Welcome to the December 2017 issue of The Transportist. As always you can follow along at the blog or on Twitter.
Transportist Posts
Sydney
Transport News
Transit
'Gridlocked and unworkable': Dire warning for Sydney's trains from former top execs - SMH
Revealed: Sydney Trains warns rail overhaul to make peak-hour delays 'irrecoverable' - SMH
After delays, cost overruns, and tragedy, a subway to Vaughan is complete - Toronto Star [featuring work done by Stephen Farber et al. published in JTLU ]
Roads/Cars
Virginia took a bold step in tolling I-66. And it’s likely to pay off. - R. Puentes in WaPo
Melbourne an international pariah on West Gate Tunnel, experts warn - The Age [Melbourne transport academics take a policy stand]
AVs
How safe is ‘safe enough’ to put driverless cars on the nation’s roadways? - WaPo
Taco truck halts GM autonomous car's cruise through city streets - Reuters
EVs / Energy / Environment
This is China’s answer to the Tesla Model X – at about half the price - SCMP
Toyota, Panasonic consider joint development of EV batteries - Reuters
‘People are freaking out.’ Will electric vehicles doom your neighborhood auto mechanic? - WaPo [NB: the transition will take a couple of decades]
The Latest Bull Case for Electric Cars: the Cheapest Batteries Ever - Bloomberg
Electric cars already cheaper to own and run than petrol or diesel – study - The Guardian
HPVs / Bikes
How can we change attitudes towards cyclists? How can we change attitudes towards cyclists? - ABC [Nearly every photo shows bicyclists in special gear rather than street clothes]
The Great Bicycle Helmet Controversy - streets.mn
Bicycles are eating the lunch of China’s dominant car-sharing app - SCMP
SVs / Taxis
New Ride-Share App Aims To Tackle Uber With Half Price Fares Launching today - MMM [Taxify, works great, great discount while it lasts, burn that VC money, burn it now]
Ex-Uber staffer says in bombshell letter that the company had a unit dedicated to stealing trade secrets - Business Insider
Land Use
The Subways Made Them Rich. Is It Time for Them to Pay Up? - NY Times [Land Value Capture]
Fantasy (i.e. Commentary on Elon Musk's schemes)
[Context: Elon Musk criticized transit for serial callers and subsequently called Jarrett Walker an idiot in a tweet (corrected to sanctimonious idiot). The internet reacted]
Elon Musk’s Ideas About Transportation are Boring - Alon Levy at Pedestrian Observations.
Elon Musk’s freeway-era-on-steroids anti-urbanism - Lisa Schweitzer
Elon Musk vs. the Monorail: The Tesla founder’s disdain for public transportation is all a part of his master plan. - Henry Grabar
The Dangers of Elite Projection - Human Transit (Jarrett Walker)
Retail / Delivery
Retail, Ownership and Deflation in the Last Mile – Hacker Noon
San Francisco sours on rampant delivery robots: 'Not every innovation is great' - The Guardian
Water, Canals
Unsexy Infrastructure: Lock and Dam - Marginal Revolution
Science
Australia's GPS position to be updated and YOU'RE paying for it - Daily Mail [Stupid headline, but interesting observations about the interaction of plate tectonics and autonomous vehicles]
Visualisation
Colorized Math Equations - BetterExplained
Research
By Others
Collaborative Accessibility-Based Stakeholder Engagement for Public Transport Planning by @ansoncfit (w/demos) http://coaxs.scripts.mit.edu/home/
The Benefits of Forced Experimentation: Striking Evidence from the London Underground Network - Larcom et al.