Transportist: January 2019

Welcome to the January 2019 issue of The Transportist, especially to our new readers. As always you can follow along at the blog or on Twitter.

Jobs

• Postdoctoral Research Associate – Future Rural & Regional Transport (ITLS Sydney) (Close Jan 9)

Posts at the Blog

• TransportLab at TRB Schedule [If you want to meet at TRB, please contact me by email.]

• Evolution of the Sydney Trains Network (movie)

• Evolution of the Sydney Trams Network (movie)

• Spontaneous Access: Reflexions on Designing Cities and Transport. (Free)

Posts at WalkSydney

• Safety Theatre

• Green Square deserves A (pedestrian-accessible) Green Square

If you care about walking in Sydney, and want to get involved, go here.

Conferences

• Canadian Transport Research Forum (May 26-29 Vancouver, Abstracts due Jan 9)

News

Macromobility:

Transit

• Case for light rail lines in NSW takes a battering once again The state's Auditor-General is highly critical of Newcastle's light rail project. smh.com.au

• Sydney Trains’ Turn Up And Go Frequencies​ - TransportSydney

• Looking past the hype about 'trackless trams' The autonomous rail rapid transit (ART) system developed in China might make buses sexy, but the technology alone won't resolve the issues of road space and right of way in Australia. theconversation.com

• Southwest Light Rail Breaks Ground Today After Breaking Twin Cities Transit Planning For Years - Nick Magrino

Automated, Autonomous, Driverless, and Self-Driving Vehicles, and Semi-Autonomous Systems

Waymo

• We finally talked to an actual Waymo passenger—here’s what he told us. Tim Lee at ars.technica

• I rode in Waymo’s new self-driving taxi service The former Google self-driving car project is going commercial. theverge.com

• A slashed tire, a pointed gun, bullies on the road: Why do Waymo self-driving vans get so much hate? - azcentral

• Waymo unveils self-driving taxi service in Arizona - Reuters

• At Waymo, It’s Launch Time For Google’s Biggest Moonshot - Forbes

Tesla

• Tesla "why don't we do it in the road" ad - The Last Driver License Holder

• Tesla owners have driven 1 billion miles with Autopilot activated - electrek.co

Neither Tesla, Nor Waymo

• Audi pulls the curtain back on its self-driving car program Audi wants its robot taxis on the road by 2021. theverge.com

• Levandowski's Pronto.ai plans to ship automated driving systems for trucks in 2019 - techcrunch.com

• Kroger-owned grocery store [Fry's] begins fully driverless deliveries [Nuro] - ars.technica

• Why autonomous vehicles won't reduce our dependence on cars in cities - The Conversation

Human-Driven Vehicles, Signs, Signals, Sensors, and Markings, and Roads

• Phone monitoring cameras will be rolled out across busy NSW roads Daily Mail [not a reliable source, but interesting news]

• Year-old 66 Express [Toll] Lanes have caused shifts in commuter behavior, - WaPo

• Our roads and rail may not be as bad as you think. SMH

• SUV sales have overtaken cars in US, Canada, Australia, and now rising quickly in Europe.

• Health impacts and murky decision-making feed public distrust of projects like WestConnex - The Conversation

• Opinion | The democratic world could feel the heat from Paris With their roots online rather than in traditional activist organizations, the anger of France’s gilets jaunes riots is easily spread. [These started as carbon tax/gas tax riots] washingtonpost.com

• Amazing results of day 1 of permanent traffic restrictions in downtown Madrid (470 Ha): * Number of cars on the road in restricted ares went down 6 to 31% * Average bus speed went up 14% (including areas not in the restricted area) via Alex B.

Mesomobility:

Shared Vehicles/Ride-sharing/Ride-hailing/Taxis/Car Sharing

• Uber Is Said to File for an I.P.O. as It Races Lyft to a Public Debut - NY Times

Micromobility:

Human-Powered Vehicles/Bikes/Pedestrians/Scooters/eBikes/Last-Mile/First-Mile/Last-Meter/First-Meter/etc.

