Transportist: March 2026
Back to Substack. WordPress was a ride, but it’s just not there for newsletters and the workflow is not designed for my model, but the people were very helpful (their bots, not so much). Thank you for your patience as the transition is messier than I hoped. I am trying to implement POSSE (Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere), but the syndication tools in the transition were a bit happier syndicate than I wanted. Paid subscribers should all have had their subscriptions on Substack turned on, and on WordPress turned off. Free subscribers hopefully were transitioned safely.
Pointers
AVs
The future is messy, the future is a process. If you told 20 year old me we would have robotaxis by now, I would have believed you, I’d might have been surprised it took so long. If you told me they would be driving to suburban shopping centres and not much else had changed in urban form to accommodate them, or in response, I would have been surprised.
A Waymo hit a kid who entered the road from behind a tall SUV, kid’s ok Waymo’s Commitment to Transparency and Road Safety [CBS Local News video report (pretty pro-Waymo)] Reportedly Waymo’s Speed was 17 mph before braking, 6 mph at time of impact. But maybe (just spitting out some ideas here), maybe speed limits in front of schools, during school opening and closing times, should be even lower?
Hands-free driving systems [By Ford!] confuse drivers, but carmakers push for more - WSJ
Trains
Australia HSR trundles forward (A new, redacted business case was released)
‘Inherent risks’: Final costs redacted from high-speed rail business case
University of Sydney professor David Levinson, who specialises in transport engineering, said that if the high-speed rail line was built at the estimated cost of $93 billion, it would be about 1.8 times to 2.3 times more expensive per kilometre than the section of California’s high-speed rail project currently under construction.
“This is largely driven by the requirement for 115 kilometres of tunnelling, making it one of the most expensive proposed rail projects in the world on a per-kilometre basis,” Levinson said, adding that the proposed route was also one of the smallest markets for high-speed rail globally.
High-speed train ticket between Newcastle and Sydney to cost $31 for one-hour journey from 2039
Professor David Levinson, professor of transport at the University of Sydney, said the project is “very expensive” per kilometre of rail, particularly as 115km of the line would have to run through an underground tunnel.
“It’s not surprising that it would be expensive as high-speed rail projects go, because a lot of it is mountain tunnelling, and tunnelling is classically more expensive than building at-grade or elevated segments,” Levinson said.
“The costs are estimated assuming everything goes right, the timelines are estimated assuming everything goes right. They build in a little bit of fudge factor, but very few of these projects come in on time [and on budget].”
Levinson pointed to the Snowy Hydro project, which has also required extensive tunnel boring, and whose budget blew out from $2bn to $12bn at the last estimate.
Opposition frontbencher Jonathon Duniam said he supported the idea of high-speed rail but raised concerns over the price tag.
“It’s a great project, [a] great idea in terms of being able to link the nation up,” he told Sky News. “I think the key question here is while it is important to build these things, it’s also important to be able to pay for them.”
The government said the project “stacks up” from a cost benefit point of view, with the report determining a benefit cost ratio of 0.8 to 1.2. In comparison, a Sydney council project to build a bike network has a ratio of 2.68 to 1.
Levinson said benefit cost ratios comes with “optimistic” assertions on jobs and housing opening up, but that it’s lower than it should be.
“It’s a positive [ratio] in that it’s above zero but it’s supposed to be above one … if you were going to go forward with it, it should be well above one.”
Also on 2GB: ‘Shovel ready’ – $90 billion high-speed rail project targets 2028 start. (No link to my live interview (Sad Emoji))
Bikes
Cyclists elated by MetroWay Announcement
David Levinson is Professor of Transport at the University of Sydney’s School of Civil Engineering. He opined that “MetroWay is presently a bit short on details, but the basic idea is a good one.” It would provide “safe” paths for those who live between stations, and might allow “e-bikes to stay off the Metro trains altogether,” he said.
He added, however, that it “should have been planned and delivered from the beginning, and should be proposed as part of a more complete network of separated bicycle facilities throughout New South Wales.”Cyclists slam ‘nightmare’ shared path at new Sydney Fish Market
Pedestrians
Sydney’s Worst Speed Hump (mistaken for a Wombat (raised pedestrian) crossing.
Your Regular Reminder that Cars are Weapons
Video shows moment man charged with hate crime `allegedly’ rammed synagogue [in Brisbane] … but don’t worry kids, don’t be scared, it’s not terrorism, meth was found in the car. (The perpetrator was from Australia.)
Car crash into Chabad headquarters in NYC is investigated as hate crime
Graphic Video: Islamic Republic security forces in Iran run over protestors.
Crime
How Crime Flourishes on Turo (Rental service like Airbnb for cars)
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