ITS Monday: Edition 5, 2024

E-scooters are linked with injuries and hospital visits – but we can’t say they are riskier than bikes yet

From The Conversation, co-authored by Milad Haghani, Senior Lecturer of Urban Mobility, Public Safety & Disaster Risk, UNSW Sydney, and Clara Zwack, Lecturer in Physiotherapy, Swinburne University of Technology.

“Cities such as San Francisco and Madrid initially banned e-scooters, citing safety and public space concerns, but later introduced regulations for their use. Paris conducted a referendum, resulting in an e-scooter ban. In Australia, the response has been more welcoming, though regulations differ across states and territories. What do we know about how safe e-scooters are? And what can we learn from other cities?”

Related iMOVE project content:

• Active Transport Info, Projects & Resources
• Role of heterogeneity in active travellers’ injury severity analysis

Brain injuries and smashed teeth: Hospitals grapple with doubling in e-scooter injuries

More on e-scooters, this article focussing more on stats from Victorian hospital emergency departments. In a nutshell, the majority of such cases gender-wise are men, and age-wise between 20 and 29.

The data discussed here does not distinguish between accidents involving hire or private e-scooters, and it also doesn’t include injuries treated by GPs and private hospitals.

Adelaide to offer mainland Australia’s first e-bike subsidy

Staying on the topic of active transport / micromobilty, but in a more positive vein, “Last week, the City of Adelaide became the first government in mainland Australia to commit to subsidising the purchase of e-bikes and electric-assisted as well as unassisted cargo bikes for its residents and business operators.”

Related iMOVE content:

• Micromobility Info, Projects & Resources
• OneDock: Supercharging e-micromobility

Analysing preferences for integrated micromobility and public transport systems: A hierarchical latent class approach considering taste heterogeneity and attribute non-attendance

One more micromobility article for this week, and this one is a new academic paper, from Milad Ghasri, Ali Ardeshiri, Xiang Zhang, and S. Travis Waller.

The abstract:

Shared Micromobility systems in urban regions hold the potential to reduce private vehicle usage and boost public transport patronage. To effectively achieve these goals, a comprehensive approach to integrating micromobility and public transport is essential. This study introduces a novel modelling framework to elicit travellers’ preferences towards the features of integrated shared micromoiblity and public transport systems.

The data is obtained from a stated preference survey involving 250 residents in Canberra, Australia. Respondents’ mode choice behaviour and their propensity to switch from their current mode of transport to an integrated system are collected and modelled using a hierarchical latent class approach to account for taste heterogeneity and attribute non-attendance.

The results show higher propensity of mode shift is associated with young age, high educational attainment, high scooter ownership and low car ownership. On average, respondents in this study express a willingness to pay of $0.55 for an integrated payment option. These results provide valuable insight into the integrated urban transport systems.

Light and Heavy Transport

The latest from Professor David Levinson‘s Transportist blog.

“So closing the loop, rather than using transport as a metaphor for computation, maybe we should be using computers as a metaphor for transport. Like the relative time spent on smartphones and PCs, bikes should outnumber cars and trucks and be used far more often.”

How value adding is AI for strategic transport planning? Is AI Intelligent or simply a descriptive information dump?

From the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics‘ continuing Thinking outside the box series.

“Professor David Hensher reflects on the use of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative-AI (G-AI), in strategic transport planning, discussing its adaptability to diverse and unpredictable future scenarios, highlighting concerns about the limitations of G-AI in predicting situations with high divergence and emphasizing the need for utilizing hidden data not captured by AI.”

‘Trackless trams’ tipped to save emissions and budgets

“Australian cities are being urged to consider adopting “trackless tram” technology to cut emissions, reduce traffic and help household budgets. Prominent urban planner Mike Day issued the recommendation after Perth became one of the first cities to trial the low-emission technology that required as little as “one fifth” the investment of a traditional tram.

But while the technology is being considered in other locations, and for use during the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games, some transport authorities have questioned its record.”

New accessibility plan, ‘Equity in Motion’, published by Transport for London

“Transport for London (TfL) has published a new customer plan to help to create a fairer, more accessible and inclusive transport network for everyone. The new plan, Equity in Motion, commits to more than 80 new and ambitious actions to further build on TfL and the Mayor of London’s ongoing efforts to create a fairer and safer London.”

Related iMOVE article:

• Equity in Transportation

Related iMOVE projects:

• See Me: Transforming passenger experience on public transport
• Connected and Automated Vehicle accessibility guide
• CAVs: Barriers and opportunities for people with disability