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Hey urbanists, Transportation is changing, both due to new technologies, traffic congestion, and a gr
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| December 3 · Issue #11 · View online |
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Hey urbanists, Transportation is changing, both due to new technologies, traffic congestion, and a growing desire from urban residents, in particular, to not need to own a vehicle in order to get around their cities. One strategy to fund and promote this shift is congestion pricing. London, Stockholm, and Singapore have it; New York City and Beijing (among many other) are considering it; and while the Ontario provincial government recently denied Toronto permission to implement such a scheme, it will undoubtedly be back in the table in the near future. But it’s not just urban transportation that’s changing. The momentum toward autonomous trucking seems to be picking up with more companies testing their own technologies. Some say trucking jobs will disappear, while others simply think the nature of that work will change. And while much of our focus is on the West, countries in Asia are facing their own challenges. I found the article about the metro investments in Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, and Manila particularly interesting.
Finally, there are more questions about Elon Musk’s Boring Company intentions after Fast Company revealed that its LA tunnel conveniently runs from Musk’s office to his home.
As always, feel free to reach out if there are any particular topics or articles that interest you, and share the newsletter if you enjoy it. — Paris
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De Blasio’s Wrong: There’s a Fair Congestion Pricing Plan Right Under His Nose
New York City is having a debate over whether it should implement congestion pricing and, as was originally discussed in issue 9, the city’s progressive mayor is surprisingly opposed. This article briefly looks at his main arguments against congestion pricing, and shows why they’re wrong. De Blasio says the poor will be worse off, but they would actually see the most benefit because of the resulting increase in transit investment. |
🚨 Congestion Pricing Was Unpopular in Stockholm — Until People Saw It in Action
Stockholm’s experience with congestion pricing is one that majors cities should look at. Residents disliked it before it implementation, but support increased the longer it was in place because they could see the benefits in transit and reduced congestion made possible by the pricing scheme.
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🚨 If You Build It, the Dutch Will Pedal
The Dutch are world leaders for using bikes to move around their cities. As a result, the country saves $23 billion every year and there are 6,500 fewer premature deaths because of improved health outcomes. Biking saves medical costs since biking contributes to people’s overall physical activity levels, and getting sufficient physical activity prevents against many noncommunicable diseases, including obesity, Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and some types of cancers.
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Cycling downhill: has Copenhagen hit peak bike?
Known for high rates of bike usage, a recent drop in the cycling mode share from 45% in 2014 to 41% in 2016 has some asking whether Copenhagen can reach its 50% target by 2025. More people are expected to use the metro when 17 new metro stations open next year, but most municipal election candidates want to take road space from cars and give it to bikes. A recent survey by the city found major stretches of road where space was undemocratically divided between bikes and cars. On Knipplesbro Bridge, for example, bicycles make up 55% of peak traffic, yet are only allocated a third of road space.
A study for the Cyclists’ Federation found that more than half the candidates in forthcoming regional elections advocate reallocating road space to bikes.
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The London of 2029, According to Mayor Sadiq Khan
London’s new draft plan places emphasis on reducing car use, in part by supporting cycling. While there has been concern about the lack of a plan for cycling on Oxford Street (see issue 8), Khan wants to create new minimum parking requirements across London — but this time they’ll be for bikes, while vehicle parking will be curtailed. The plan also includes increased transit investment, more housing, and a crackdown on fast food. |
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This is the Tesla Semi truck
A few weeks ago, Tesla unveiled its electric semi truck with semi-autonomous driving features, a range of up to 500 miles (800 kms), and a price of $150,000 to $180,000. Since Tesla has helped push the electric vehicle industry forward, the excitement around this announcement may encourage more companies to test electric trucks.
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It will take a while for shipping to go electric, but a number of companies plan to test for Tesla’s new offering for their fleets.
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Wal-Mart has ordered 15 units — five for the US and ten for Canada — and J.B. Hunt has ordered “multiple” units.
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Loblaw, Canada’s largest supermarket chain, ordered 25 and announced its intention to have a fully electric fleet by 2030.
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DHL has also ordered 10 vehicles for its US operations and Fortigo ordered one to test in Canada.
Reservations cost $5,000 with expected delivery in 2019, but Tesla’s delivery dates are known to slide.
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Self-Driving Trucks May Be Closer Than They Appear
Of course, the electrification of trucking is only one part of the equation. The other is automation, which some expect to become more common in trucking much sooner than taxis or personal vehicles. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean (all) truckers will be out of a job. Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, Starsky [Robotics]’s 27-year-old chief executive, foresees using self-driving technology to replace long-haul drivers on freeways, but having people like Mr. Runions navigate at either end of the trip with remote control consoles that look like an arcade racing game.
Drivers would go off to work in offices and might spend their day driving trucks through the last few miles of several different routes in several different cities before heading home for dinner.
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Self-Driving Trucks Are Now Running Between Texas and California
The self-driving future of trucking may not actually be too far away. After Tesla’s announcement, Embark made its own to say that, in partnership with Frigidaire, it has been delivering refrigerators in self-driving trucks for several weeks, though only part of the route is run on autonomous mode. For now, the Embark milk runs are designed to test logistics as well as the safety of the technology. On each trip, a human driver working for Ryder (a major trucking company and Embark’s partner on this venture) heads over to the Frigidaire lot in El Paso, picks up a load of refrigerators, hauls them to the rest stop right off the highway, and unhitches the trailer. Then, a driver working for Embark hooks that trailer up to the robotruck, cruises onto the interstate, pops it into autonomous mode, and lets it do its thing. The truck mostly sticks to the right lane and always follows the speed limit. Once in Palm Springs, the human pulls off the highway, unhitches the trailer, and passes the load to another Ryder driver, who takes it the last few miles to Frigidaire’s SoCal distribution center.
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🚨 Emerging Asian economies race to build metros amid choking congestion
Traffic congestion in Manila and Jakarta has reached crisis levels, while Ho Chi Minh City is worried it will have the same problem in the near future. To combat congestion, all of these cities are making massive investments in new metro lines to take cars off the road and allow residents to get to their destination a lot quicker and more efficiently. In issue 7, we looked at how Uber is making a play for public transit in Egypt, where the government is doing little to improve the country’s struggling transit system. Maybe these investments mean a similar move won’t be possible in Southeast Asia. |
6 of 10 Big Electric Car Companies Are in China
While we’re talking about international developments, I thought this would be a good article to feature. We hear a lot about what Western car companies are doing with electric vehicles, yet the Chinese have their own massive EV market and major electric automakers of their own. How long until they become major players in Western markets, as well?
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Toward Car-Free Cities: Beijing Seeks an Inroad to Sustainable Transport
On the subject of China, simply focusing on electric vehicles will not solve all its problems. Beijing, known for its terrible smog levels, is also facing a massive traffic congestion problem. In response, it’s trying to move residents, businesses, and some government departments outside of the centre of the city and, going back to the first section of this issue, it’s also seriously considering congestion pricing.
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🚨 Elon Musk’s Tunnel Through L.A. Just Happens To Go From His House To His Office
Elon Musk has made a big deal about his Boring Company tunnel in Los Angeles. Fast Company took a closer look at the route of the tunnel and realized it conveniently leads from his office to his home. More evidence this project isn’t about transforming transportation, but the commute of a single rich man: Elon Musk.
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