Reinventing Transport

Carlos Felipe Pardo and I discussed the intriguing and neglected idea of "slowness" in urban transport.  Slowness has a poor reputation but it has its place, especially in cities.  S peed offers to bring more destinations within reach.  Yet slow-but-steady is often better than a series of sprints between traffic signals or delays.  Deliberately slowing certain sensitive segments of many vehicle trips could bring huge benefits. Does that sound puzzling? Read on (or listen) and all will become clearer.   Listen with the player above or subscribe to the podcast with your favorite podcast player (click on the wifi symbol) or read the detailed summary below.  Digest my discussion with Carlos in several ways:  READ the article below.  LISTEN to the audio with the player above.  The Youtube version is at the end of this post (scroll to the bottom). My  Patreon patrons  will be able to download a full transcript.  ...

Singapore's National Day is this week (9 August). So I decided to share Singapore's urban transport story - or my slightly  unusual take on it .  It is   a unique city in various ways but its urban transport policies are well worth your attention even if you don't live in Singapore. This is a warts-and-all version of the story, and it is my own view, not any kind of official one. It's also a little wonkish in parts. [Hi all you policy wonks!] But I hope to keep your interest with some surprising twists, such as: Why was the bus-only public transport system in an awful state by the early 1970s? If the buses were awful in early 1974, how was Singapore able to impose drastic increases to the cost of motoring in 1975? You will have guessed that the buses must have been drastically improved in 1974/75. But how was that achieved? Singapore urban transport enjoyed success through the 1980s and 1990s but its core social bargain (cars for the rich; decent but bas...

I interviewed the energetic Todd Litman, founder and Executive Director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI). I am a great admirer of his work, most of which he generously shares on the  VTPI website . If you want less car-focused and more multi-modal transport planning, you'll benefit from Todd's clear explanations of the key problems with conventional urban transport planning, why we need multi-modal urban transport planning and how to get it. Scroll down to read a summary  (including links to relevant articles and reports by Todd).   Or listen to the interview (Episode 3 of the Reinventing Transport podcast) with this player.  If you can't see the player,  click HERE  to listen.  If you like podcasts, please do subscribe using your favorite podcast app.     The conversation covered these main topics (more details are below but the audio interview provides an even deeper dive into these issues): Multimoda...

‘Complete Streets’ are spreading rapidly in India, according to Shreya Gadepalli of ITDP India , who I interviewed for Episode 2 of the Reinventing Transport podcast.   Chennai and Pune, in particular, are improving conditions for people on foot, on bicycles and in buses. We spoke about India but her comments are relevant internationally. Highlights from our conversation are below , followed by links to relevant documents and more detail about Shreya herself.  Right at the end you can read a full transcript . To listen use the player below OR  click here  OR search for "Reinventing Transport" in your podcast app OR scroll to the bottom to watch the Youtube video version.  The need for complete street improvements in India is enormous and urgent. “Less than one percent of streets in urban India actually have footpaths. There is almost no infrastructure for cycling and the majority of space is hogged by personal motor vehicles even though they...

Here is the Trailer for the new Reinventing Transport show, an international podcast to help you work locally for better urban mobility and better cities. Can't see the player? Try clicking here .  UPDATE: Scroll down for a video version.  Regular Reinventing Transport episodes will start in June July 2018. After that, they will go out once every two weeks. Are you already a podcast listener? You can subscribe now!   [It is free.] Here are three ways: in the player above, click the symbol that looks like a wifi signal strength icon.  There are links to subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and GooglePlay Music. copy the RSS Feed address (http://reinventingtransport.libsyn.com/rss)  into your favourite podcast player app. (You can also get this adddress by rightclicking or clicking 'RSS Feed' after you clicked the wifi icon in the player above.) search for 'Reinventing Transport' in your podcast player app. If it doesn't show up yet, i...

Here is my list of podcasts on urban mobility and urban issues.  Please use the comments to send tips or corrections. If you are not yet a regular podcast listener, you need to  download a podcast-listening app to your phone, tablet or desktop and subscribe to the podcasts that interest you  (it's free). UPDATE 1: This list has many podcasts but obviously I hope you will try mine!  They are  Reinventing Transport  and  Reinventing Parking . UPDATE 2: I have added FOURTY THREE  more since this was first published.

