ITS Monday: Edition 42, 2023

YourGround NSW

“YourGround NSW was designed by CrowdSpot in collaboration with Monash University’s XYX Lab. It’s a crowdmapping website that enables women and gender diverse people to identify and share places that make them feel uneasy, scared, unwelcome; or happy, safe and included.

With this project, we hope to empower women and gender diverse people to call out safe and unsafe experiences and geographically identify spaces where they have good as well as concerning experiences. The map unearths real stories of women and gender diverse people and makes them visible to advocate for change.”

This trial project runs until February 2024.

See also a story from ABC News about this project, at: New interactive safety map in NSW to track where women feel safe

The world’s 280 million electric bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars

From The Conversation, and written by Muhammad Rizwan Azhar and Waqas Uzair, both of Edith Cowan University.

“You might think switching to an electric vehicle is the natural step. In fact, for short trips, an electric bike or moped might be better for you – and for the planet. That’s because these forms of transport – collectively known as electric micromobility – are cheaper to buy and run.

But it’s more than that – they are actually displacing four times as much demand for oil as all the world’s electric cars at present, due to their staggering uptake in China and other nations where mopeds are a common form of transport.”

Related iMOVE article: Micromobility Info, Projects & Resources

Would you leave your car at home for a month for $1350?

“Uber is imagining a world where people don’t own cars. So they (sic) paid 58 Australians to leave theirs at home for four weeks. Here’s how it went.”

Related iMOVE content: MaaS (Mobility as a Service) in Australia

Second French city dumps hydrogen bus plan for cheaper electric buses

“The French city of Pau, which become a pioneer in the use of hydrogen fuel-cell buses, has become at least the second French city to dump its proposed adoption of hydrogen buses and will switch to battery electric buses instead.”

Related iMOVE content: Alternative Fuels: Info, Projects &; Resources

Green Vehicles’ Responses to an Expiring Congestion Toll Exemption: Findings from a Natural Experiment in Stockholm, Sweden

A new academic paper by Fatemeh Naqavi, Emma Engström, and Joel P. Franklin.

“Stockholm established time-varying congestion pricing in 2007, and adopted a toll exemption as a temporary incentive for green vehicles (GVs) that ended in 2012. We examine the behavioural effects of phasing out the exemption by studying the change in cordon crossing events for GV morning commuters between May 2012 and May 2013, with a random sample of conventional vehicles (CVs) as control. The results suggest i) a significant drop in the total number of crossings; ii) a slight shift towards later journeys in the morning; and iii) a reduction in the ratio of peak-toll period crossings to other ones.”

Toronto’s curbside patios made 49 times more money than the parking they replaced

More evidence to the outrage from shopowners and the like when high street parking spaces are repurposed. “During the pandemic, Toronto, like many cities, began allowing some on-street parking spaces to be used as patios by local businesses. As reported by The Globe and Mail, residents spent a total of $181 million at curbside patios within 13 weeks of summer in 2021. If those spaces had remained dedicated to parking, only $3.7 million would have been reaped during the same time period. In other words, curbside patios produced 49 times more revenue than what would have been earned from parking fees.”

Related iMOVE article: The rise and rise of the kerb

Political and industry opposition to drones and eVTOLs: currently uncoordinated but growing

“The unfavourable reaction from Paris local politicians across the political divide to the launch of electric air taxi operations during the 2024 Olympic Games has taken many in the industry by surprise. The reaction is in stark contrast to that of New York Mayor Eric Adams, who just a few days ago was delighted to announce plans to revamp the city’s main heliport for eVTOL flights.”

Related iMOVE article: Drone Transport: Info, Projects, & Resources