Transportist: March 2019

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

February was notable for the launch of Transport Findings and our hosting the first TransportCamp in Sydney, both sponsored by TransportLab.

TransportFindings

We are pleased to announce the launch of Transport Findings, a new, independent, community-led, peer-reviewed, open-access journal focused on short, clear, and pointed research results. We welcome submissions.

Follow the journal on Twitter. Visit the journal.

The launch includes the following articles:

• Planning Education in Accessible Transport for Persons with Disabilities
  Mahtot Gebresselassie
  Transport planning for persons with disabilities is not reflected in transport-planning education.

• Understanding Trip Happiness using Smartphone-Based Data: The Effects of Trip- and Person-Level Characteristics
  Yingling Fan, Roland Brown, Kirti Das, Julian Wolfson
  It is found trip happiness increases with travel using biking and walking, for eating out and leisure, taken during daytime, with family and friends, of duration 15 – 30 min.

• Are more interactions at intersections related to more collisions for pedestrians? An empirical example in Quebec, Canada
  Marie-Soleil Cloutier, Ugo Lachapelle, Andrew HowardInteractions between vehicles and pedestrians at road junctions where road users adapt their behavior ahead of the “conflicting zone,” are correlated with actual pedestrian collisions.

• Universal Accessibility Survey of Transport Modes
  Clemente Mundi Blanco, Patricia Galilea, Sebastian Raveau
  Participants with and without disabilities made identical trips. The difference in average travel times between the groups was approximately 18 minutes.

• Identifying Optimum Bike Station Initial Conditions using Markov Chain Modeling
  Mohammed Almannaa, Mohammed Elhenawy, Hesham Rakha
  A Markov chain model for each bike station optimizes station-specific initial number of bikes for a day to minimize the rebalancing cost.

• Comparing Google Maps and Uber Movement Travel Time Data
  Hao Wu
  Crowd sourced data provides transport researchers with comprehensive coverage in their research subjects. However, difficulties in data validation and consistency pose a threat to the credibility of research.

• Measuring the Effect of Private Transport Job Accessibility on Rents: The Case of San Francisco’s Tech Shuttles
  Matthew Palm, Deb Niemeier
  We measure the effect of San Francisco’s technology firm commuter shuttles on rents utilizing a kernel density estimation approach. To model the effects of job accessibility improvements…

• Exploring the importance of transportation infrastructure and accessibility to satisfaction with urban and suburban neighborhoods: An application of gradient boosting decision trees
  Jason Cao, Xinyi Wu
  Using 2011 data in the Twin Cities, this study shows that urban residents prioritize transportation and accessibility while suburban residents value affordability, safety, and school quality

• dodgr: An R package for network flow aggregation
  Mark Padgham
  This article describes the new software package, [“dodgr”](https://github.com/atfutures/dodgr) (**D**istances **O**n **D**irected **GR**aphs) capable of extremely efficient flow aggregation over millions of routes within a network.

• The connection between mode beliefs and mode liking: biking versus driving
  Susan Handy
  Beliefs about walking and driving differ significantly, but in both cases the responses that a given mode is fun and relaxing are more strongly correlated with liking than other responses.

• Using the Average Wage Rate to Assess the Merit of Value of Travel Time Savings: A Concern and Clarification
  David Hensher
  With flexible work practices and different uses for travel time, the use of the hourly wage rate to determine value of travel time savings is both problematic and misleading.

• Pavement condition and crashes
  David Levinson, Toshihiro Yokoo, Mihai Marasteanu
  Poor roads generally increase property damage and injury crashes. But on curves, good pavement quality increases fatal, injury, and property-damage crashes.

• Accessibility, equity, and mode share: a comparative analysis across 11 Canadian metropolitan areas
  Boer Cui, Ahmed El-Geneidy
  In 11 Canadian metropolitan areas, low-income groups exhibit higher public transport use at the same level of accessibility than high-income groups.

• An international comparison of equity in accessibility to jobs: London, São Paulo and the Randstad
  John P. Pritchard, Diego Tomasiello, Mariana Giannotti, Karst Geurs
  Results by equity measure are heavily influenced by the accessibility indicator and the method of assignment. Person-based potential accessibility measure tends to show greater inequity.

TransportCamp

• TransportCamp, an unconference, was held on the University of Sydney campus. TransportLab was pleased to host and sponsor. We expect to host another one next year

WalkSydney

• De-rubbishing our footpaths

• Road rules in NSW [Where I learn that cars don’t have to stop for pedestrians at unmarked, unsignalised Sydney intersections.]

