ITS Monday: Edition 27, 2022

The age of ‘the car is king’ is over. The sooner we accept that, the better

An opinion piece by John Vidal, a former environment editor at The Guardian. “The worldwide love affair with the car, which promised consumers convenience, status and freedom, is over. The reality from Hotan to Hull and Lagos to Lahore is that the car is now a social and environmental curse, disconnecting people, eroding public space, fracturing local economies, and generating sprawl and urban decay.”

• Developing a low/zero emission transport strategy for Australia
• Clean fuels, lower emissions in red meat processing transport
• Implementation of sustainable transport policies
  

Why Australian consumers are charging toward electric vehicles

A blog post from EY, the artist formerly known as Ernst & Young. It’s borne of the Global EY 2022 Mobility Consumer Index, and discusses, amongst other things, working from home, hygiene and avoiding infection, shared mobility, and more.

Related iMOVE project: Electric vehicles: Supporting uptake, investigating smart charging

CBD workers spend just 16 hours in city as work-from-home sticks

Written on the back of an RMIT study Are people ready for a Digital CBD?, which was based on a survey of more than 2,000 residents across greater Melbourne in April 2022. Yes, in the scheme of things and the environment of change in all things pandemic, that is ancient history, but sure as eggs the amount of debate around working from home is set to continue to be spirited.

Related iMOVE content: Working from Home

Less cars, more people: Telethon Kids Institute idea to have Perth streets transformed into shopping strips

This looks quite similar to a story from last week’s ITS Monday but I checked, it’s from a different story source, and focussed on a different location. In this one the Telethon Kids Institute has put together a series of concepts of popular Perth streets re-imagined as car-free.

Related iMOVE project: Your Street, Your Say: Better streets for Darebin

Aussies want green transport options, fast

Another story based on the results of a survey, in this instance from a YouGov poll of 2160 Australians, commissioned by the Climate Council. The survey found that 80% want more investment in public transport and 70% want an electric national bus fleet powered by solar and wind energy as soon as possible.

Germany’s €9 train tickets scheme ‘saved 1.8m tons of CO2 emissions’

“Germany’s three-month experiment with €9 tickets for a month’s unlimited travel on regional train networks, trams and buses saved about 1.8m tons of CO2 emissions, it has been claimed. Since its introduction on 1 June to cut fuel consumption and relieve a cost of living crisis, about 52m tickets have been sold, a fifth of these to people who did not ordinarily use public transport.” That scheme is set to end soon.

Bold transport vision aims to lure residents from their cars

The council of New Zealand city of Christchurch has released a 30-year transport strategy. “It aims to achieve several goals at once: tackle climate change, reduce road harm, cater for a growing city, and ensure the transport infrastructure meets the needs of citizens and businesses.”

New Zealand operator eyes second fully-electric ferry

In the second of three New-Zealand-based stories, transport provider East by West is set to add a second electric ferry to its fleet. “With greater onboard energy storage, a second fully-electric ferry is set to save the operator a further NZD 280,000 (about US$181,000) per year in overall energy costs.”

Electric on-demand public transport is making a difference in Auckland – now it needs to roll out further

This article in The Conversation is written by two academics, once each from Griffith University (Benjamin Kaufman) and the University of Newcastle (Ainsley Hughes). It’s a reaction to an announcement by the NZ Transport Minister on the topic of sustainable public transport. “However, what is missing is a roadmap to achieving these sustainability goals. Decarbonisation of the public transport fleet is already happening in parts of New Zealand and examples of current local best practice can help us understand what can be deployed at a national scale and where it is likely to have the most impact.”

L.A. voters to consider ballot plan to add bike lanes, bus lanes, other safety measures

“The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to send a measure to the ballot to speed up the installation of bike routes, bus lanes and other transportation projects aimed at making the city safer and more welcoming for bicyclists, pedestrians and bus riders. The initiative, planned for the 2024 ballot, would force city agencies to make those changes to some of L.A.’s busiest boulevards each time crews do major road work on those streets.”

One-third of Voi’s users say they have drastically reduced car use

Results of a survey of 10,000 of e-scooter provider Voi’s users in 11 countries, answering questions that included: How has use of micromobilty impacted your car usage? Do you combine your e-scooter usage with another mode of transport? What is your primary purpose for riding an e-scooter?

Spat at, abused and run off the road: why do some people hate cyclists so much?

Ahh yes, the age old question! “Bike riders have always faced aggression from car drivers. But they now find themselves on the latest front in the culture wars – with anger whipped up by the rightwing press.”

Should Public Transit Be Free? Freakonomics Asks the Experts

This article is from the point of view of the United States. “Some have argued that free transit can’t work, citing a variety of reasons. As Stephen Dubner points out on his recent podcast for Freakonomics Radio, “it’s complicated.””