Mobility Matters Daily #86 - what3words, broken algorithms, and Coventry
Plus a trip to the seaside, and driving to Washington DC
Good morning friend,
For the first time in what seems like forever, I finally had a chance to ride a train on Monday, by heading to the beach at Southend. Its a surreal experience when usually packed trains are silent. Still, having the chance to catch up on a few things while travelling, and using my Thermos flask again, was much needed. Oh, and Rossi’s Ice Cream at Westcliffe is highly recommended.
(For those eagle-eyed among you, yes I was sat in First Class. A little tip if you ever riding on the Thameslink service to, from, and within London. The First Class section at the rear of the train is always declassified, so you can ride in it with a standard class ticket!)
positioning.is.hard
Some rescuers in the UK are questioning the use of the location service what3words in emergencies, for the simple reason that it is really easy to mispronouce words when giving your location. Something that is critical to get right in an emergency. This isn’t the first example of what3words getting criticism for its service offering, and sometimes saying what it is not. So what is the truth behind this, and does it matter? There is little published evidence on the relative merits of what3words compared to the likes of GPS, dead reckoning, navigating by the stars, and any other navigation system (though each system has its own merits), but understanding how the data is used is critical to deciding what is the most useful.
In emergencies, the location needs to be highly specific, and identified quickly. Furthermore, it is data that needs sharing from the person in the emergency, to their initial contact with emergency services, and then among several agencies, with little to no chance of error. what3words is excellent for the person in an emergency to share, and easy to remember. But its easy to mispronouce. A risk that escalates the more the what3words position is shared. That risk is lower with number coordinates such as GPS, but is harder for the person in an emergency to share. The reality is that no system is perfect, and people use different systems to position themselves in relation to the rest of world. So giving people the options makes the most sense. Even what3words accepts this.
The broken algorithm that breaks our cities is starting to be fixed
A big thank you to Andreas ‘Zac’ Zachariah of TravelAI for reminding me of this great Vice article that critiques the traditional highways modelling approach often adopted in American cities. This is a debate that has raged in transport planning circles for close to 20 years now, so I thought it would be useful to summarise the ‘art of modelling’ as it is currently. As it is more mature than most think (though some highways engineers still subscribe to the notion that we must add an extra lane ‘because the model says it will be bad in 10 years’).
Transport Assessment Guidance from the UK Department for Transport explicitly calls for those assessing schemes to consider uncertainty in their modelling work. The use of Level of Service as a measure is being increasingly questioned in the US, and being abandoned by some Departments for Transportation. The adoption of vision-led transport planning is becoming increasingly common, notably pioneered by Copenhagen and Manchester. Change is already happening, but change is slow and takes time to filter through. Maybe the mistakes of the past are now being left behind.
Coventry is leading the way in researching accessible transport
A bit of a feel good story this, as Coventry University and mobility charity Motability are collaborating to sponsor a number of doctoral student candidates to research accessible transport. This is inclusive design in action, which will be applied to vehicles and to infrastructure, and its brilliant to see. There should be more of this, much, much more.
Stat of the Day
If, for some reason, you want to drive from Los Angeles to Washington DC, your route will be the same as people driving from Pheonix, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, St Louis, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. You will also merge and share a couple hundred miles of road with traffic from Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Detroit. In fact, to drive to DC from most of the United States, chances are you will use one of just four roads: the Interstates 40, 70, 80, or 90.
Data source: Reddit sub r/dataisbeautiful