• A bridge too far

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

Posts at the Blog

• Get from Melbourne to Sydney overland in one hour? Hyperloop pipedreamers to pitch to senate #Fantasy

• Sydney’s roads carry a heavy toll

• On Debt Repudiation

News

Macromobility:

Transit and Microtransit

• Frequency-Ridership Spirals - pedestrianobservations.com

• Redfern station on track for new lifts as part of $100m upgrade - smh

• Governor Cuomo and Mayor De Blasio Announce 10-Point Plan to Transform and Fund the MTA governor.ny.gov

• Mapping gives clearest hint yet of sites for Metro West stations - smh

• Metro plan would subsidize Uber and Lyft fares to fill late-night service gap - WaPo

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

• Google’s Waymo risks repeating Silicon Valley’s most famous blunder - arstechnica.com

• Does your robocar come home after it takes you to work? - Brad Templeton

• What do California disengagement reports tell us? - Brad Templeton

• Travis Kalanick secretly ramps up kitchen venture after Uber exit - FT.com

• In 2017, the feds said Tesla Autopilot cut crashes 40%—that was bogus - ArsTechnica

• Apple's Autonomous Cars Need Much More Human Help Than Its Rivals - Bloomberg [Though definitions of disengagements are inconsistent, so tons of salt.]

• Tempe faces $10 million claim in Uber self-driving vehicle fatality - azcentral

• A Waymo One Rider's Experiences Highlight Autonomous Rideshare's Shortcomings - Futurism

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

• 'Rare event' repeat: Overhead Tullamarine Freeway sign falls again - theage.com.au

• 'Shockingly bad': Is this the state's worst election policy? Labor’s M4 toll cashback plan is an absurdly generous free kick to one company. [That company is TransUrban] smh.com.au

Mesomobility:

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

• Daimler and BMW Invest €1 Billion in Urban Mobility Co-Venture - Fortune

• Source: Didi to lay off ~2,000 people, or 15% of its workforce, from non-essential business units - Techmeme

• Uber Sales Growth Slows Further as IPO Nears - WSJ

Micromobility:

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

• Lime scooters in NZ - "Since their introduction in mid-October, ACC has received at least 1263 claims for e-scooter related injuries, and paid out more than $566,405 in compensation."

• Robinson Meyer tweets ... The average Bird scooter only survives 28 days, earning $75 across its lifetime, according to new data. Which means Bird loses about $285 net on every scooter. from Oversharing

• Lime Scooter Software Glitch Causes Random Braking, Dozens Of Rider Injuries - Forbes

• More Cities Are Taking Responsibility for Clearing Sidewalks of Snow - streetsblog

• There are reasons Tacoma embraced e-scooters but kicked e-bikes to the curb - NewsTribune

• Lime dropped the 'bike' from its name; now the bikes are disappearing - SF Chronicle

• Seattle Tosses Out Rulebook to Protect Pedestrians - streetsblog

• Addis Ababa goes traffic free for a day - BBC

Electrification

• No One Else Built Charging Stations, So Automakers Will Do It. bloomberg.com

• Renewables reach highest share of Australia's power in 40 years - SMH

Land Use

• Why America’s new apartment buildings all look the same - Bloomberg

• Three changes in how we live could derail the dream of the 30-minute city - The Conversation [Jennifer Kent]

Retail, Wholesale, Logistics, Supply Chain

• Roadie raises $37 million to expand peer-to-peer package delivery service - venturebeat.com

• Amazon's Dash Buttons, now banned in Germany, might be pushing legal limits in Australia - The Conversation

• Electric trikes send postie bikes packing as we order more parcels online. - ABC

Freight

• Not so autonomous: Wifi outage results in driverless truck crash at Fortescue mine - mining.com

Intercity Trains A lot of news this month about the inevitable scaling-back/delay/deferral/cancellation of America's favorite Norwegian Parrot, the California High-speed Rail project

• Yesterday’s Technology the Day After Tomorrow - Randal O'Toole, Cato

• Trump administration says it will cancel $929 million in funding for California rail project - axios

• California’s high-speed rail is still on. But how can it move forward? - Curbed

• Why the United States will never have high-speed rail​ - Megan McArdle, WaPo

• Calif. Governor Scales Back Commitment to Statewide High Speed Rail - Eno

• Newsom says California high-speed rail must focus on Central Valley - sfchronicle

• Virgin/Brightline railway shelves IPO plans - miamiherald.com

• Giant European rail merger blocked [Siemens - Alstom] - BBC

Maps

• Google Maps is using giant virtual arrows to stop people from getting lost - CNN

Equity and Justice

• UK schools banning school run to protect pupils from air pollution - The Guardian​

Behavior

• Metropolitan Council surveys metro to help plan for future [Using smart phone app for travel survey. It feels like the future.] - KSTP

• It's Time for Some Queueing Theory​ - Kottke

Professoring

Papers by Us

• Pavement condition and crashes
  David Levinson, Toshihiro Yokoo, Mihai Marasteanu
  Poor roads generally increase property damage and injury crashes. But on curves, good pavement quality increases fatal, injury, and property-damage crashes.

Papers by Others

• Structure Entropy, Self-Organization, and Power Laws in Urban Street Networks: Evidence for Alexander's Ideas by Jerome Benoit and Saif Jabari at arXiv

• stplanr: a package for transport planning Robin Lovelace and Richard Ellison at The R Journal!

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)