Transportist: November 2025

Nov 13, 2025

Welcome to the latest issue of The Transportist, especially to our new readers. As always you can follow me on Mastodon, BlueSky, or RSS.

Posts

Research

Access Surplus: Valuing Accessibility by Integration

Your Regular Reminder That Cars are Weapons:

Manchester synagogue attack suspect named by police after two people killed and three injured – as it happened

Media

ABC News Australia: Most OECD countries get to work within 30 minutes. This is how Australia compares. [[31 years after publication, I get a media on The Rational Locator, you have to be patient kids]]

The biggest cities often have longer work commutes, according to professor of transport David Levinson from the University of Sydney.
The cities with the longest commutes in Australia were three of its most populous cities: Sydney (59 minutes), Brisbane (56 minutes) and Melbourne (55 minutes).
The shortest commute in Europe was in Iceland, one of the smallest countries on the continent, where workers on average got to the office within 15 minutes.
While in Canada, the place with the longest commute was Toronto, which also has the largest population of any city in the country.
There were a few reasons larger cities often led to longer commutes, Professor Levinson said.
He pointed to congestion leading to crowding on existing roads as cities were denser than less urbanised areas.
But Professor Levinson does not think commute times can get any shorter than about 30 minutes one way, saying “you can’t actually fix commuting times” beyond that.
One of his initial research projects focused on commuting data in Washington, DC, across three years in separate decades in the 1950s, 1960s and 1980s.
It found commuting times were about 30 minutes across the decades despite several changes to the US capital.
Professor Levinson said people were making choices between commuting times and more affordable housing options in the outer suburbs.
“You could live in more housing, bigger house, but have a longer commute because that’s what you can afford,” he said.
...
Professor Levinson agreed that better bus usage would improve commuting times for people in the outer suburbs, but ultimately, not much else can be done in the short term.
“Over the long term, improving the balance of jobs and housing, so there are more jobs in the outer and western suburbs,” he said.
“More housing in the CBD and the eastern suburbs would reduce the number of people who choose to make longer commutes [in Sydney].”
He said governments could increase the frequency of trains, reducing the time commuters had to wait between services.
But it had challenges, including boosting the budget for train carriages and drivers.
Automation could also be a solution, according to Professor Levinson, who pointed to the Advanced Train Management System.
It is a communication-based train control system that would replace line-side signalling, allowing for more trains, reduced wait times and improved system reliability.
But it has yet to be widely implemented.
“If the trains were automated, that would be easier to do. You might run two four-carriage trains, instead of one eight-carriage train, reducing wait times,” Professor Levinson said.

ABC Radio Interviews:

Evenings with Renee Krosch - Mon, 29 Sep 2025 18:59:24 +1000 - Toll Roads

My general points:
Road pricing principle: Pricing scarce road space is sound economics. The problem in Sydney is not the existence of tolls, but that tolls are high, uneven across corridors, inefficient, and distributed inequitably.
Comparisons: Other places use broader, clearer charging, for example Singapore’s network pricing, and cordon charges in London and Manhattan, where everyone who drives into the zone pays.
Why Sydney’s tolls are so high: NSW granted long concessions to a private operator, mainly Transurban and super funds, with contractual power to lift tolls annually, typically up to 4% a year unless CPI is higher. This ratchets tolls faster than inflation.
Harbour Bridge toll rationale: The bridge still needs ongoing operations and maintenance, so user charges remain reasonable. If not paid by users, costs fall on general revenue, which raises a fairness question about who pays.
“Toll relief” mechanics and limits: Unlike public transport fare caps that stop charging after a threshold, Sydney drivers pay first, then must claim a rebate. Many eligible users do not claim, and rebates only refund a portion of spend above the cap, not every dollar.
Fairer reform option: A network‐wide charge per vehicle-kilometre on all roads, slightly lower per-km for long trips, with higher rates at peak and lower off-peak. This would be more efficient and fairer in principle.
Political and financial constraints: Any reform creates winners and losers. Buying out or reshaping Transurban’s rights is hard and expensive. Extending already long concessions has little present value to the operator, due to discounting, so securing change requires real money from somewhere.
Politics of toll relief: With an election on the horizon, governments may extend relief if it helps electorally. These programs are driven by popularity and marginal seats, not only by policy design.
Canberra comparison: Canberra is smaller, newer, and designed around cars, so driving there differs from Sydney; the no-toll context is not directly comparable to Sydney’s scale and network.

Growth, travel reality, and policy aims
The region will add people quickly over coming years, which strains current networks.
Most travel distance is by car; walking, cycling, and public transport have low market share.
Net-zero goals imply either cleaner vehicles or a shift to more sustainable modes.
Behaviour, networks, and feasible shifts
People are habit driven; safer footpaths, protected bike lanes, and lower speeds can unlock short trips on foot or bike, including e-bikes for hills.
Expanding public transport in low-density areas is costly and yields modest patronage, so service increases must be targeted.
“30-minute city”
Definition: reach daily needs within 30 minutes by walking, cycling, or public transport.
Reality: central areas can approach this; outer and rural areas cannot.
In Sydney, a car commute averages under 30 minutes; public transport averages about 60 minutes due to access, waiting, and circuitous bus routing.
Rail–road interactions and level crossings
Level crossings create congestion and safety risks.
Grade separation improves rail and road efficiency and safety, but it is expensive and site specific.
Project selection and budgets
Governments should rank projects by benefits, costs, feasibility, and do easier, higher-return ones first.
After the easy ones, remaining projects are hard and expensive for local reasons.
Economics and evaluation
Decisions require explicit values for time and for a statistical life to compare congestion relief and safety projects.
People dislike putting numbers on these, but it is necessary to allocate limited funds.

NSW Afternoons with James Valentine / James O’Loghlin - Fri, 31 Oct 2025 12:47:14 +1100 - What’s a Road

Naming quirks and redundancies: Examples like Melbourne’s “High Street Road,” “Broadway Street,” and “Avenue Road” show how labels can be illogical or doubled up.
What “avenue” and “boulevard” imply: Avenue, from French, traditionally wider, often tree-lined, with long vistas to a venue; boulevard similar in feel. In the U.S. Midwest, “boulevard” can mean the verge or nature strip.
Marketing and place identity: Developers in newer suburbs pick fancier suffixes—terrace, boulevard, mews—to boost appeal and perceived value, while older inner areas defaulted to “Street.”
Form should match name: A crescent ought to curve, as in the Mosman example; the segment invites listeners to report mismatches, like straight crescents or winding streets with plain names.
Comical misfits: “Harrowood Highway” near Blacktown Hospital is extremely short, with right-angle bends, belying the “highway” label.