ITS Monday: Edition 27, 2023

How is public transport patronage recovering after the pandemic in Australian and New Zealand cities?

The latest entry on the Charting Transport blog. “With the COVID19 pandemic seemingly behind us, what has been happening to public transport patronage? Has it recovered to 2019 levels? In which cities is public transport patronage recovering the strongest?”

How air travellers can cut their door-to-door emissions right now – by as much as 13% on the Sydney-Melbourne route

New on The Conversation, from Rico Merkert and David Li of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. “Our climate is changing, and airlines are under pressure to reduce emissions from air travel. For many of us, especially in Australia, flying is an essential form of transport, so how can we reduce its environmental impact? Getting to and from the airport is an overlooked aspect of air travel that offers an immediate way to cut total carbon emissions from the trip by a surprisingly large amount.”

Related iMOVE project: Experiments on consumer preferences for sustainable airlines (David Li’s PhD project)

Farm waste could fuel most domestic flights by 2025

This article has been generated by the release of the CSIRO and Boeing report, The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Roadmap. “More than 600,000 flights between Sydney and Melbourne could be powered by fuel made from agricultural waste in 2025 if Australian industry and governments make changes to support sustainable aviation fuel, a report has found.”

Related iMOVE content: Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Transferable supervised learning model for public transport service load estimation

A new academic paper, co-authored by five academics from the University of Melbourne, including Majid Sarvi. “This paper proposes novel supervised learning models to estimate the onboard load profile of public transport services based on two main data sources: (1) limited data collected on a subset of service vehicles by automatic passenger counting (APC) systems, and (2) fare data collected by automatic fare collection (AFC) systems. The specific consideration is given to the fact that the developed models can be transferred across different routes.”

Related iMOVE project: Optimisation of replacement buses during network disruptions

Electric trucks are driving closer to price parity with diesel, and are cheaper to run

“Eco-friendly, electric delivery trucks will cost the same as their diesel equivalents by 2030, according to a new analysis, and investing in fleets of electric cars could already save money for some companies.”

Related iMOVE content: Electric vehicles: Supporting uptake, investigating smart charging | FACTS: A Framework for an Australian Clean Transport Strategy

A novel mobility consumption theory for road user charging

A working paper, from academics at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. “Building on the analogy between electrical energy and mobility, we propose a novel mobility consumption theory based on the idea of the required reserved space headway of vehicles while driving. In this theory, mobility is “produced” by road infrastructure and is “consumed” by drivers in a similar fashion to power that is produced in power plants and consumed by electrical devices.”

Related iMOVE content: Traffic Congestion: Info, Projects & Resources

‘Not if, but when’: Australian flying car start-up sets sights on Dubai

Australian start-up Pegasus International Group has produced “… three models of one-seater manned flying cars with police, civil aviation and air taxi function. The hybrid cars have a 60-litre petrol tank and can travel for three hours at a top speed of 160 km/h. Pegasus plans to begin scale production in 2024.”