Transportist: June 2023
Welcome to the latest issue of The Transportist, especially to our new readers. As always you can follow along on Substack at our new domain: transportist.net or on Mastodon. Note: Substack Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it for things that don’t fit in the newsletter, like work-in-progress or quick questions, it is discussed more at the bottom of this newsletter.
This past week there was a massive fire in Sydney adjacent to Central Station and an earthquake in Melbourne. The Gods must be angry.
Posts
Transportist: Organisation before Electronics before Concrete
The idea Organisation before Electronics before Concrete is a retort to infrastructure-happy politicians who build too much and like the ribbon cuttings that concrete provides, and which invisibly improved operations do not. The idea loosely maps to the triad structure of railroads (discussed below) into the three parts of
Transportist: An Alliterative Alphabet of Awe-Inspiring Accessible Admonitions
I like alliteration. Like all rhyme, it is more memorable because of how the human brain functions, and thus feels truer. Hence the emergence of poetry. A In the context of transportation, the "three A's" could refer to the following principles: Accessibility
Transportist: Dr. Hema Rayaprolu
Congratulations to Dr. Hema Rayaprolu for “satisfying the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney.” Thesis Title: "The Co-evolution of Public Transport Access and Ridership " Lead Supervisor: Professor David Levinson.
Webinars of Interest
Books of Interest
Recently released: Handbook on Transport Pricing and Financing, Edited by Alejandro Tirachini, Daniel Horcher, and Erik T. Verhoef. Published by Edward Elgar. People who blurb say:
‘The advent of electric vehicles, which won’t pay fuel taxes, and autonomous vehicles, which may not even have passengers, puts front-and-center the need to revisit how road transport is funded. This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of transport funding around the world, and serves as a necessary foundation for the emerging new mobility.’
Software of Interest
Open source tools for transport network analysis . https://www.urbandemographics.org/post/ope
News
Real Estate
The $500 billion ‘Office real estate apocalypse’: Researchers find remote work’s effect even worse than expected | Fortune https://fortune.com/2023/05/25/office-
Vacant skyscrapers, empty trains: can San Francisco once again reinvent itself? “The number of riders on the Bart system is around 40% of what it was before the pandemic, and only 30% for riders who exit in downtown San Francisco.” [The Vicious Cycle is a “Doom Loop”]
Why octopuses are building small “cities” off the coast of Australia | Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/0
Sharing
Uber doing better than Lyft lately (needs Lyft to stay active to limit regulators, so they say).
Lyft CEO David Risher reportedly says company is 'open' to acquisition offers - https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/lyft-ceo-says-ride-hailing-giant-open-to-sale-18097064.php
Waymo and Uber sign multi-year partnership to provide driverless rides and deliveries
Public Transport
Harbourside Monorail Station To Be Demolished | 10 News First
A slice of Sydney's history is set to disappear forever with the monorail station at Harbourside soon to be demolished. [I get my 5 seconds of fame]
Logistics
Pipedream, a hyperlogistics company promising a point-to-point pipeline network of goods, starting with a Wendy’s parking lot [Edward Bellamy, author of Looking Backward (1888), is calling, he wants his future back]: Twitter Thread
Enlist the rat czar into the war on cars! https://www.curbed.com/2023/05/trash-containerization-parking-dsny-report.html
Autonomy
How Mobileye, Cruise, Waymo, and other self-driving system makers are simulating bad drivers, jaywalkers, and edge cases to train and test autonomous vehicles (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)
Waymo And Cruise have Both Hit 1M Miles With No Driver, But Waymo Publishes Detailed Safety Data
Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” sees pedestrian, chooses not to slow down - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/05/teslas-full-self-driving-sees-pedestrian-chooses-not-to-slow-down/
Interview with Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt on HardFork podcast https://overcast.fm/+m_rpukp3Q
"... A driverless Waymo vehicle subsequently proceeded to meander into the middle of things, like an autonomous Mr. Magoo.
“It doesn’t know what to do!” shouts an officer caught in the background of the body-worn camera footage. “I’ll pop a flare!” responds the cop wearing the camera. “There’ll be hella smoke in the front.”
