nelson, all of the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. The abstract:

Mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) is an innovative framework aiming to promote sustainable mobility via altering users travel behaviour. Despite its potential, empirical evidence of MaaS effectiveness in achieving sustainable goals is scarce due to limited real-world trials and commercial offers of MaaS.

This study leverages high-quality data from the Sydney MaaS trial and the Application of Programming Interface (API) to develop an original Error Components-Random Parameter Logit Model that describe the choices of transport modes under the “MaaS era”. Analysis results offer the first insight into how multimodal bundles reshape mode choices and the extent to which subscription bundles could be used as a powerful tool to nudge users towards more sustainable choices.

The results show that multimodal bundles present an appealing alternative for the users and help them reduce their private car use. Simulations were conducted to provide guidance for designing multimodal bundles that are both attractive to users and friendly to the environment.

Related iMOVE articles:

• MaaS (Mobility as a Service) in Australia: Info, Projects & Resources
• MaaS: What have we learned, and where to next?
  

Related iMOVE projects:

• Sydney MaaS trial: Design, implementation, lessons, the future
• Behavioural change for sustainable transport
• Mobility landscapes: Mobility as a Service customer impact trial
• Gippsland community e-Bus pilot

Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator: Train visibility at level crossings

A direct download of this ONSR Code of Practice document. “Throughout 2022 and 2023 ONRSR directed its efforts to facilitating the delivery of important research to improve awareness and visibility of trains approaching level crossings as part of a continuing focus on safety at regional level crossings. The code was developed in consultation with a range of stakeholders including rail industry representatives, unions, governments, those with lived experience of rail collisions, transport industry representatives, researchers, and subject matter experts.”

Related iMOVE article:

• Road Safety: Info, Projects & Resources

Related iMOVE projects:

• Mapping passive railway crossings to inform freight potential
• Using real-time train data to improve level crossing safety
• Train horns: Pedestrian safety and residential wellness