Transportation agencies continue to apply predict-and-provide planning which simply extrapolates past trends to predict future needs. It’s time to apply decide-and-provide planning to better achieve community goals. The U.S. Department of Transportation just released its …
Continue readingCategory: Data
Trojan cars: Why the US fears Chinese cyberattacks on electric vehicles (France24)
The White House announced a plan this week to ban the sale or import of connected vehicles containing “specific pieces of hardware and software” that could be made in China or Russia, citing national security fears. While the …
Continue readingResults from the 2023 National Travel Survey analysed (Mobility Matters)
A few weeks back, the latest results from the National Travel Survey for 2023 were released by the Department for Transport. Being the closest thing that transport statistics in the UK has to a bible, it caused …
Continue readingUtilisation of trams for urban freight transport & logistics (UrbanTransport)
As part of the LogIKTram research project, it was determined how future urban freight transport can be shifted by tram or regional train. At the final event of the LogIKTram research project in Karlsruhe in …
Continue readingNetwork Rail AI projects tackle ‘ever changing’ risks to trains & passengers (IMechE)
Trains face countless risks across the almost 16,000km of track in Great Britain. From misuse of level crossings to overhanging trees, Network Rail works with partners across the network to protect passengers from a wide …
Continue readingSpatial impacts of a massive rail disinvestment program: The Beeching Axe (JUrbanEconomics)
This paper investigates the reversibility of the effects of transport infrastructure investments, based on a programme that removed much of the rail network in Britain during the mid-20th century. We find that a 10% loss …
Continue readingUS urban roadways take 25% of urbanized land worth $4.1 Trillion (Nat’lBureauEconomicResearch)
We predict the amount, share, and value of land dedicated to roadways within and across 316 US Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Despite the amount and value of land dedicated to roadway, our study provides the …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 16 August 2024
• The long way round (Jonn Elledge) • London Circles Tube Map updated (Tube Map Central) • Train-Time Travel (Straphanger) • Chicago’s Embattled Transit System Faces a High-Profile Test with Massive Convention (CityLab) • Why …
Continue readingAnd then there was AI: Deutsche Bahn’s experience (RailEngineer)
Rail Engineer Issue 136 described many operators using Remote Condition Monitoring (RCM) and a few pioneers making baby steps in Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM). Roll forward to 2023, and there was a consensus that RCM has …
Continue readingRail’s Market Share against Air: A Global Review (HotRails)
It has long been recognised – at least as far back as 1988, during planning for the Channel Tunnel – that the market share achieved by a rail service against an airline serving the same …
Continue readingUS FTA Updates on New Start Rapid Transit Project Data (EnoTrans)
As part of the rollout of President Biden’s fiscal 2025 budget request, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has updated the summary data for many of the projects in the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program “pipeline,” …
Continue readingHow AI & Sensors are Transforming Depot Operations (RailTechnology)
A groundbreaking British project is using artificial intelligence to give locomotives the once-over. The aptly named DepotMATE (Multi-sensor Automated Train Examination) project, which has been backed by the Department for Transport, is developing a system …
Continue readingQuantum train location testing on London Underground (Metro Report)
Researchers are using a London Underground train to test whether quantum inertial navigation systems could be used to provide accurate location information for condition-based monitoring, train control and signalling applications without needing satellites or lineside equipment. This …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 3 May 2024
• ‘Nervous of its own boldness’: the (almost) radical rebirth of King’s Cross lands (The Guardian) • This TfL AI experiment reveals how Tube station capacity could be increased – without building anything new (James …
Continue readingBringing school bus operations into the 21st century (FastCompany)
As transportation director at Kimberly School District in Kimberly, Idaho, Shonia Gaston knows a lot about work-arounds… “I started as a driver in 1984,” says Gaston. “We had hand-drawn maps.” In the past 40 years …
Continue reading