Julien Nicosia’s Post

New York is soon to introduce congestion pricing in Lower Manhattan. In this piece for On London, I explore what NYC can learn from London's experience and the risk of not sharing the benefits of freed up road space fairly amongst all road users - including those paying the charge (often "working traffic") and bus passengers. Since the C-charge was introduced, both of these groups have seen a significant deterioration in their journey times despite initial improvements and major reductions in traffic volumes. https://lnkd.in/exf7g3R2

Insightful and powerful article showing the many variables at play that underpin & determine travel behaviours. The stories of those trying to use the bus network within and to / from the city is something all authorities should reflect on as these are not isolated incidents brought about by an unplanned curveball but systemic weakness that maintains the status quo of the private car being the only mode that can be relied / depended upon. We must do better and doing better means better data capture and analysis. Mobilityways supports organisations in better understanding travel patterns and with this foundation setting intervention strategies that can align with planned infrastructure works or unplanned as being faced right now in Bradford. #decarbonisation #planning #systemsthinking https://lnkd.in/dYWUkgTP

10 good ideas. All we need is the political will, realizing how vital an issue sustainable urban mobility is.

🏙️🚗 #Congestion pricing has proven successful in #cities like #London, #Singapore, and #Stockholm, where it has alleviated #traffic congestion, improved travel #times, and notably reduced #AirPollution. Now, as #NewYork prepares to implement congestion pricing, it’s crucial to ensure effective management of #airquality in the #city. 💡 By integrating dnota cutting-edge Bettair Cities technology, city authorities can make informed #decisions to mitigate #airpollution and enhance #urban livability. Bettair Cities’s precise #airquality #monitoring capabilities empower #cities to #monitor #pollution levels in real-time, enabling proactive measures to protect public #health and the #environment. 🌐 Don’t miss the opportunity to learn more about how dnota AirQuality Corp’s Bettair Cities technology is shaping the #future of urban air quality management at Smart City Expo USA in #NYC next 22, 23 May. Together, let’s build cleaner, healthier cities for all! #SmartCityExpoUSA #AirQuality #Bettair #Sustainability #dnota #usa Sotirios Papathanasiou

This nonsense that everyone keeps saying that this project will cost 9.5 billion is a pipedream .It will cost around 30 billion euro.In Ireland we having a health ,housing,law &order ,security and education crises .Every single week on the radio we are hearing of families unable to get services for their family members ,sons and daughters having to leave the country because they cannot get housing at affordable prices and here we are spending 30 billion on a rail project that is not really needed .An aircoach bus will get from terminal 2 to O Connell st in 30 mins ,where in the world can you get from the airport of a major city to the city centre in 30mins ? The DAA could increase routes to every 7 mins instead of the current 15 mins for both aircoach and Dublin bus express . Swords should have a bus connects system that operates 100 seater buses every 10 mins from Swords into the city centre that will deliver the journey in max 40 mins .This means putting cameras on the bus lanes and issuing fines of 60 euro for anybody been in them incl cyclists and taxi drivers .The bus lanes should be buses ONLY.That fact will allow much faster journey times in and out of the city .Cyclist journeys need to be kept to a minimum on this route .The other way to increase the use of public transport is to extend the Dart up to Swords .However I believe the large 100 seater buses with bus lanes for buses only doing journeys every 10 mins from areas not covered by the luas is the most economic way for public transport to work with feeder buses feeding into the route and this could happen fairly quickly ,within a year and it would be way way cheaper and more effective than spending 30 billion which could then be spent on housing ,health infrastructure and hydrogen or electric bus fleet .

THIS TUESDAY, April 30, from 12:30-1:30 PT, SPUR will be hosting a special digital discourse on how New York City designed its congestion pricing policy, the process for moving it through approvals, and how it can serve as a model for the Bay Area. Register today! Congestion pricing could be a game-changer for transportation planning in San Francisco. By charging drivers a fee for driving on specific roads at peak times, the city can reduce the incentive to drive. Reduced vehicle volumes allow buses to travel faster and more reliably. The revenues from the program can then be used to support transit, bicycle, and pedestrian improvements. While international cities like London, Stockholm, and Singapore have operated road pricing programs for years, this type of program has faced resistance in the U.S. Congestion pricing has been studied for downtown San Francisco, but never progressed into implementation. But starting later this year, New York City will begin implementing a brand new congestion pricing program that will charge a toll on drivers entering downtown Manhattan. What can San Francisco learn from these cities? Could congestion pricing be the key to meeting our mobility and sustainability goals? Most importantly, could it help create a more equitable transportation system? What can San Francisco learn from these cities? Could congestion pricing be the key to meeting our mobility and sustainability goals? Most importantly, could it help create a more equitable transportation system? Joining us will be Carl Weisbrod from the MTA Traffic Mobility Review Board and Tilly Chang from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA.) https://lnkd.in/gFpY6KGq

