Planning

Beyond EVs: The Priorities of Norway’s Transport Plan

When it comes to transport, Norway is most famous for leading the way in its adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs). Therefore, I wanted to see what it contained within its 2025-2036 National Transport Plan. Interestingly, it contained very little on EVs. Instead, its focus was on:

Asset Management - Transport infrastructure has not been renewed in line with maintenance needs and is now a priority for fixing.

Resilience - Investing in making transport infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather events, landslides, avalanches and floods.

Nature Conservation - Avoiding the degradation of valuable natural areas and cultivated land.

Leveraging Technology - To deliver more efficient use of public resources, including targeted maintenance, better transport capacity utilisation, supporting environmentally friendly transport and improving safety.

Decentralisation - Leveraging transport to make living and working more attractive outside the most significant urban areas.

Fewer big projects - A strong focus on improvements and smaller investments in existing road and rail infrastructure to enhance utilisation, punctuality, and safety.

Meeting military requirements - Given the changing prospects for a sustained peace in Europe, Norway is focusing on the role transport infrastructure will play in its national defence.

Two things particularly struck me:

1. The focus on asset management. Many jurisdictions have a low level of transport asset management maturity, partly because it is not usually the sort of thing the public and politicians are interested in compared to building new projects; therefore it rarely gets the focus it needs.
2. The focus on incremental improvements and smaller projects. Smaller investments with high benefit/cost ratios can easily be neglected when building megaprojects. More jurisdictions would benefit from focusing on smaller projects.

What next?

Would your jurisdiction benefit from better asset management and more focus on high cost/ benefit ratio smaller projects?

Urban Planning

Car-Free Cities vs. Car-Centric Suburbs - Why Are We Still Getting it Wrong?

Two interesting pieces came across my desk recently showing the good and the bad of integrated transport and land use. First there is this research report from Transport for New Homes in the UK showing that in England:

• Public transport is not being built to serve new housing developments.
• Safe and convenient active travel—walking, cycling and wheeling—is not connecting new homes to typical trip destinations.
• ‘Self-contained’ communities with limited need to travel further afield are not being created as envisaged.
• Developments within major cities are much more likely to be oriented around sustainable transport.

Meanwhile, I also saw this from Utrecht in the Netherlands where they are building the country’s largest ‘car-free’ neighbourhood with 6000 homes, including:

• Space for 250 shared cars.
• 21,500 bicycle parking spaces
• Two logistics hubs for parcels
• Parking garages located on the edge of the district
• High-quality active and public transport.

Despite everything we know about good urban and transport planning, why is the former more the norm than the latter? Here are a few possible reasons:

1. We have always done it this way, and change is hard.
2. Our cities are not generally building enough homes, often because of government rules that make it more difficult. Even major transport hubs are surrounded by low density housing, usually to placate NIMBYs. In comparison, it is often easier to allow greenfield developments because there are fewer NIMBYs to object.
3. Transport agency's predict and provide guidance assumes the need for significant road upgrades in cities alongside development, increasing costs and making it more difficult to get approvals, even if the unintended consequence is more car-dependent suburbs.
4. Despite the cost of infrastructure being much higher for greenfield sites, this cost is dispersed on all taxpayers, masking price signals about where housing should be built.

What next?

How well does your transport agency support integrated transport and land use and encourage development near existing transport hubs?

Governance

Innovate or Stagnate: Transforming Transport Departments

In the United States, the State Smart Transportation Initiative has developed a framework for ‘Innovative’ Departments of Transport. The framework includes 4 key steps:

1) Set your agency on a path to resilience:

• Lead with a bold vision
• Plan for an uncertain future
• Make plans that perform

2) Build for people, not just cars:

• Invest in your values
• Design for local context
• Centre for community needs

3) Make the most of your assets:

• Fix it first
• Add new lanes as a last resort
• Manage travel demand

4) Fuel a culture of innovation:

• Invest in the next generation
• Make space to try new things
• Build lasting partnerships

This list is a good start, but many departments will need additional items, such as operational needs, financial management and project management.

