ITS Monday: Edition 20, 2021

Towards the 30-minute city — how Australians’ commutes compare with cities overseas

A piece from Hao Wu, PhD Candidate, School of Civil Engineering, University of Sydney, and Professor David Levinson. ‘The ease of reaching urban amenities underpins city life. We led a global research team that compared access to jobs in 117 cities across the globe, including eight capital cities in Australia, and examined strategies that might improve transport in our cities.’

The pandemic put an end to rush hour. What happens now?

This from Wired, which I hope you are able access as there is a paywall. ‘Remote work generally reduces driving. But the travel behavior of telecommuters isn’t as straightforward as it might seem.’

Artificial intelligence tests for certification of autonomous vehicles

A recently released academic paper, with contribution from amongst others, Professor Hussein Dia. ‘While there is considerable excitement about their potential, regulators around the world still face big challenges in developing uniform technology-agnostic AV tests to evaluate their performance based on road safety readiness and outcomes.’

As NSW roads minister, I know we have to incentivise electric cars

An op-ed from Andrew Constance. ‘A road user charge for electric vehicles should be many, many years off. Not now. Not before we have a reasonably priced electric vehicle market and the right level of supply. First, we need to encourage the uptake.’

Busways receives first Custom-Denning Element electric e-bus

Staying on things electric vehicle, ‘Sydney-based operator Busways has received the first of an order of six Custom-Denning Element electric buses.’

Pop-ups to go permanent as rider numbers rocket

News from the City of Sydney website, proclaiming that, ‘Sydney’s pop-up cycleways will be in place for up to two years and two popular cycle routes will become permanent under plans approved by the City of Sydney.’ Not only that, but that more cycleways are being planned.

Canberra named the No. 1 cycling destination in Australia

The capital of Australia is also getting a little proud-shout about its success in the area of cycling too, with news that the American PeopleForBikes organisation in its worldwide rankings is liking the cut of Canberra’s two-wheeled jib (yes, yes, a sailing analogy in a cycling story, but I think it floats).

Video: Australian telecoms giant incorporates 5G into cycle helmet

‘Australia’s largest telecommunications company has developed a cycle helmet which incorporates 5G technology to provide real-time safety alerts to riders, including about potential hazards such as being doored.’ Telstra has worked on this helmet prototype with manufacturer Arenberg. Featured in the video is Olympic cycling champion, Anna Meares.

Explaining shared micromobility usage, competition and mode choice by modelling empirical data from Zurich, Switzerland

Last, but not least, an academic paper on things micromobility in Switzerland. ‘Shared micromobility services (e-scooters, bikes, e-bikes) have rapidly gained popularity in the past few years, yet little is known about their usage. While most previous studies have analysed single modes, only few comparative studies of two modes exist and none so-far have analysed competition or mode choice at a high spatiotemporal resolution for more than two modes. To this end, we develop a generally applicable methodology to model and analyse shared micromobility competition and mode choice using widely accessible vehicle location data.’