He then commands the vehicle to “stay,” and places a flare in front of it. But it does not obey, hella smoke and all (“ah, fuck!”).
“Got a bit of a pickle,” he radios to a dispatcher. “Got an autonomous vehicle, the Waymo, it’s inching slowly and closely to one of the main water lines that the SF Fire just charged. Can’t run it over. Is there a way you can contact a responder to come out and disable this vehicle? I don’t trust this AI.”
https://missionlocal.org/2023/05/waymo
Bicycling
99PI on how bicycling became big in the Netherlands https://overcast.fm/+yIOxANo9Q
Vehicles
Pickup trucks: The suburban tanks taking over Australian roads https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-is-everyone-buying-truckzillas-that-are-too-big-for-our-streets-20230511-p5d7iy.html
Equity
Seeing racial avoidance on New York City streets - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01589-7
Safety
Montréal suburb Brossard has a traffic light in a school zone that defaults to red, and only turns green when an attached speed camera detects a car driving under the speed limit. The light is on a 90-day trial, on a 2-lane residential street. Similar signals are widespread across Europe. Before it was installed, average vehicle speeds of 40 km/h. But in the past week, average speeds have dropped to 29 km/h.
Electrification
Inductive charging highway section to be built in Florida - https://www.electrive.com/2023/05/02/inductive-charging-highway-section-to-be-built-in-florida/
Musical Theatre
I am the very model of a diagram fundamental,
My knowledge spans from micro to the macro and the general,
I understand the traffic flow, congestion, and the principles,
From city streets to highways wide, my expertise is critical.
I'm quite adept at theories both hydrodynamic and kinematic,
I analyze the bottlenecks, congestions, and the traffic jam,
About the diagram of traffic, I'm brimming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the state of traffic and its cues.
(Chorus)
With many cheerful facts about the state of traffic and its cues,
With many cheerful facts about the state of traffic and its cues,
With many cheerful facts about the state of traffic and its cu-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-es!
(Verse 2)
I'm very skilled at measuring the speeds and densities diverse,
I study flow and factors that determine how the traffic swerves,
In short, in matters micro, macro, and the general,
I am the very model of a diagram fundamental!
I know the classic theories, from Lighthill to the Greenshields' curve,
I've scrutinized the chokepoints that our daily travel does perturb,
I've studied Underwood's and Gipps' models both in harmony,
And I can tell you why your daily drive's a lengthy odyssey.
(Chorus)
And he can tell you why your daily drive's a lengthy odyssey,
And he can tell you why your daily drive's a lengthy odyssey,
And he can tell you why your daily drive's a lengthy ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-yssey!
(Verse 3)
Then I can draft a paper filled with well-researched hypotheses,
And demonstrate the reasons for the traffic inconsistencies,
In short, in matters micro, macro, and the general,
I am the very model of a diagram fundamental!
In fact, when I know what is meant by "shockwave" and "hysteresis",
When I can tell at sight a weave from a merge or a diverge, sis,
When such affairs as queues and jams I'm more adept at,
And when I know precisely what is meant by "fundamental diagram"...
(Chorus)
When he knows precisely what is meant by "fundamental diagram",
When he knows precisely what is meant by "fundamental diagram",
When he knows precisely what is meant by "fundamental di-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-gram"!
(Verse 4)
When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern traffic-ry,
When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery,
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental traffic plan,
You'll say a better diagram fundamental has never ran!
For though my knowledge is, as yet, a little bit empirical,
I'll fill the gap with theories both logical and lyrical,
But still, in matters micro, macro, and the general,
I am the very model of a diagram fundamental!
(Chorus)
But still, in matters micro, macro, and the general,
He is the very model of a diagram fundamental!
But still, in matters micro, macro, and the general,
He is the very model of a diagram fundamental!
Notes
Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it for things that don’t fit in the newsletter, like work-in-progress or quick questions.
How to join
Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to Transportist, you’ll automatically see my notes. Feel free to like, reply, or share them around!
You can also share notes of your own. I hope this becomes a space where every reader of Transportist can share thoughts, ideas, and interesting quotes from the things we're reading on Substack and beyond.