More parking isn’t always the answer
Location is a crucial competitive aspect for retailers in general and restaurants in particular. Once the location is chosen, there are limited options to improve access to their business. Therefore, they usually tend to advocate for increasing parking supply as a way of providing more convenience to their current and potential customers and as such, […]
Oslo cuts on-street parking
Oslo’s plans for a car-free city centre by 2019 is resulting in several changes in the city transport matrix. The city is implementing strategies to make walking the preferred transportation mode, followed by cycling and public transport, as was reported in the Streetfilm movie below. The city is working on creating more pedestrian friendly areas […]
From car to transit-centred city
Almost half of commuters choose public transport to reach downtown Seattle.
Sky cycling
The world’s longest elevated cycling path opened last month in China…
Lower Cycling Rates in Sydney
Road and Maritime Services numbers show that, in 2016, cycling rates in Sydney are lower than in 2013, as reported by SMH. The average daily cyclists during peak hours at the Anzac Bridge, Anzac Parade and Sydney Harbour Bridge was 3,830 in 2009 and reached a peak of 5,249 in 2013. However, the figures declined […]
Happy City: Less Car, More People-Centric
Enrique Peñalosa was the subject of the Wayfinding Blog in 2014 when we shared his TED talk about equality in city planning. Now the second time Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, is going to host the Congress of United Cities and Local Governments and one more time he is bringing up the discussion about transport, people […]
Will autonomous cars drive people away or to suburbs?
Autonomous vehicles may ease common problems of suburban life such as deliveries, grocery shopping and going to the city for work or leisure. The new technology will probably decrease the cost of deliveries and will facilitate driving for long distances or in intense traffic. At the same time, urban living will become easier as well, […]
Car Sharing in Campuses
The University of California, Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) continues to research the impacts of car sharing. In August we posted about the positive impacts of car sharing in five cities in the USA and Canada, considering data from 9,500 Car2Go members. The new study focuses on car sharing in North American college and […]
Cyclists’ Dream Building
Following the development of the Oslo Solar , a commercial building in Norway that has no car park and 500 parking spaces for bikes, known as the “bike apartments”, the Cykelhuset, or “bicycle house”, will open in Malmö, Sweden this December being the country’s first residential development with no car park spaces as reported by […]
Australia’s First Driverless Shuttle Bus
Last week RAC started the on-road test stage of the first autonomous and electric shuttle bus to operate in Australia. The RAC Intellibus trial is happening in South Perth and includes tests with passengers. The shuttle can carry 11 people and will travel at an average speed of 25km/h with the possibility of achieving 45km/h. […]
Tesla looks at the sharing economy
Last month Tesla announced its plans into the sharing economy (we recently posted about Maven, GM’s car sharing service). The car manufacturer expects to launch a platform that will allow its customers to share their own vehicles. It is estimated that private cars spend 97% of the time parked and Tesla intends to take advantage […]
Car Sharing Positive Impacts
The first independent research regarding the impact of car sharing was conducted by the Berkeley University of California. The researchers analysed car2go, the largest North America car sharing company, during three years gathering information from 9,500 members in Canada and in the United States. To verify car2go impact, the researchers conducted surveys and analysed car2go […]
Pedestrian-Friendly City Guide
We have recently been seeing several efforts to transform suburbs and cities into pedestrian-friendly areas (Paris, Barcelona and Bogotá). We have argued about the importance of looking at parking and traffic with a people-centric approach (Wayfinding Newsletter) and demonstrated its positive impact on transport and traffic. The article Putting People First: 10 Steps Toward Pedestrian […]
Presentation; Mona Vale Town Centre
Andrew Morse, ptc.‘s Partner and Senior Traffic Engineer, presented the Mona Vale Town Centre – Balancing Place Making and Traffic Engineering at the AITPM National Conference, which was held in Sydney, 26th to 29th July 2016. Download the presentation:… Please Register or Log In for more....
