Mobility Matters Daily #129 - Tackling ownership and waiting
With an out-of-date infographic to boot
Good day friend.
After yesterday’s news, its back to a bit more normality today, with some actual transport planning news and interesting research to share. In other news, I have got back into running in the last couple of days after 4 years away, and now my ability to concentrate in the evening has all but gone. Does that mean 6am starts from now on to get some work done? Hmmm. To the news.
James
Breaking and redefining transport ownership may be at the heart of our low carbon future
Evidence has indicated that ownership of transport is one of the biggest barriers to changing travel habits. Both in terms of car ownership impacting on people’s propensity to use public transport, and owning sustainable transport modes (notably bicycles) impacting on use of these modes. So it makes sense that tackling ownership is key to reducing the carbon impacts of transport. But how to make this a reality?
Interesting early results from a trial of a Mobility as a Service solution in Sydney shows promising signs that a MaaS solution could impact on ownership levels. This reflects similar early work by UCL’s MaaS Lab in London, but this is an area that needs more real-world data to understand its full potential. The link currently is a logical one (ignoring the point that people using shared use transport are more likely to have a more positive attitude to sharing generally), but it needs data to emerge as a useful policy tool.
The impact of COVID on how we wait
I’m British. If waiting were a sport we would win every Olympic Gold Medal going. But this interesting study from Brisbane in Australia indicates that COVID-19 has had an impact on how we wait at public transport interchanges. Simply put, whereas we previously waited in the most advantageous position for our destination, COVID spread us out more. No shock really, what with social distancing. But a thought experiment emerges.
How we wait on platforms affects the overall capacity of the station or interchange, though not quite as much as service frequencies. If we are waiting differently, when (if?) demand returns post-COVID, station management strategies may have to change to reflect the new crowd dynamics.
Visualisation of the Day
I love a good infographic. This one shows the major transport routes that form the backbone of the EU. The density of this network in West Germany / Northern France / Benelux is astounding. Though I have to say that the route through the UK should probably be diverted around the coast of England to Ireland.
Source: European Commission
If you do nothing else today, do this
Have a try of the Urban Transport Data Analysis Tool (UT-DAT). This has been around a while, but its simple to use, and allows you to compare cities to each other really quickly on a number of indicators. All in Excel.