ITS Monday: Edition 15, 2024

Electric vehicles will start to cut emissions and improve air quality in our cities – but only once they’re common

An article in The Conversation, by John Rose and Andrea Pelligrini, both of the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. “Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the recent boom in EV purchases, they’re still a tiny minority of the cars on the road. We would get more immediate benefit by focusing on electrifying buses, which are a surprisingly large source of air pollution, and finding ways to cut rapidly growing emissions from diesel trucks.”

Related iMOVE article:

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

Related iMOVE projects:

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

“It will save lives:” All new EVs-required to make noise at low speeds

While there remains a lot of noise in the hopes for change that electric vehicles will bring, where there isn’t a lot of noise is from the vehicles themselves. However, change is nigh. “Under the legislation, all new electric, hybrid and hydrogen cars, buses and trucks will be fitted with noise-making systems, starting in November 2025. And while debate continues over what sound the vehicles should make, early projections show the change could save lives.”

Related iMOVE articles:

• Vulnerable Road Users: Info, Projects & Resources
• Nissan’s Canto lets its electric vehicles sing
• Jaguar adds sound to electric vehicle silence

BIC discusses the future of zero-emissions fleets in Australia

A need to focus on a switch away from diesel to electric buses was mentioned in the opening story this week, and the Australian Bus Industry Confederation has commented on the needs for a shift to electrification of bus fleets.

“A key, recurring message to the Australian federal, state and territory governments is that buses are the easy part in the ongoing transition to zero-emissions fleets. Bus Industry Confederation members already have fantastic battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell bus and coach models, and more are in the pipeline. The difficult part relates to the provision of energy.”

Related iMOVE projects:

• Gippsland community e-Bus pilot
• Electric school buses for Western Australia: Feasibility study
  

Speed review among recommendations to make Victorian roads safer for pedestrians, cyclists

“A parliamentary committee has called for a review of speed zones and better road infrastructure to keep people safe. It comes after an inquiry that found many pedestrians and cyclists feel vulnerable on or around the state’s roads. What’s next? The government says it’s considering the report’s 56 recommendations.”

Related iMOVE content:

• Road Safety: Info, Projects & Resources

Improving both transport efficiency and equity in Sydney with one neat trick

The first of two pieces this week from Professor David Levinson‘s Transportist blog. In this, David comments on road pricing, amidst the March 2024 release of the Independent Toll Review: Interim Report produced for the NSW Government..

Related iMOVE content:

• Traffic Congestion: Info, Projects & Resources

The cost of shopping: Measuring virtual and physical access for obtaining goods

Levinson and Transportist blog selection #2 this week, this time on the rise of e-commerce, bolstered by advances in information and communication technology and the increased opportunities for consumers to shop online without the need to physically travel.

This blog piece links through to a new academic paper David has co-authored with Chen Jing and Mengying Cui. The paper is titled The Cost of Shopping: Measuring Virtual and Physical Access for Obtaining Goods, and appears in TeMA – Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment No. 1. There’s a link to the full paper in this blog article.

Related iMOVE project:

• Micromobility and freight: Exploring opportunities in WA

The role of traffic simulation in shaping effective and sustainable innovative urban delivery interventions

A new academic paper, co-authored by Yijie Su, Hadi Ghaderi, and Hussein Dia, all of the Swinburne University of Technology. The abstract:

Cities around the globe face major last mile delivery (LMD) challenges as a result of surging online commerce activity, increased parcel delivery demands, lack of parking capacity, and severe traffic congestion particularly in inner city areas. Although a number of innovative solutions and pathways have been proposed to address these challenges, their full impacts are still not well understood due to the lack of comprehensive field studies and real-world data on their performance.

Traffic simulation techniques, which are widely used to model and evaluate the impacts of a wide range of urban mobility interventions, offer opportunities to investigate the impacts of city logistics interventions. However, research evidence on this topic remains fragmented, hindering constructive analysis of the role of traffic simulation and modelling in shaping sustainable urban delivery interventions. Given the growing research interest in the nexus of traffic simulation and city logistics, this paper aims to identify and evaluate primary studies related to the simulation forms, evolution, effectiveness, and their feasibility in evaluating the impacts of urban delivery interventions.

The paper achieves this through a holistic systematic review that consolidates diverse perspectives on the topic. The paper analysed 79 articles, published by December 2023, that have used traffic simulation to model and evaluate a wide range of city logistics interventions. The review identified five main themes in the literature surrounding development and applications of traffic simulation, namely their use in evaluating the role of information and communication technologies, evaluations of advances in types and forms of delivery vehicles, their application in supporting policy interventions, evaluations of innovations in city logistics facilities and impacts of the collaborative economy.

The review also helped in gaining insights about urban delivery interventions and their impacts as stand-alone or in combination with other solutions. The analysis confirms the validity and versatility of traffic simulation as an approach to model the impacts of urban delivery interventions on traffic flow, delivery service and customers, but also the sustainability implications of interventions.

The paper also provides a future research agenda to guide future studies in developing and evaluating applications of various interventions with the leverage of traffic simulation.

Related iMOVE project:

• Transformative commercial urban delivery solutions

Toyota’s hydrogen future Is crumbling as owners file lawsuits, call for buybacks

Tales of trouble in hydrogen car land! “Frozen pumps. Skyrocketing fuel costs. Plummeting resale values. Here’s why owners who bought into Toyota’s hydrogen dream feel “cheated and misled.””

Related iMOVE project:

• Investigating the viability of hydrogen fuel for heavy vehicle use

Towards Zero Collaboration Hub​

The NSW Government’s  hub for road safety initiatives as part of its 2026 Road Safety Action Plan. “We’re here to help your local council, association and business plan, manage, and deliver local road safety initiatives to support NSW’s road safety priorities. As part of a local community, we can all play a critical role in reducing road deaths. We encourage local councils, relevant community organisations, businesses, and state agencies to collaborate, exchange knowledge and work together to achieve the goal of zero trauma on NSW roads. Become involved, road safety is a shared responsibility.”

Containerised parcel delivery: Modelling and performance evaluation

A new academic paper, co-authored by Saman Eskandarzadeh and Behnam Fahimnia, both from the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies. The abstract:

This paper investigates different factors that affect the performance of containerised transportation in parcel delivery networks. Motivated by challenges confronted by a postal delivery company in Australia, we study how container utilisation rate, sortation decisions, and changes in cost parameters can affect the overall performance of a parcel delivery network. Leveraging a combination of mixed-integer programming and machine learning, we model a realistic parcel delivery network and evaluate its performance using data from a major postal service provider. The insights obtained from our analysis offer valuable guidance to parcel delivery companies, empowering them to make informed parcel sortation and containerisation decisions.

Walking for transport and all-cause mortality: a prospective cohort study of Australian community-dwelling older adults

A summary of, and a link to, an academic paper, Walking for transport and all-cause mortality: a prospective cohort study of Australian community-dwelling older adults, co-authored by Shivangi Shah, Yang Chen, Alice Owen, Robyn L Woods, Joanne Ryan, Neville Owen, Rory Wolfe, David W Dunstan, Ben Beck, Carlene Britt, and Danijela Gasevic

Related iMOVE content:

• Active Transport: Info, Projects & Resources