Cycling uptake, safety and social equality
Last week, the USA’s National Association of City Transport Officials (NACTO) released a study showing the correlation between protected bicycle lanes, bike share increase and safety. NACTO compared data from 2006 to 2013 of seven American cities regarding the number of bike lanes miles (excluding signed paths with no other enhancements), the number of cyclists […]
Maven – GM’s car sharing start-up
In January, General Motors started its car sharing pilot program in the USA. In partnership with Lyft the company launched Maven in Manhattan and Michigan. Today the service is already available in Chicago, Boston, and Washington, DC as reported by The Verge. The difference between Maven and other car sharing services is that there is […]
Safer infrastructure key to cycling uptake
One of the best ways to increase the number of cyclists is to improve safety. A study conducted in Toronto, Canada indicated that the shift in Sherbourne Street’s bike track from a painted lane to a physically separated cycle path resulted in an increase of 300% in cyclists, as reported by I Bike TO. According […]
Navigating the future of mobility
The shift from a driver-controlled and personally-owned car system to an autonomous shared vehicle model The future of the automotive industry is in a state of flux, as major shifts in technology and consumer behaviour take place. The industry structure will be particularly affected by the emergence of autonomous cars and the younger generation’s preference…...
NYC’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub receives mixed reviews
Nearly 15 years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and US$4 billion later, the World Trade Center (WTC) Transportation Hub has now partially opened to the public, according to businessinsider.com.au. The Hub serves as a connection between New Jersey’s PATH trains and NYC subways. The design for the hub was first revealed in 2004. It was […]
5 year old cyclists leading the way in Odense, Denmark
Whilst in Australia parents are reluctant to let their children walk or cycle to school, things are certainly on the move in Denmark. School children in Odense are more likely to show up on a bike at school than be dropped off in a car, as posted in fastcoexist.com Contrary to statistics in Australia where […]
Impact of new laws for cyclists and drivers
As we reported last week in our Wayfinding Blog, “New fines for cyclists could see bikes dumped for cars”, there are many changes to road rules affecting cyclists and motorists, effective today. Here we outline the crux of these; New laws for drivers passing cyclists Drivers in NSW must leave one metre of space when […]
V2V and V2I new transport technology in NYC
Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication is fast becoming one of the biggest sea changes in transportation technology, following right behind the foot steps of self-driving vehicles. The core essence of this technology allows cars, signs and traffic to communicate with one another over Wi-Fi-like airways, according to theverge.com. As such, drivers will have access to more […]
Can Sydney develop its own digital traffic plan?
The world is embracing digital transformation with gusto and speed. Smart cities around the globe are reshaping and rebuilding themselves for the better and creating a more liveable and safe environment for residents. But for some reason Sydney is lagging behind. According to a recent report released by the Committee for Sydney, as reported in […]
Uber forces closure of London taxi college
Whilst Uber is yet to be legalised here in NSW (see abc.net.au), London cabbies claim Uber is responsible for the downfall of their training school, Knowledge Point (UK), as mentioned in the AFR. 70-year-old business owner, Malcolm Linskey, attributes Uber for the closure of the business he started 30 years ago in Islington, North London. […]
Newsletter Archive
Register to our Resources area and gain access to our newsletter archive. ptc.‘s Newsletter offers a mix of articles on our favorite topics (transport, parking, traffic, civil and wayfinding design) as well as recent news of our business and team…. Please Register or Log In for more....
Transport planning and infrastructure key to the successful introduction of driverless cars
There is no doubt that driverless cars will be here within the next five to 10 years and the NSW Government is certainly putting planning and infrastructure at the top of the list. NSW Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Andrew Constance, recently announced in the AFR that “transport planners must prepare by reassessing investment priorities and […]
Fast cars and freeways come to an end in Los Angeles
Los Angeles City Council takes a leap of faith and approves a new transportation plan, (Mobility Plan 2035), that would remodel the LA streetscape over the next 20 years. The new plan could see the “sacrificing of car lanes to make way for bikes and buses”, according to the NY Times. The plan aims to […]
The future of driverless cars – how soon will they be here?
The South Australian Government have joined the driverless car movement with a recent commitment to “pass laws to allow driverless cars on the road within a decade”, according to the ABC. The SA Government hopes to “foster technological innovation and revive Australia’s manufacturing industry” with this initiative. Consequently, the first trials for driverless […]
Uber Blamed for Traffic Congestion in NYC
Is penalising Uber the way to limit congestion on NY’s streets? According to the NY Times, traffic congestion in Manhattan is getting worse, rather than improving. The average daytime speed of cars in Manhattan’s business districts “has fallen to just under 8 miles (12.9 km) per hour this year, from about 9.15 miles (14.8 km) per […]
Safety Trucks Hit the Road in Argentina
Argentina has one of the highest car accident rates in the world (alertdriving.com), claiming over 20 lives a day. Most of these accidents involve cars passing trucks on two-lane roads, as reported in businessinsider.com.au. To help combat this problem Samsung have released a prototype for a Safety Truck, which could potentially make driving a lot […]