I will be starting the Reinventing Transport podcast soon. I am making my preparations, scheduling the early interviews and summoning my courage. UPDATE: the TRAILER Episode is now live .  If a Reinventing Transport podcast sounds good to you, please subscribe to Reinventing Transport email updates so you will get an alert when the first shows appear.  So what will the Reinventing Transport show be like?

Urban transport decision-makers face huge pressures to keep driving uncongested and to keep it cheap. But take a look at cities that have worked long and hard to get free-flowing traffic and affordable driving. I doubt you will like what you see. This point was a central theme of my chapter "Achieving Sustainable Mobility" which appears in  The State of Asian and Pacific Cities 2015  jointly published late last year by UN-ESCAP and UN-HABITAT. The twin desires for congestion-free and affordable driving are understandable. They are politically seductive and play to motorists’ desires and the interests of car industries. But these desires are sending too many cities and their mobility systems down inequitable, costly and environmentally destructive development paths. The results of preventing congestion and of keeping driving cheap

I have often been a carsharing optimist . But I am also often frustrated at the seemingly slow rise of the industry. In Singapore (where I live) for example, carsharing faced decline over several years, although it may now be reviving. So it has been nice to see a spurt of carsharing good news recently. First, news from Germany's Bundesverband CarSharing  via Dave Brook on twitter  that carsharing continues to boom in Germany. Most strikingly, there is spectacular growth in one-way carsharing (the dark blue columns). Dave writes the  Carsharing.US blog . And today I see that a recent report by business advisory firm AlixPartners suggests a much larger than expected effect of carsharing on car purchases, at least in the leading USA cities for carsharing. According to the study, which surveyed 1,000 licensed drivers in 10 developed metropolitan car-sharing markets in the U.S. and 1,000 drivers nationally as a control sample, car sharing in the 10 key mar...

This post is to share a presentation on Singapore's Public Transport policies which I gave in Seoul in September. This is my own take on the story, not any kind of official narrative. I took a rather long-term perspective, going back to the 1930s and emphasizing important changes in the 1970s. It is also a 'big picture' view. But some of the current debates are also there. If you have any interest in Singapore's public transport story, then take a peek and let me know what you think. Public Transport Policy in Singapore (a long view) from Paul Barter If you can't see the embedded slideshow above, then try clicking  Public Transport Policy in Singapore (a long view) .    By the way, Singapore has had a busy year of transport and urban planning announcements. Early in the year, there was the controversial Population White Paper . That was followed closely by the Land Use Plan  (basically the latest Concept Plan, Singapore's strategic plan that c...

This diagram is from a new presentation (see below) in which I make the following claims: "New Transit Cities" are especially relevant for newly motorizing cities (such as India’s cities) Cities that are now New Transit Cities were, in the past, faced with challenging circumstances similar to those facing India’s cities today (namely a flood of vehicles causing traffic saturation at a time when they lacked significant mass transit that was immune from traffic) After flirting with accommodating cars, the New Transit Cities all resisted the idea that cars are a necessity and acted to make sure cars remained optional.  Please take a look and tell me what you think in the comments. Let me know about any corrections or omissions. Do you agree? If you can't see the embedded SlideShare version below, then download the presentation from the CSE India website  (7MB pdf). Look to the new transit metropolises from Paul Barter By the way, I presented this ...

Don't be too starry eyed about Singapore's urban transport policies.  Yes, they do offer plenty for others to emulate. But there are also problems and cautionary tales.  In a recent book chapter I look at some of the problems with the current approach and speculate about a different overall strategy for Singapore urban transport policy. High-speed one-way traffic in Singapore's new CBD.  I have been here more than 12 years now and during that time I have been watching Singapore urban transport policy and practice pretty closely, as part of my research and as a user. I think I am well placed to offer a balanced perspective. The chapter is called ‘Singapore’s Mobility Model: Time for an Update?’ and is published in the Institute for Mobility Research's 2013 book, Megacity Mobility Culture: How Cities Move on in a Diverse World , (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer). To give you a sense of my argument, here is the conclusion of the chapter: Singapore is a us...

For the last year or two, most of my work (and blogging) has focused on parking (see the  Reinventing Parking blog  or on facebook ). But now I also want to revive this neglected blog and to use it to stay mindful of what really motivates my work (including the parking work). So what exactly is it that motivates my transport policy work? The statement below is an attempt to capture what I am trying to achieve as clearly as I can. A  mission statement  for my professional life, if you like. Yikes. You will see signs of these motivations throughout this blog, its predecessor , in my tweeting  and in much of my professional writing .  I aim to help cities, towns and streets unleash greater success, equity and conviviality  by focusing more on transport's 'ends' (such as  placemaking , accessibility and mobility ) than its ' means ' (such as  vehicles and traffic ) and  by enhancing choice  and choice-making i...

