ITS Monday: Edition 2, 2024

Can we cut road deaths to zero by 2050? Current trends say no. What’s going wrong?

This was written for The Conversation, by Milad Haghani, Senior Lecturer of Urban Mobility, Public Safety & Disaster Risk, UNSW Sydney. “Australia has committed to an ambitious target of zero road deaths by 2050, known as Vision Zero. Originating in Sweden in the late 1990s, Vision Zero is based on a simple principle: no loss of life or serious injury on roads is acceptable. But while we were making good progress at reducing road trauma, this has stalled in recent years, with Australian road deaths rising to levels not seen in nearly a decade”

Related iMOVE content: Road Safety: Info, Projects & Resources

‘Like badly run charities’: How councils get car parking so wrong

So says urban plnner David Mepham, “Mepham argues it wastes public money, locks up valuable land that could be better used, and is even contributing to Australia’s housing crisis.

• Brisbane parking management: An integrated, strategic approach
• Free-flow parking for car-sharing
• Parking management in the smart mobility age

Why electric trucks are our best bet to cut road transport emissions

Another article written for The Conversation, this one from Robin Smit, Adjunct Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, at the University of Technology Sydney.

In it he discusses a 2022 paper he co-authored, Greenhouse Gas Emissions Performance of Electric and Fossil-Fueled Passenger Vehicles with Uncertainty Estimates Using a Probabilistic Life-Cycle Assessment. There’s a link to the paper in the article.

“Transport is likely the hardest economic sector to decarbonise. And road vehicles produce the most greenhouse gas emissions of the Australian transport sector – 85% of its total. Freight trucks account for only 8% of travel on our roads but 27% of transport emissions.”

Related iMOVE content:

• FACTS: A Framework for an Australian Clean Transport Strategy
• Sustainable Transportation: Info, Projects & Resources

Buying a new car? Here’s how cheaper batteries and new emissions regulations will affect the price

“A string of recent developments, from battery prices to new engine efficiency rules, has made the situation even more complex. After years of supply crunches and low stock numbers, experts are predicting a return to a “buyer’s market” and a likely fall in the average vehicle price. But the situation is uneven, or “lumpy”, and whether you pay more or less for a car in 2024 will depend a lot on the type, make and model.”

Related iMOVE content: Electric Vehicles: Info, Projects &; Resources

Related iMOVE projects:

• EV batteries: Repair, refurbish, repurpose, recycle
• Second lives for electric vehicle batteries

E-scooter companies are going bankrupt. That should alarm you even if you hate them

“… those who care about the future of urban life should not indulge in scooter schadenfreude. For all the annoyance they inspire, shared e-scooters have been valuable additions to American neighborhoods, frequently replacing car trips that pose a much greater threat to street safety and clean air. Cities—whose leaders have contributed to e-scooters’ current predicament—would be worse without them.”

Related iMOVE content:

• Active Transport: Info, Projects, and Resources
• Micromobility: Info, Projects, and Resources

City officials plead for more say in how AVs are deployed

A US-based and -concerned article, but the concerns covered here would be echoed worldwide.

“As autonomous vehicles hit the streets in more cities, local transportation officials want the companies behind those cars and trucks to make sure they’re talking regularly with city officials. When something goes wrong in your city streets, it’s not some far-off federal agency or even necessarily a state agency you’re calling. It’s your city council member.”

Related iMOVE content:

• Autonomous Driving Info, Projects & Resources
• Autonomous Driving Technology

Autonomous Driving or Teleportation? Travel Time Use, Usefulness, and Other Insights from a Survey of Long-Distance Recreational Travelers

A new academic paper, co-authored by Sailesh Acharya and Patrick A Singleton, both of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at Utah State University. The paper’s abstract:

Using data from the 2022 National Household Travel Survey, I explore the socio-demographic characteristics of Americans who reduced their use of public transit during the latter stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. I also examine differences between travelers whose reduced transit use was temporary versus permanent. Using adjusted Wald tests and multinomial logistic regression, I find significant differences between people who did not leave transit and those who did, as well as between temporary and permanent transit leavers. Notably, owning a vehicle, having a disability, and working from home were associated with leaving public transit permanently rather than temporarily.”

Temporary versus Permanent Pandemic Transit Leavers: Findings from the 2022 US National Household Travel Survey

New academic paper #2 this week, this one from Julene Paul, City and Regional Planning, at The University of Texas at Arlington. The paper’s abstract:

“Based on a survey of 696 visitors to US national parks, we found higher preferences for working/studying/reading (+77%), using social media (+63%), and entertaining (+34%) activities when traveling in an autonomous vehicle (AV) compared to a human-driven vehicle (HV). A multinomial logit-based ranked-choice analysis (between HVs, AVs, and teleportation) suggests that while most travelers enjoy spending time traveling by manually driving and/or engaging in activities of interest in HVs and AVs, some would prefer teleportation instead of spending time traveling. The choice of AVs is significantly influenced by preferences for working/studying/reading and eating/caring activities.”

There’s no such thing as cycle traffic: A critical discourse analysis of public opposition to pro-cycle planning

New academic paper #3 this week, this one from Robert Egan and Brian Caulfield, both from the Centre for Transport Research, Department of Civil, Structrual and Environmental Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. The paper’s abstract:

“Across a variety of low-cycling contexts, there are ambitious targets to reduce private car use and increase cycling to decarbonise everyday mobility practices. A component of many plans to achieve this modal shift is through active travel measures that redistribute rights to space, access or speed in a way that may prioritise cycling over driving. However, public opposition to proposals that might reduce the relative accessibility of driving can limit the possibility and scope of redistributive active travel measures, thereby preventing timely climate action and broader transport system change.”

Bike buses are routes to activism says first global survey

“A university based in Barcelona, Spain has released the first-ever report on bike bus efforts around the globe (including the Bike Bus Sydney project from the late noughties). The report, from the City Lab Barcelona research group at Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), summarizes key findings from interviews with 22 bike bus leaders in eight countries.”

The link to the quite colourful report is down the very bottom of this article.

Cycling to work linked with better mental health

“People who cycle to work are less likely to be prescribed drugs to treat anxiety or depression than those who commute using different modes of transport, new research shows. The analysis of almost 380,000 people living in Scotland suggests that commuting by bike reduces the risk of mental ill-health. While previous research suggests cycling to work benefits peoples’ mental wellbeing, most studies have involved small numbers of participants and self-reported measures of mental health.”

Related iMOVE projects:

• Evaluation of the Wagga Wagga Active Travel Plan
• Safer cycling and street design: A guide for policymakers