Archive for September 15th, 2009

My latest Slate column considers transportation from an iPhone-centric point of view, with an eye toward ways apps might change the experience for the better. I’d be curious to hear what I left out (I omitted some things for space) or things that are in the works, or apps you’d like to see, etc.

Thanks to all who came last night to the great event at the beautiful K.C. library. I passed the time this morning at the airport (nary a moving walkway in sight!) reading Roundabouts of Kansas City, which celebrates circular yield-entry intersection control in the Show-Me state and neighboring Kansas and now takes pride of place on my roundabout shelf, right next to Roundabouts of Great Britain.

Thanks to Brian for the book and Kyle for the BBQ.

Robert Scoble talks to Ford’s Steve Kozak about radar-based collision warning systems and adaptive cruise control. One big question is how willing drivers will be to stay within the parameters that the car’s computers say is the safe following distance; human drivers regularly go past those thresholds, in part because of overconfidence and in part because the average driver doesn’t have a clue as to what the car’s actual stopping distance is (unlike the precise radar and algorithms). Then there’s the issue that most of us don’t have to conduct full-on emergency braking on an everyday basis. I’m also still not sure how these systems avoid the “off-ramp problem” — at the moment you should be braking, the cruise control, sensing no cars ahead, may accelerate to your desired speed. Does anyone have any experience with this? On balance though I’d say, if commercial aviation is any guide, these systems can’t help but improve safety, given the natural perceptual limitations (and psychological quirks) of humans.

(thanks Peter)

Here’s a curious reminder of the dangers of moving at speed in a car: Simply sneezing — closing your eyes for a second — can get you into trouble.

Given that I’m always talking about how traffic can skew our sense of time and perception, I was fascinated by a recent article in the New Scientist that was interested in a simple question: Do the moving walkways at airports actually move people any faster?

This may save energy, but even under ideal conditions of no congestion and no baggage a walkway only makes a small difference in travel time - about 11 seconds for a 100-metre stretch.

Now, granted, this is only a model. But as someone who spends a lot of time in airports, and loves the idea of moving walkways but not often the reality (more on that in a sec), I feel as if there’s something to this. And trying to save travel time at the airport can be a futile, as with traffic: You may blaze down the moving walkway, only to be caught up in a bottleneck at security or the exit doors. And then there’s the reason I so often don’t get on in the first place: I don’t want to have to barge past the people who are simply standing on the walkway, actually going more slowly than normal walking speed (and there’s always a little hiccup of people getting off and on). This is the escalator problem: The technology was designed to move more people more quickly, by augmenting their normal motion, not simply ferrying passive passengers.

But the model above actually has an empirical counterpart, notes the magazine.

“Moving walkways are the only form of transportation that actually slow people down,” says Young.

I had a whirlwind day in Portland, Ore., on Friday, beginning with chirpy morning TV, then a chat with Mayor Sam Adams (who is fantastically engaged and forward-thinking on transportation), followed by a talk, then a panel discussion, then a bike to and from dinner with Jeff Mapes (Pedaling Revolution), planner and soon-to-be author Mia Birk, and Greg Raisman, with the city’s Bureau of Transportation (check out his more comprehensive tour of Portland cycling facilities here).

I made an offhand remark during the talk that when I first began researching Traffic, I would talk to U.S. transpo people about things I had seen there, and I would get a standard refrain: Well, that might work in the Netherlands, but it would never work in the United States. But in the last year or so, I now feel like I’m hearing a new version of that: Well, that might work in Portland, but it would never work in the U.S. Maybe down the road, there will be one last city, holding out, saying, well that might work in Las Vegas, but it would never work here.

In any case, Portland really does have the feel of some kind of transportation theme park — or a multi-modal mecca — with its aerial and city trams, its expanding light rail, its real-time transit tracking iPhone apps, and its impressive 8% — yes, 8% — cycling mode share (with zero fatalities last year). I saw a parking enforcement officer on two wheels, and an item in the local city magazine noted that banks offer special bike financing. The morning I left, the city was kicking off its new Green Line, part of a strategy to reduce the percentage of students commuting to Portland State University — from 1996 to 2009, the share of students driving alone to school has dropped from 44% to 25%.

It was quite striking to be out on a beautiful late summer Friday night and see cyclists everywhere, from neighborhood streets to busier arterials to the “floating bridge” along the river, with “bike corrals” jammed outside of local businesses and half the pedestrians seeming to clutch a helmet. I quickly had to adjust my New York City mentality, and I tried, with Mapes and company, not to violate signals. Given that I was suffering from an insomnia-and-jet-lagged kind of fugue state, I should have at this point been exhausted, but the whole effect was exhilarating. Here’s a short photo tour — via iPhone, hence the quality.

From left to right, Greg Raisman, Jeff Mapes and me hanging out in the new protected cycle track. A lane of traffic was taken away, and the car behind us is actually parked. Like most of Portland's bike lanes, it was well used.

Part of the extensive awareness and education campaign. Facilities need social engineering as well as traffic engineering.

Bike boxes. There are some without the green coloring as well, but drivers are said to violate those more often. On my casual survey Portland's drivers were fairly compliant with stopping at the stop bar before the bike box.

A simple, good idea. Portland also has special spots reserved for Zipcar-style car-share programs.

A bulb-out that, instead of concrete, featured wetlands-style plantings to help with storm-water run-off, etc.

One of those clever little Portland-only touches: A small turning bay/median-cut intended only for bikes.

Bike corrals. Local businesses are petitioning the city to swap out the car parking spaces in front for one of these. The design is clearly in the 1.0 stage.

Even in Portland there's some retrograde transportation infrastructure, like the concrete skyways around PSU. The Mayor is not a fan.