Public transport use in London Today's graph looks at how public transport use has bounced back, or not as the case might be, in London since the pandemic. It shows how the first eleven 4-week periods in 2023/24 compare with the same periods in 2019/20. The good news is that London Overground services are on average back to pre-COVID levels. At the other extreme Tramlink services are down by a quarter on average. DLR journeys are down by around 17% with the key business centre of Canary Wharf a lot quieter now than in 2019. Underground journeys are down by 15% which is in part due to transfers to the Elizabeth Line as well as the impact of various strikes but working from home has had a major impact on the network. Bus use is down by around 14% which suggests concessionary pass holders have still not fully returned to the network and the move to on-line shopping, streaming and food home deliveries are all having an impact. Its worth noting that bus use peaked in March 2015, the Underground in November 2018, the DLR during the Olympics in July 2012, Tramlink back in March 2014, and the London Overground in September 2019. Passengers by mode by period in 2023/24 as % of 2019/20 levels

Atlanta traffic is already a nightmare today, but what we are stumbling towards now is an unlivable future. Maria Saporta is sounding the alarm in the SaportaReport, but is anyone listening: "Atlanta used to dream big. In the 1960s when the population of metro Atlanta was less than 1 million people, then Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. had a 'Platform for Progress' that called for a regional rail transit system that would have served the entire region. "Back in 2008, the Atlanta region adopted Concept 3 — a plan that called for the expansion of heavy rail along with new light rail and commuter rail throughout the region. We also spoke of smart growth — combining transit and land-use planning — by encouraging development around rail stations. "Today we’ve stopped dreaming. We no longer think about what kind of city we will in 25 or 50 years — or even what kind of city we want to live in 10 years from now. "Yes, we are the sixth largest metropolitan region in the country. But our future will be mired with unlivable traffic congestion if we don’t step up our investment in rail transit — beginning with BeltLine rail."

Light rail/trams The latest data on use of the UK's light rail and tram networks highlights how few we have and in most cases how small those systems are and hence how relatively few passengers use them. Nine UK cities have trams, subway or light rail networks compared to 28 in France. Outside London, Manchester's is the busiest with 42m passengers last year, but that is less than at least six of France's regional cities. The chart shows the number of passengers on the UK network, right hand axis, and as a proportion of passengers carried in 2019, left hand axis. Passenger numbers for London Underground were nearly 1.2bn so are well off the scale. Edinburgh tram and Glasgow subway are the only two networks carrying more passengers than in 2019, the former being due to the extension of the network. London and Sheffield trams are down by around 30%. It seems a long time since the 2000 Transport White Paper which proposed up to 25 new rapid transit lines in major cities and conurbations, more than doubling light rail use. #Jacobseconomics Light rail patronage 2023 as % of 2019  and total patronage

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. /April 19, 2024 /TransLink – #TransLink has identified 20 corridors needing increased #bus priority investments to mitigate the impacts growing traffic #congestion has on bus riders. This plan is part of TransLink’s newly released Bus Priority Vision, which identifies solutions to improve bus efficiency while highlighting the need to make buses more reliable in Metro Vancouver. By working with municipalities to implement more bus speed and reliability measures, TransLink plans to make buses more reliable for customers and save money on operating expenses. “As traffic gets worse throughout Metro Vancouver, our customers spend more time stuck on buses and less time moving,” says TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn. “Bus delays cost us more than $80 million each year, and we are committed to developing new bus priority measures that will mitigate those costs and get our customers where they need to go faster.” Every weekday, bus riders throughout Metro Vancouver spend over 28,000 hours stuck in traffic combined. Nearly half (45 per cent) of those delays occur on the top 20 corridors, despite making up only 15 per cent of the transit network. While more studies are needed to determine specific improvements, TransLink’s goal is to work with regional municipalities to explore new bus speed and reliability measures on the 20 identified corridors over the next decade. These corridors were determined by factoring in average bus delays, ridership volumes, existing infrastructure, and accounting for different locations throughout Metro Vancouver. Some examples of bus speed and reliability improvements that TransLink will engage with stakeholders and municipalities on include: Dedicated bus lanes Approach lanes Queue jumps Balancing distances between bus stops Turn restrictions Signal improvements and upgrades Since 2019, TransLink has invested $40 million into bus speed and reliability measures, reducing delays up to 35 per cent on those corridors.