Mobility Matters Daily #234 – Workplace parking, equity and climate change, and e-scooters

The usual Mobility Matters goodness just for you

Good day my good friend.

Not much to say today, so lets get straight to it.

James

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Charging for workplace parking – an obvious win that is almost impossible to deliver

The city of Leicester in the UK is bidding to become just the second city (that I know of) in the world to look to fund transport improvements through a workplace parking levy. As the experience from the near(ish) city of Nottingham shows, you can achieve modal shift, and also fund major improvements to the transport network of the city.

There are concerns about the economic impact of workplace parking levies, with businesses citing that charging them for parking spaces will discourage investment. But to balance the analysis, an understanding of the impact of investments secured through the additional funding is also needed. While there is some evidence of no impact, this is limited at present. Regardless, in terms of transport impact, the benefits of workplace parking levies cannot be understated.

A parking sign on a brick wall that has been heavily weathered. The sign says 'Permit holders only'

Can equity and climate change be balanced?

Here is one of the great transport policy challenges of our time. How can we ensure equitable access to mobility for all, reduce climate emissions, but also maintain freedom of mobility? Historically, we have focussed on the final of the 3 elements, but now policy ideas are coming forward with more of a focus on the others. One such being a fair mobility budget at an individual level.

The basic concept sets a ceiling on mobility at an individual level, but adapting it according to an individuals social and spatial situation. For example if you live in a rural area, you may get a higher budget of distance travelled. And any credits you don’t use get exchanged. An interesting idea. Lets do it.

Do e-scooters shift travel from walking, cycling, or cars? It may be good news, you know

The impacts of e-scooters on modal shift is still being understood, mainly because e-scooter services are so new and the data has not been available yet. But the first meta-analysis, of e-scooter schemes in the USA, is in. And its promising:

The empirical data reveal[s] that people use shared e-scooters in place of cars at substantial rates, especially in many US cities, which suggests that in many locations shared e-scooters may be a good strategy for reducing car dependence.

The study notes that, as always, it depends – on the city, availability of non-car modes, the usual things. But there may be a future in them, you know…

Random things

These links are meant to make you think about the things that affect our world in transport. I hope they do just that.

Imagine Virginia’s icy traffic catastrophe — but with only electric vehicles (Washington Post)
How ‘feature bloat’ is driving the chip shortage (TechCrunch)
You May Be Able to Own a Self-Driving Car After All (Wired)
The Carbon Footprint Sham (Mashable India)
The worst technology of 2021 (MIT Technology Review)

Something interesting

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Leveraging investment is key to decarbonising transport. This excellent series of papers by the World Bank shows how to do this across a number of sectors of transport. Its not all about public sector funding.