Plus a depressing map

Good day my good friend.

A slightly short one today. I will put this one down to a caffeine crash after having more than my usual share of tea today. Anyway, here are today’s links just for you.

James

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Is travel time worthwhile?

This is an argument that has been at the base of discussions on transport economics and analysis ever since I graduated. But the field still continues apace in trying to square its own circle. Into this mix Cornet et al throw a conceptual framework, based on literature reviews, of worthwhile travel time based upon the travelling achieving several forms of value.

A skeptic will (rightly in my view) identify that several of these aspects of intrinsic value of trips are captured wholly or partly in existing assessment methods. The health and fitness elements, for example, are covered partly TAG Unit A5-1. But I admire the researchers attempts to conceptualise personal value as we attempt to assess policy choices. Even if they are some way off a useful tool.

Getting people to experience their ‘aha’ moment with autonomous taxis

There have been countless surveys and experiments into potential user acceptance of autonomous taxi services. To see but a few of these, just look here, here, and here. But this study by Lee et al used structural equation modelling on the feedback of real world users of a service in Seoul to determine what drives acceptance of the technology from users. In short, people’s apprehension about the technology, how cutting edge the tech is, and the experience of riding the vehicle have a big impact.

In a way, this study validates much of the previous research (i.e. if you are technophobe you won’t like it). But as the technology begins to mature, studies such as this could prove useful in deploying vehicles and overcoming issues of user acceptance.

Random things

Here are some random things that I found whilst crawling the internet, that you will find useful.

• Road maintenance budgets face £400m cut, councils warn (Transport Network)

• Crash (NER) – Warning, this is a tough, graphic read.

• USDOT releases climate adaptation and resilience plan (Intelligent Transport)

• Enhancing Sustainability and Resilience of Small Towns in China (World Bank)

• New Typology Defines Rural by Community Assets, not Deficits (The Daily Yonder)

Interesting things

The step-free tube map is always a sobering read. I know we are trying to undo 150+ years of engineering. But come on, this is 2021. We can do better than this.

If you do nothing else today, do this

Yeah, I shared this yesterday, but the TPS’s response to the Transport Decarbonisation Plan is worth a read.