Mobility Matters Daily #79 - E-scooters get hit, buses get fit, and automation = less flights?
The usual randomness in the world of transport and mobility, and a bonus bit of data for you
E-scooters get the hit job it always expected
In the UK, the debate on e-scooter safety took a somewhat unfortunate turn last week with what i can only describe as a hit job by the television network ITV. “E-scooters: Britain’s New Road Rage?” is a title that says it all. There are some very valid safety concerns with e-scooters and their impacts on other users. But journalism like this does not further the debate. Nor does the data presented, or in this case not presented.
Stats like “805 incidents reported to local authorities” without any data to show for it does not help the issue, nor does it put it in its proper context. What we know is there are huge variations in the perceptions of pavement parking, there are differences in barriers to use by ethnicity and gender, there are issues of consumer acceptance, and yes there are significant safety concerns. Opinions are many on this, but let evidence inform the development of e-scooters in the UK, not pure subjectivity.
Quite how much exercise you get by using public transport has been estimated and I love it
This is one of those strange questions about transport that in the grand scheme of things is probably unimportant, but I really wanted answering. How much exercise do you get by using public transport? Catherine Morency and Judith Magaleau-Beland at Polytechnique Montreal have estimated just this using a metric called Metabolic Equivalent of Task - or by translating trips into how much energy each burns.
The results show that for people in Montreal, if you ride public transport you will get 54% of your daily exercise needs. If car drivers swapped to the bus, they would get 85% of their daily exercise needs. This backs up research in the UK that measured physical activity in terms of time spent walking or cycling to buses or trains. Simply put, getting the bus or train gets you active.
Driverless cars = less flying?
If cars became automated, would people use their cars more? A question that i am sure has been asked by all of us at some point over the last 5 years. The short answer is nobody knows, but the more interesting answer is that nobody knows and its complicated. Scott Hardman at the University of California has done us the favour of trying to shed some light by studying travel behaviours of people who use partially-automated vehicles, and the results seem to back up the more interesting answer.
In summary, participants in his study used the car more and for longer distances, but an interesting finding is that participants substituted flights for driving. Though there is logic in the explanations for this change (lower costs and reduced travel stress), there is a lack of controlling factors in the analysis. Also, this is just one study.
Stats of the Day
The UK Department for Transport’s data on the use of different transport modes during the COVID-19 pandemic still continues to be of interest. On the latest day for which data is available across all modes, cycling is still very much above previous normal levels, as are the numbers of lorries and vans on UK roads. Public transport use is between 37% (rail) and 59% (London buses) of previous levels.
Download the data yourself here: My dataset (Google Sheets) | UK Department for Transport data (ODS*)
* - In case you are thinking “what is ODS?” it's a spreadsheet format the UK Goverment uses because its an open standard. It can be read by any spreasheet software.