ITS Monday: Edition 30, 2021

Is the 15-minute city the future of urban living?

“Is life under the pandemic bringing the central business district to an end? Business school professors reveal whether they think the future of post-pandemic urban life is the 15-minute city.” Quotes pertaining to the question are from Professor David Hensher, with particular focus on working from home.

The attachments of ‘autonomous’ vehicles

A new article from the Social Studies of Science journal, authored by Chris Tennant and Jack Stilgoe, both of the UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies. “The ideal of the self-driving car replaces an error-prone human with an infallible, artificially intelligent driver. This narrative of autonomy promises liberation from the downsides of automobility, even if that means taking control away from autonomous, free-moving individuals. We look behind this narrative to understand the attachments that so-called ‘autonomous’ vehicles (AVs) are likely to have to the world.”

We have hit “peak car”

An excerpt from the book ‘A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next’, by Tom Standage. “In the 2020s there are clear signs that enthusiasm for cars is finally waning. Even some people within the industry now acknowledge that the world is now at, or has passed, “peak car” — the point at which car ownership and use level off and start to decline.”

It’s time to rethink levels of automation for self-driving vehicles

Another article by Jack Stilgoe of the UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies, this time co-authored with Erik Stayton, a Doctoral Student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This article discusses survey evidence suggesting that consumers are confused about whether they can currently buy a vehicle that is “self-driving”, and that to aid in lessening confusion it’s time for the levels of automation drawn up by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) to be re-worked.

Never mind going electric, where will we park?

This BBC article has a UK focus, warning that with a lot of funding in the UK going toward people making the switch to electric vehicles, rather than improving air quality by lowering exhaust emissions, these incentives risk making highways far busier and even slower – as people buy so-called “zero-emission, guilt-free” vehicles. The warning is from the UK’s Institute for Public Policy Research.

Trackless trams on Auckland’s Dominion Rd won’t solve congestion, urbanist says

This mode of transport, in this location, has been hotly debated since 2017, when the idea was first floated. ““Is it a good idea? Yes, we need better buses in a lot of parts of Auckland. Is it the right idea for Dominion Rd? No, it’s not because we actually have a bunch of other issues we’re trying to solve that they can’t address.”

‘Expensive distraction’: Chair of UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association resigns citing blue hydrogen concerns

Again in the UK, trouble in hydrogen land. A director of a hydrogen industry group has resigned over the rather good point that while hydrogen might be a good fuel solution in some areas of transport, most certainly not all hydrogen is created equal.