The Transportist: December 2017
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.