ITS Monday: Edition 23, 2020

Plans for temporary cycleways to encourage social distancing scrapped after move to level 1

For a few weeks now in this news roundup there have been stories about the addition of new cycling lanes, or pop-up lanes, to help maintain the move to bicycles, e-scooter and the like that have thrived in the pandemic period. The big question was, will these plans come to fruition. In what it would be hoped is not a trend, the NZ city of Wellington has, as lockdown laws have been relaxed significantly, has changed its mind on new temporary cycleways, and is undecided as to more permanent moves.

Hundreds of car parking spaces to go as city embraces cycling

Meanwhile in Melbourne, the plan to reduce the dominance of cars and promote the use of bicycles continues. ‘Hundreds of car parking spaces will be removed across Melbourne’s CBD over the next two years to make way for 40 kilometres of bicycle lanes being fast-tracked across the city.’

Wellington City councillors agree to reduce e-scooter speed limit to make area safer for pedestrians

Back to Wellington NZ, a real hotbed of transport talk right now, the council has imposed a new, reduced speed limit on the Flamingo and Jump e-scooters currently on trial in and around the city’s waterfront.

E-scooters are dangerous and will harm active travel – PACTS

A policy paper has been released in the UK, by Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS). It puts e-scooters in quite the negative light. ‘From evidence and experience around the world, it is now very clear that the public benefits [of e-scooters] are illusory and the disbenefits substantial, at least in a European context,’ says the organisation in a new policy paper. ‘As such, e-scooters will work against many of the Government’s objectives. PACTS therefore opposes the trials and wider legalisation of e-scooters.’

There’s no link to the PACTS paper in this story, but if you like to have a look, it’s linked at the PACTS site.

Making biking easier for women

A story out of New Zealand, by Dr Caroline Shaw. As regards cycling, both men and women ‘… should all be able get to where we want to go and feel good about it.’ Sounds more than fair.

We need safe transport alternatives after COVID-19, UNSW experts say

Associate Professor Taha Rashidi from UNSW Engineering and Associate Professor Julie Hatfield from UNSW Science speak about  car sharing, ride sharing, carpooling, and active transport. “Any increase in use of private motor vehicles is a shift in the wrong direction; it’s bad for the environment and our quality of life and we should really be shifting to active transport.”

Inside story: How Woolworths and Coles joined forces to avert COVID-19 disaster

A fascinating story from within a sector that took a very big and very public hit as the pandemic bit. ‘In a world turned on its head by the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the response from Australia’s largest supermarket chains was nothing short of extraordinary.’

Autonomous cars won’t eliminate crashes – report

A story generated by a report from the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. ‘The IIHS found that while autonomous vehicles will eventually “identify hazards and react faster than humans” and “won’t become distracted or drive drunk”, the safety body determined “stopping the rest of the crashes will be a lot harder’.