What next?

What are the most relevant pieces of the framework for the changes required in your organisation? What can you do as a first step to put those pieces into place?

Strategy

​From Water Taxis to Drones: The Future of First- and Last-Mile Transport​

The World Economic Forum has just released this report on innovation in first and last mile transport. The case studies include:

• Autonomous water taxis in Amsterdam for passenger transport, logistics, waste collection, etc.
• Taxi distribution in Dubai using dynamic heat maps.
• Regulation of micromobility in Stockholm through data-driven regulation.
• Drone delivery services in the United States.
• The use of inland waterways and a cable car system in Varanasi, India.

Key takeaways for city authorities in the report include:

1. Promote public-private collaboration.
2. Regulate and support technological innovation.
3. Incorporate sustainable logistics hubs.
4. Implement data-driven policies.
5. Develop robust regulatory frameworks.

Key takeaways for industry include:

1. Invest in green and autonomous technologies
2. Create efficient logistics solutions
3. Leverage AI and data analytics
4. Collaborate with urban authorities
5. Engage in continuous improvement and scaling

What next?

Are any of the case studies relevant to your jurisdiction? If so, should you consider something similar?

Blog

​Surviving the Transport Subsidy Armageddon​

My blog this week examined the possibility of transport budgets being squeezed to accommodate increased defence spending and whether London could provide a model for transport systems to cope with this eventuality.

Key Takeaways

• The war in Ukraine is leading many countries to increase their defence budgets.
• Governments will look for savings elsewhere to fund this extra spending, and transport subsidies will be a prime target.
• To move to a less subsidised model, transport systems should learn the lessons from those that have already followed that path, like London.
• Six lessons from London:
  • Implement a fares policy that increases them slightly above inflation over a sustained period.
  • Put in place offsetting measures to ensure access to transport for people on low incomes.
  • Invest in active transport, providing more people with a fare-free option.
  • Maximise additional sources of revenues.
  • Develop strategies for working with unions to deliver efficiency improvements.
  • Diversify funding sources for capital projects.

What next?

If your transport system is likely to see a reduction in the level of subsidy, what can you do to start preparing for it?

Leadership

Crisis-Proof - The Power of Adaptive Leadership

From rail crashes, to system failures, to strikes and catastrophic weather events, transport is an industry that has to regularly manage crises that require a style of leadership suited to facing this reality. Adaptive leadership for crisis management is an approach that enables leaders to navigate complex, dynamic situations effectively. Adaptive Leadership requires:

• Flexibility and Resilience to respond effectively to crises.
• Empowerment of your team to make decisions without you.
• Emotional intelligence to support the emotional impact of crises on teams.
• Effective communication to avoid misunderstandings and confusion.
• Decision making under extreme pressure with tight timescales and limited data.

Here are suggestions for developing adaptive leadership in your team(s):

1. Foster open communication by establishing transparent communication channels where staff feel safe to share ideas and concerns.
2. Encourage collaboration, for example by empowering teams to contribute to problem-solving and decision-making processes.
3. Delegate responsibilities and provide autonomy to team members.
4. Practice crises scenarios as a team.
5. Support your team's personal and professional growth through training, mentorship, and career opportunities.

What next?

Identify something you can do in the next week to develop adaptive leadership.

Innovation

​Detecting Track Defects Using Mobile Phones​

New York subways are testing a system of using smartphones to find track defects by analysing vibration and sounds that indicate problems. The system uses Google Pixel phones in off-the-shelf plastic cases on subway cars to capture vibrations and sound patterns through sensors with an attached microphone to find locations requiring preventative maintenance. A pilot program identified 92% of defect locations found by track inspectors.

Tool

​Advancing E-Buses: A Guide to Batteries and Charging​

Successfully implementing electric buses is not as simple as replacing an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) bus with any electric bus, it requires a comprehensive plan for selecting batteries and charging technology that aligns with the unique needs of bus routes. This is a helpful guide from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) on how to do it successfully.