Update:   I appeared on a panel discussion of this topic on the Talking Point program on Channel News Asia TV. The full video can be viewed HERE (for a few months I think). It is the 21 - 03 - 2012 episode . Singapore's Budget 2012 announced a large funding injection into the bus system. This has caused   much   debate . I felt the need to write something to explain that I see a wider importance in the announcement. The initial Government explanations have focused on the need to improve bus services while we wait for the MRT system to grow further.  But I think the funds should be used strategically to enable two important reforms. In fact, I suspect that this may be the intention, although it has not yet been clearly explained. So, with some trepidation (it has become a hot political issue since I started writing it), I submitted an Op Ed to the Straits Times. It appeared in the ST Review section on Thursday 1 March.  Subscribers to the Straits Ti...

Dave Brook's Carsharing.US blog has two recent posts that take stock of the continued rise of carsharing. The first is a review of carsharing in 2011 and the latest looks at predictions for 2012 . Both have an international perspective and are good reads for anyone with an interest in the reinvention of urban transport services. A few highlights from Dave's assessment of carsharing in 2011:  Are we seeing a demographic tipping point? — This was the year when the mainstream marketers admitted that many in Gen Y ("the Millennials") weren't thinking about cars the same way their parents were - they'd rather have their iPhone than a car. ... Parking is fundamental - Parking is a fundamental but often under appreciated aspect of car use. It wasn't until Donald Shoup layed the cards on the table in his landmark "The High Cost of Free Parking" that most of us realized just how fundamental parking really is. And carsharing operators also know ho...

Here is another example of Combined Mobility and a big step towards realising the idea of ' mobility brokers '. This one is from Germany and it is called "mo " . It is being tested and piloted in Munich and features some beautiful design and fascinating innovations to make car-lite living very convenient. mo is a new mobility system - it helps make the city a better place to live. mo subscribers can rent bikes, cargobikes, ebikes and cars or use public transportation with just one card. With mo it pays to be eco-friendly: choose an eco-friendly transport or use your own bike to collect mo miles. The more mo miles the lower your bill. For instance if you mostly ride bikes, renting a car gets cheaper. These two videos explain much better than I could. Introducing mo from LUNAR Europe on Vimeo . mo - mobility for tomorrow from LUNAR Europe on Vimeo . For more details, check out this October 2011 press release about mo . Hat tip:  Treehugger.

When I wrote my last post "From Carsharing to Mobility Brokers" I didn't realise that the UITP was about to release a position paper on the issue. UITP is the International Association of Public Transport. I was alerted to UITP's work on this by the cover story of New Transit magazine (7 July 2011 issue) from the UK: " Time to forget modes... the future is in the Mobility Mix ". The article is well worth reading. It is subscription only but there is a free preview offer that allows a peek: Today’s customers have a new attitude to their travel choices. Offering “combined-mobility” across the modes can persuade people away from the private car. So what are the ingredients in this new mix, and who should take the lead on serving them up? I am particularly interested in that last question! The UITP report is by its Combined Mobility Platform . The English language version is here as a pdf . Various language versions are available .  UITP is urging its me...

I am excited by the prospect of urban 'mobility retailers' or 'mobility brokers'.  'Huh'? What is that, you ask? A mobility broker is a business that handles the retailing, marketing and information end of your mobility needs. It may not even own any vehicles or employ any drivers (and you won't have to either). You could think of it as an urban transport travel agent. Such services would probably be most attractive for people who choose not have a car of their own. Because urban mobility is much more spontaneous and immediate than long-distance travel, mobility brokers will need to handle requests extremely nimbly in real time. Most cities don't yet have such beasts in their urban transport landscape. Not yet. But I think they will emerge out the innovative and vibrant ecosystem of handheld devices, real-time information apps, social media and networking, car-sharing companies, new payment systems, telematics, location-based services, etc.  I t...

