ITS Monday: Edition 37, 2024

Building connected cities through integrated transport initiatives

Catch up on this podcast, in which Emily Bobis interviews Simon Hunter, the Chief Transport Planner at Transport for NSW. Amongst other things the interview covers Simon’s previous experiences across different roles and how they have influenced his approach to transport planning, along with some of the current transport initiatives happening in NSW.

Yes you can live car-free in Auckland – if you choose your suburb wisely

“In a traffic-choked city such as Auckland there are massive benefits to living car-free – but you need to be mindful where you rent or buy your house. Justin Hu weighs up the varying car-free (and car-lite) possibilities of the city’s suburbs.”

Related iMOVE articles:

• Traffic Congestion: Info, Projects & Resources
• Sustainable Transportation: Info, Projects & Resources

These car brands are collecting and sharing your data with third parties

“An investigation by consumer advocacy group Choice found most of Australia’s popular car brands collect and share “driver data”, ranging from braking patterns to video footage. Kia and Hyundai collect voice recognition data from inside their cars and sell it to an artificial intelligence software training company.

Privacy and consumer rights advocates are pushing for law reform to limit data collection to what is “fair and reasonable”.”

Guide to Mobility for Livable Pacific Cities

“The twelve Pacific Island Countries (PICs) that are members of the World Bank have been experiencing rapid urbanisation for several decades and are now experiencing rapid growth in reliance on private cars. This combination of rising urban populations and increasing reliance on private cars could mark a potentially transformative turning point for Pacific cities.

Many Pacific cities are understood to have had historically large mode shares of public transit and walking; however, these modes are declining as car ownership increases. Although reliance on private cars is often initially seen as a sign of progress, decision-makers around the world have quickly found themselves in the reactive position of expanding roads to ‘keep up’ with rising congestion.

Against a global backdrop in which dependence on cars has become a default in much of the world, Pacific cities are well positioned to adopt a sustainable urban transport pathway that better responds to their needs. There is strong demand for a car-lite development pathway in the Pacific that provides sustainable urban transportation choices. A ‘car-lite development’ pathway is in many ways more suitable for the Pacific; it reduces climate changing emissions and reliance on costly imported fuels and vehicles, and promotes health, safety, and social inclusion.

The strategies presented in this guide were identified through in-depth dialogue with leaders in the Pacific region. Technical content was prepared by subject-matter experts and informed by literature reviews and field observations. This guide is intended to serve as a guidebook to a car-lite urban development pathway for the Pacific.

This guide has two parts. Part I is primarily written for top government decision-makers and representatives of civil society and development organisations who are tasked with defining strategies for the future development of Pacific cities. Part II is written for working-level technical practitioners who seek to understand and implement strategies developed under Part I.”

• Guide to Mobility for Livable Pacific Cities : Part I – Priority Actions for a Car-Lite Future
• Guide to Mobility for Livable Pacific Cities : Part Il – Practitioners’ Handbook to Implement the Priority Actions

A dynamic discrete choice modelling approach for forward-looking travel mode choices

A new academic paper, co-authored by Joseph Leong, Neema Nassir, Seyed Sina Mohri, and Majid Sarvi. The abstract:

“In this paper, we present a systematic approach based on dynamic discrete choice models (DDCM) to investigate individuals’ forward-looking mode choice behaviours in daily travel tours with multiple destinations. We propose a novel network transformation model that encompasses the entire decision space of all feasible mode combinations for every observed trip/tour in the dataset. By applying the well-established Recursive Logit model structure commonly used in path choice modelling, we address the tour mode choice problem effectively and quantify forward looking considerations in the mode choice process. The proposed model captures the complex considerations individuals take into account when making mode choices.”

Should we stop calling bike lanes ‘bike lanes’?

Cities that have done the work to attract a lot of cyclists aren’t just safe for people on two wheels — they’re safer for drivers, pedestrians, and everyone else on the road, too. But why, exactly, is that true, and how can we use that insight to sell bike-friendly infrastructure and policy to a public that barely rides at all? ”

Related iMOVE projects:

• Safer cycling and street design: A guide for policymakers
• Road use activity data: Cyclists, pedestrians and micromobility
• Modelling cycling investments in regional areas

Related iMOVE article:

• Active Transport: Info, Projects & Resources
• Vulnerable Road Users: Info, Projects & Resources

The traffic calming effect of delineated bicycle lanes

Clearly those in this piece are OK with the term, “bike lanes”! This new academic paper is co-authored by Hannah Younes, Clinton Andrews, Robert B. Noland, Jiahao Xia, Song Wen, Wenwen Zhang, Dimitri Metaxas, Leigh Ann Von Hagen, and Jie Gong. teh abstract:

“We analyze the effect of a bicycle lane on traffic speeds. Computer vision techniques are used to detect and classify the speed and trajectory of over 9,000 motor-vehicles at an intersection that was part of a pilot demonstration in which a bicycle lane was temporarily implemented.

After controlling for direction, hourly traffic flow, and the behavior of the vehicle (i.e., free-flowing or stopped at a red light), we found that the effect of the delineator-protected bicycle lane (marked with traffic cones and plastic delineators) was associated with a 28 % reduction in average maximum speeds and a 21 % decrease in average speeds for vehicles turning right. For those going straight, a smaller reduction of up to 8 % was observed. Traffic moving perpendicular to the bicycle lane experienced no decrease in speeds. Painted-only bike lanes were also associated with a small speed reduction of 11–15 %, but solely for vehicles turning right.

These findings suggest an important secondary benefit of bicycle lanes: by having a traffic calming effect, delineated bicycle lanes may decrease the risk and severity of crashes for pedestrians and other road users.”

eBay to ban private e-bike sales over fire fears

Last but not least this week, some action being taken to address the growing issue of unsafe electric batteries on bikes and scooters.

“EBay will clamp down on the sale of e-bikes and e-bike batteries in the UK from 31 October, the BBC has learned. The firm says that only “eligible business sellers” will be allowed to list them after this date.”

HOWEVER:

“It did not explain what the necessary criteria would be.”

Related iMOVE articles:

• Liar, liar, e-Bikes on fire
• Micromobilty: Info, Projects & Resources
• Active Transport: Info, Projects & Resources
  

Related iMOVE projects:

• OneDock: Supercharging e-micromobility
• Road use activity data: Cyclists, pedestrians and micromobility
• Impacts of eRideables on the transport task in WA