Archive for January 8th, 2009

Over at Freakonomics, UCLA’s Eric Morris lays out the rational arguments for variable road tolling (a subject that people tend to get pretty irrational about). I wonder if we should drop all reference to pricing/tolls/charges and simply call such things part of the “smart grid” (and there are a lot of interesting comparisons to be drawn between transportation and this emerging concept from the world of energy).

This bit about California’s S.R. 91 caught my eye:

By pricing to keep traffic speeds at 45 m.p.h. or a bit higher, the toll lanes will work with maximum efficiency. They’ll move a lot more cars through than they did when they were congested. During the peak periods on SR 91, the toll lanes handle 40 percent of the traffic despite the fact that they constitute only one-third of the road surface.So the toll lanes will actually ease the burden on the free lanes, hence the benefit even to those who never choose to pay.

Like many of the people I interviewed for Traffic, I too shall be at the Transportation Research Board meetings next week. I’ll be doing an “informal conversation” on Monday evening — a bit like bringing coals to Newcastle, IMHO, but I’m delighted in any case to be at the traffic geek’s paradise that is TRB.

If you’re at TRB, stop by during or after — the details are as follows:

Monday, January 12, 2009, 5:45pm- 7:15pm, Marriott, Salon 3
“Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)”: A
Conversation with Author Tom Vanderbilt Paul P. Jovanis, Pennsylvania
State University, presiding Sponsored by Safety - Section (ANB00)

From a fascinating exchange between Carlo Ratti and Steve Strogatz in the new issue of Seed, I found this bit particularly curious:

“SS: What I’m worried about is exactly what you put your finger on, feedback loops. In the world of dynamical systems, from a mathematical standpoint, feedback loops, especially in complex systems, can be really scary. Because of their unintended consequences. They can create all the beauty and richness in the world around us as well as unforeseen horrors. Just to take a super simple example of what I’m thinking of here, look at the Millennium Bridge in London: one of the world’s thinnest foot bridges and a very elegant structure. All the architects agreed that it was gorgeous, but it looked like it wanted to vibrate, like it was practically a guitar string strung across the Thames River. And on opening day when people walked across the bridge it wobbled a little bit. Which then fed to the people, and made them tend to synchronize their footfalls with the bridge’s motion, which made the bridge’s motion worse. None of this was supposed to happen. This was not built in.”

From the Croydon Guardian:

Andrew Pelling, MP for Central Croydon, was searched by police officers who thought he might be a terrorist, despite him showing his House of Commons pass when they asked for identification.

Mr Pelling had been taking pictures of the cycle lane at the junction of Addiscombe Road and Cherry Orchard Road and said his motive was to highlight the “long-neglected bicycle and pedestrian route”, which had been of concern to his constituents.