• Belgium’s word of the year for 2018 is “Murderstrip.” Defined as a painted bicycle lane on a dangerous street next to fast-moving cars. [Written in Beligian (ha)]

• Small is e-Beautiful Greater Auckland.

• Scooter Firm Chases Funding to Staunch Losses Investors in Lime were surprised this spring that the startup already had spent much of the $70 million it had raised only a few months earlier. theinformation

• Sydney's share bikes take 22,000 city trips a week - SMH

• Chinese bike-sharing start-up Ofo on verge of bankruptcy - ft

Curbs and Kerbs

• Take Me Out To The Ball Game (Without Getting Towed) - Mahmood Rahmani, Coord

• How Innovative Towns Can Map For the Last Mile Just Like Apple - Stephen Smyth, Coord

Land Use

• Just How Much of the World Is Urban? - CityLab

• Americans say there’s not much appeal to big-city living. Why do so many of us live there? WaPo

• Speed limits could drop to 40km/h under new transport strategy 'On ya bike!' (or bus, or light rail) is the message from the ACT government. canberratimes.com.au

Intercity Trains

• HS1 and Crossrail suppliers admit to running ‘illegal cartel’ for 7 years Rail Technology [one more reason transport costs are so high in the Anglo-sphere]

• Very fast train pledge looks like a stunt Promising rainbows won't win votes. smh.com.au

• Faster rail services on the agenda for state and federal elections The Berejiklian government is expected to commit to a feasibility study to identify the best route for faster rail services to connect regional areas smh.com.au [Note difference between fast trains and very fast trains]

• California state audit of high speed rail - CalHSR

Aviation and Space

• Gridlock in the sky: The space industry wants to launch more rockets through an already congested airspace. WaPo [One more reason for Space Elevators].

Funding and Finance and Governance

• Vital Signs: No, Joe, America should not be copying Australia's 'asset recycling' misdirection - The Conversation

• Bikeshare, Scooters, Cars, Trains, Bridges: One Agency to Rule Them All: For transport to truly enhance quality of life in a city, one regional agency should have jurisdiction over everything transportation-related in a metro area. [CityLab]

Science

• The Planet Has Seen Sudden Warming Before. It Wiped Out Almost Everything. - NY Times

• Are we literally losing our way by relying on GPS devices? Research shows navigating skills do worsen as we depend so much on map apps. washingtonpost.com

Fantasy

• Elon Musk’s first Boring Company tunnel opens, but the roller-coaster ride has just begun - WaPo

Professoring

Publishing

• Heavyweight Showdown Over Research Access: University of California System is playing hardball with Elsevier in negotiations that could transform the way it pays to read and publish research. But does the UC system have the clout to pull it off? - Inside Higher Ed.

• Publish AND perish: how the commodification of scientific publishing is undermining both science and the public good​ - Transformative Learning

Research & Data

• Access to Destinations Data [now available via University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy]

• A Walk in the Park with UrbanFootprint – UrbanFootprint [Access to parks and lots of other points of interest]

Papers by Us

• Cui, Boer, Boisjoly, Genevieve, El-Geneidy, Ahmed, and Levinson, D. (2019) Accessibility and the journey to work through the lens of equity. Journal of Transport Geography. Volume 74, January 2019, Pages 269-277 [50 days free download] [doi]

Books by Others

• Inventing Future Cities by Mike Batty [self-recommending]

New organisations

• ZEPHYR Advancing Travel Analysis to Improve Society - a new organization to improve transport analysis and modeling

Books

• Metropolitan Transport and Land Use: Planning for Place and Plexus (2018) by David M. Levinson and Kevin J. Krizek.

• Elements of Access: Transport Planning for Engineers, Transport Engineering for Planners. (2018) By David M. Levinson, Wes Marshall, Kay Axhausen.

• Spontaneous Access: Reflexions on Designing Cities and Transport (2016) by David Levinson.

• The End of Traffic and the Future of Access: A Roadmap to the New Transport Landscape. (2017) By David M. Levinson and Kevin J. Krizek.

• The Transportation Experience: Second Edition Garrison, William and Levinson, David (2014)