Despite its age (I finished it in 1999), I still get requests now and then for my PhD thesis. The old link to download it broke some time ago but last week the Murdoch University Research Repository came to the rescue and put it back up. So you can again  download it as a pdf via this page . Please forgive the shameless self promotion here! I never turned my thesis into a book, as many academics do. Instead I simply made it available on the web. A bad move? I did have some doubts when I saw bits of it plagiarized once or twice. But it also has 61 citations according to Google Scholar. I guess that's not too bad for an unpublished thesis. Last year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) picked up some of its ideas for their document,  Changing Course: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Urban Transport  [ PDF ]. The full title of my PhD dissertation is:   An international comparative perspective on urban transport and urban form in Pacific Asia: the challenge of...

The newly resurrected Transport Blog has an interesting riff on taxis  around the world. The post is an entertaining read, full of pithy observations (and quite a lot of speculation I suspect). Yet it cleverly sneaks in some important points on the dry dry topic of taxi regulation. Which is great because improving taxi industry arrangements is an important but sadly neglected element of urban transport policy. Hanoi's taxis feature prominently - hence the intriguing title " How to spook a Vietnamese taxi driver ". You have to read to the end to understand the reference. There are brief comments on taxi service and its regulation all over the world. If author Michael Jennings is to be believed, taxis in Bulgaria and Buenos Aires are to be avoided if humanly possible. Hanoi taxis in their natural habitat (a sea of motorcycles!) Singapore's get a little nod too. Which reminds me that a few years ago I wrote something about Singapore's taxi arrangements . Si...

Shared-space design for streets and intersections deliberately creates a sense of uncertainty about who should proceed first. Such uncertainty is not a bug, it is a feature, as they say. In a well designed scheme, the results are said to be almost magical. The removal of clear-cut rules and signs and traffic lights prompts caution, low speeds and a negotiated approach to right-of-way instead of a rules-based approach. But there may be a problem.  Some of the most vulnerable users of streets don't seem to like shared space. It makes them feel ... vulnerable . In a comment on my post on Shared Space designs in Japan, David Hembrow (author of   a view from the cycle path blog) points out the Dutch cycling advocacy groups are not too keen on Shared Space: "Don't get too excited about Shared Space. I've yet to meet anyone here in the Netherlands who is enthusiastic about it. In fact, there is much criticism of it due to it having lead to a reduction in safety, ...

'Who should be liable in road crashes involving bicycles?'. That's the question I posed over at Cycling in Singapore blog this morning. In many low-income or middle-income countries the road culture norms dictate that 'might makes right'. Small vehicles learn to get out of the way of the larger ones and the largest vehicles tend to barge their way through (more carefully perhaps than it seems at first glance... but they do seem to expect others to make way). However, in several European countries and in Japan, large road users are expected to exercise a strong duty of care for the more vulnerable ones.  So in the Netherlands for example, it will almost always be the motorist who is held primarily responsible in a crash with a bicyclist, even if the motorists broke no road rules. Does that seem crazy to you? Bicycles and scooters in Shanghai. It probably does seem strange if you live in the UK, the US or in almost any Commonwealth country, such as Singap...

"Parking" is currently the most common tag on this site and much of my research now focuses on parking. So it seemed time to consider starting a blog to focus specifically on parking policy. So that is exactly what I have now done. It is called Reinventing Parking . Among other things, I want to try to help communities understand the parking choices they face and to help them to improve their policies. If you agree with me that parking policy is important please visit Reinventing Parking and consider subscribing to its feed or via email.  Please spread the word to people who care about improving parking policy anywhere in the world.

Here is an entertaining video explanation and exhortation on Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) insurance. Does your country, state or province have PAYD insurance yet? It was made by Cliff Caprani of British Columbia, Canada. See more context at the original site where there is a link to a petition for residents of BC. Hat tip: VTPI Newsletter, Summer 2010, by Todd Litman, one of the key experts on PAYD Insurance .

Freely flowing traffic is a good thing, right? And affordable motoring is good too, isn't it? Most motorists in most cities would surely agree. Maybe you would too? But as citizens and voters I think we need to be careful what we wish for. When political leaders decide that the central goals of urban transport policy are 1) solving traffic congestion and 2) keeping driving affordable, they may make themselves popular with motorists, but they also risk gradually turning their city into a monster.  I argued along these lines in a talk I gave on Wednesday to a couple of hundred junior college (high school) students (the presentation is at the end of this post). It was a non-technical talk on basic priorities in urban transport planning. Below is part of my reasoning. The Los Angeles region is not the world's most automobile-dependent city but it is the only mega-city to try so hard to keep driving fast and cheap. When faced with traffic problems it is tempting to ju...